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Fellow Profile
Ian Johnson
University of Wisconsin: River Falls, WI

My fellowship project will define optimal management procedures of native prairie restoration and grassland species management in combination with biofuels production for local energy indepence, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity. This study will expand on work done at the University of Minnesota (Tilman, 2006), which concludes that low-input high-diversity native grassland plant species provide optimal biofuels production with minimal maintenance input, specifically a study showing a 16 species mix providing 238% greater efficiency than monoculture ethanol production. The project will focus on comprehensive management of agricultural grasslands as a carbon sink; that is, as a carbon negative production facility, where more carbon is sequestered in the root biomass and soil than is released during the combustion of the fuels produced from the feedstock, thus positively affecting greenhouse gas emissions and climate change both in the St. Croix watershed and globally. Furthermore, the study will define optimal annual rotational harvesting schedules, seasonal harvest dates, and tract size for grassland fauna in western Wisconsin, with particular emphasis on the threatened and endangered species that have declined along with the native prairie. The project will utilize the restored prairies of Willow River State Park as a model in the St. Croix River watershed, for purposes of posterity as well as bringing notoriety to public wildlife habitat that demonstrates the economies of carbon credit market values, warm season grasses market values, and comprehensive management on all fronts.

About the Fellow

Ian Johnson lives in Hudson, Wisconsin with his wife Kristen and daughter Phoebe, their dog Ole , and an adequate number of chickens to keep them and their friends amply supplied with eggs throughout the year. He is a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin – River Falls, studying Sustainable Community Development focusing on climate change, bio-diversity, and ecology. He has a B.S. in Construction Management from the University of Wisconsin – Stout and worked for several years as a construction project manager in Woodbury, MN where he learned firsthand the practices of unsustainability under the umbrella of a major corporation. At odds with his personal values, he left this industry to pursue something he was truly passionate about. He is an active board member for Powerful Choices, a sustainable energy project administered by the public utility in River Falls; a member of the St. Croix Citizens for Sustainability; and is newsletter coordinator and editor for What We Need is Here, a network of local non-profits dedicated to living locally. His professional goals are to complete his Master’s studies and continue on to a Ph.D. in environmental sciences, whereupon he hopes to work as a professor at a college or university continuing his research and working amongst like-minded students and faculty. When he isn’t buried in books and literature or cleaning up after Phoebe, he enjoys spending time outdoors. He is an avid kayaker, backpacker, backcountry skier, rock climber, mountain biker, and gardener and enjoys getting over his head in home improvement projects. He is evidently also an avid runner as he registered for his first marathon this year, which will cross off a major item on his “bucket list”. He enjoys traveling the country with his family to visit new places and old friends in the epitome of true freedom – in his original 1974 Volkswagen Westfalia.

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