College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Department of Forestry

Kurt Kipfmueller is 1855 Professor of Tribal and Indigenous Natural Resources Management. Kurt’s work uses the information encoded in the annual rings of trees to help tell the stories of landscape and cultural change. Kurt has expertise in reconstructing past disturbances—particularly fire—and to develop tree growth chronologies that reflect climate variability. He has conducted research in the Great

His research examines the long-term relationships among fire, climate, and people to inform stewardship of Upper Great Lakes forests. His work promotes forest resilience, supports Indigenous cultural fire practices, and advances understanding of forest change. His current research focuses on fire regimes of red pine forests in the Upper Great Lakes and the role of the Anishinaabe in shaping and stewarding their forests using fire. He is currently focused on collaborative efforts to identify areas where returning good fire to the landscape would have both cultural and ecological significance.

Kurt has recently joined the Department of Forestry at Michigan State University after a career in the Department of Geography, Environment, & Society at the University of Minnesota. Kurt was born and raised in Mt. Pleasant, MI and has maintained lifelong relationship with Northern Michigan landscapes, forests, and waters. Kurt spends as much time as he can at Fife Lake, MI exploring the Manistee River Valley and paddling the lakeshore.

Selected Publications

Larson, E.R., Montano, N.M., Lockling, E., Ojibway, A., Reynolds, M.B., Zhaawendaagozikwe, V.R., Johnson, L.B., Kipfmueller, K.F., Dockry, M.J., Northrup, V., Savage, J., and R.W. Kimmerer. 2025. Indigenous fire stewardship shaped North American Great Lakes forests. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 122(34): 1–9, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2500024122

Parks, S. A., C. H. Guiterman, E. Q. Margolis, M. Lonergan, E. Whitman, J. T. Abatzoglou, D. A. Falk, J. D. Johnston, L. D. Daniels, C. W. Lafon, R. A. Loehman, K. F. Kipfmueller, C. E. Naficy, M.-A. Parisien, J. Portier, M. C. Stambaugh, A. P. Williams, A. P. Wion, and L. L. Yocom. 2025. A fire deficit persists across diverse North American forests despite recent increases in area burned. Nature Communications 16:1493, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-56333-8

Margolis, E., A. Wion, J. Abatzoglou, L. Daniels, D. Falk, C. Guiterman, J. Johnston, K. Kipfmueller, C. Lafon, R. Loehman, M. Lonergan, C. Naficy, M. Parisien, S. Parks, J. Portier, M. Stambaugh, E. Whitman, A. P. Williams, and L. Yocom. 2025. Spatiotemporal Synchrony of Climate and Fire Occurrence Across North American Forests (1750–1880). Global Ecology and Biogeography 34, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13937

Kipfmueller, K.F., Montpellier, E.E., Trumper, M.L., & R.D. Griffin. 2022. Intra-annual ring width and climate of red pine in Itasca State Park in north-central Minnesota, USA. Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 52(5), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfr-2021-0210

Kipfmueller, K.F., E.R. Larson, L.B. Johnson, & E.A. Schneider. 2021. Human-augmentation of historical red pine fire regimes in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Ecosphere, 12(7): 1–41, DOI: e03673. 10.1002/ecs2.3673.

Larson, E.R., Kipfmueller, K.F., & Johnson, L.B. 2021. People, Fire, and Pine: Linking Human Agency and Landscape in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Beyond. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 111(1): 1–25, DOI: 10.1080/24694452.2020.1768042 (Awarded the H. Cowles Award for best biogeography paper of the year from the Biogeography Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers).

Larson, E.R., L.B. Johnson, T.C. Wilding, K.M. Hildebrandt, K.F. Kipfmueller, & L.R. Johnson. 2019. Faces in the wilderness: A new network of crossdated culturally-modified red pine in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness of Northern Minnesota, USA. Human Ecology, 47(5): 747–764, DOI: 10.1007/s10745-019-00109-4

Kipfmueller, K.F., E.A. Schneider, S.A. Weyenberg, & L.B. Johnson. 2017. Historical drivers of a frequent fire regime in the red pine forests of Voyageurs National Park, MN, USA. Forest Ecology and Management, 405: 31–43.

Kipfmueller, K.F., & Salzer, M.W.  2010.  Linear trend and climate response of five-needle pines in the western United States related to treeline proximity.  Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 40(1): 131–142.

Kipfmueller, K.F.  2008.  Reconstructed temperature in a northern Rocky Mountains Wilderness.  Quaternary Research, 70 (2): 173–187.