Sign in

Steve Voelker

@thetreecorener.bsky.social
2.5K followers 2K following 564 posts

Aspiring naturalist and plant nerd. I teach about Climate Change & Tree Physiology. Expert in plant ecophysiology, stable isotopes, dendrochronology. I also study fish otoliths. Husband and Dad. Assoc Prof of Forest Ecology & Mgt at Michigan Tech.

PostsRepliesMedia
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
My father was a flooring installer. I worked with him weekends/summers from age 12-18. At 17 when I suggested I may want to do the same job instead of go to college he got more angry at me than at any other time in my life. He turned bright red and cussed me out and he never used those words.
1190
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
We had a woodstove like that in UT (and radiant heat) so we always had a kettle on top to help humidify. In our current house in MI (also radiant heat) we only have a fireplace insert and the air gets so dry. I miss the kettle- air humidifier.
010
Reposted by Steve Voelker
Lizz Waring @lizzwaring.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Hi all, I am trying to raise funds to support the field-based courses I teach so we can keep the cost of these trips as low as possible for the students. If you would like to support the next generation of field scientists consider donating to the NSU Foundation. It is tax deductible.
Photo of students electrofishing in a creekPhoto of students walking into a stand of rivercaneStudents around the campfireLarge group of students on the Buffalo River
166
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Also, there is the Multiple Use Sustained Yield Act, so...
000
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I did get STR funds from a competitive grant process to support a grad student (no $ for me, personally) and I fully support the STR mission. I do not support the mission of the John Muir Project, to "end the Federal Timber Sales program". Timber has its problems but is a useful conservation tool.
100
Reposted by Steve Voelker
Nick Smith @nickgregsmith.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I am hiring a full-time lab technician for my new lab at UNL. The full position description can be found at: employment.unl.edu/postings/102... The position is for 1 year, with renewal possible for up to 2 additional years. Pay is $23.50/hour. Please share!
employment.unl.edu
Research Technician-Plant Ecophysiology (Temporary)
The Lab of Dr. Nick Smith in the School of Biological Sciences at University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) is seeking a Temporary Research Technician. The lab examines the responses of plants and ecosyste...
01112
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
If you think the timber industry is spending $$$ on forest ecology you are very mistaken. If you think scientists studying these forests and coming up with plans on how to save them have a soft spot in their heart for the timber industry you are also mistaken.
020
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
There are some "scientists" that regularly present evidence including pictures in a biased manner. Here is a link to Save The Redwoods League efforts to do this kind of work in good faith instead of for grifting: www.savetheredwoods.org/explore/stor...
savetheredwoods.org
So long, Long Meadow, we’re packed for Packsaddle!
A toast to the League's productive risk-reduction and wildfire resilience work in Long Meadow Grove, which burned in the 2021 Windy Fire.
100
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
There is a money issue going on. If you have a job depending on you being known to be a scientist who opposes all forest management activities, you have an incentive to create scientific findings that purportedly show that all forest management activities are bad.
100
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Did you reach out to any other potential sources for their knowledge or opinion on this particular situation? Looks like quotes from Chad Hanson bookended by abhorrent legislation put forward by Republicans.
000
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I am not on the front lines of this debate. So I don't know all the details. However, there are real scientists and those with enough knowledge of science to design studies in a way that supports their preconceived conclusions about a subject.
100
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This is a bullshit take -- I don't think Hanson's views should be given any more air than they already get from ill-informed media. Chad Hanson in particular has been standing in the way of scientifically informed forest management by denigrating carefully planned forest management as "logging".
131
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Here are some freshwater jellyfish we captured at the UP lake were we have a cabin. We put them in a big glass pitcher to have a closer look. The finger poking them is my 9yo daughter. Here is more about them: www.sciencefriday.com/segments/fre...
0142
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I have this too, but this is the first time I have seen it named.
030
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Friend in the rural UP has a house heated with fuel oil and he just paid >$1600 to fill his tank for what would be a month of heating during winter if he doesn't burn wood.
291
Reposted by Steve Voelker
Oregon 🕎🎲 @oregonthedm.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Most riveting thing I've seen all week
385113233077
Reposted by Steve Voelker
Tim Osborn @timosbornclim.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
My 3-panel SOI graph inadvertently highlights multidecadal variations in ENSO activity. Relatively active in the top/bottom panels, more quiescent in the middle panel.
1866-present timeseries of Climatic Research Unit SOI with some major El Niño events marked.
161
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
For <30 I learn the names in a few weeks. In classes of 30-70 students I eventually learn the names during the semester but retain very few after the class is finished. For more than 70 I usually only learn names of the most engaged students because I usually have a TA, reducing student interaction.
020
Reposted by Steve Voelker
Steph likes native plants @dendromecon27.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I am listening to The Daily on the Endangered Species Act. And it's good. But I need NYT to understand that the ESA isn't JUST FOR ANIMALS. And the ESA does not only protect plants when they form critical habitat for animals. It protects actual endangered plants. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/21/p...
nytimes.com
The Trump Administration Defangs the Endangered Species Act
A new interpretation of the law would mean that only the intentional killing of animals, not collateral harm, would be illegal.
3229
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Ran an errand tonight and the local Classic Rock station DJ gave a stern warning to listeners not to use AI (ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, etc) for anything they would not feel comfortable sharing with employees where they work. Then he played Journey. Feels like an inflection point.
0101
Reposted by Steve Voelker
Drew Peltier @peltierdrew.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
And here is the link to apply careers.nau.edu/jobs/postdoc...
careers.nau.edu
Postdoctoral Scholar - Flagstaff, Arizona, United States
Special Information This position is an on-site position which requires the incumbent to complete their work primarily at an NAU site, campus, or facility with or without accommodation. Opportunities...
01011
Reposted by Steve Voelker
Joe Mason @moreorloess.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Part of a map, probably from 1846, showing the area covered by the Public Land Survey at that time in Wisconsin (two years before statehood). Someone sketched in what look like potential road or railroad routes, in red pencil. From the Library of Congress.
An old tan colored map showing the public land survey grid at the time it was made, with large areas in central and northern Wisconsin not surveyed yet. There are lines drawn on the map in red pencil.
3143
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Among many other things it is fun to see Wisconsin Rapids = Grand Rapids and Stevens Point = Plover Portage.
020
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
It can be removed pretty easily but a wall-mount TV over the fireplace in any style of home makes me so angry every time.
030
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Went to the Lake Superior [Keweenaw] shoreline during the second day of a gale. There were a dozen or so surfers combined at two stops, which is about a dozen more than usual.
A mixed sandy/cobble beach with big frothy whitecaps coming in. The water is stirred up so the shallow water is brown mixed with aquamarine. The deeper water on the horizon is dark blue. There are two surfers in the lake in this picture but may be too small to see.Typical cobble beach stones with many red/orange and blue/gray-hued stones and some that have patchy white or green mineral inclusions.
1141
Reposted by Steve Voelker
Antoine Cabon @acabon.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Great team effort based on the work of dozens of people through the years!
094
Reposted by Steve Voelker
Abigail Swann, PhD @ecoclimatelab.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
We have a new paper on the response of land carbon to zero, declining, and negative emissions of CO2 across Earth System Models! w/ @ckoven.bsky.social @cristiproist.bsky.social @rosieafisher.bsky.social @benmsanderson.bsky.social & more (1/6) esd.copernicus.org/articles/17/...
esd.copernicus.org
Land carbon response to positive, zero, and negative CO2 emissions across Earth system models
Abstract. Land carbon sinks are responsible for removing about a quarter of anthropogenic CO2 emissions, and make up approximately half of total global carbon sinks. Uncertainty in the response of lan...
14423
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Maybe, but not anything I know of.
010
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Say you own 40 acres of conifer peatland in NE Wisconsin, what are you gonna do with it? I am betting it is not whatever this is. FYI I was actually doing research trying to re-locate white pine stands measured ~100 yrs ago before this distracted me for the past 15 mins.
Satellite imagery of a peatland conifer forest in 2008, bordered by some patches of hardwood forest. The trees are small little dots as seen from above.Satellite imagery that looks like a grayscale image of the same peatland conifer forest in 2010 but with an X-shape with rounded edges clearcut into the forest, and with a circle of forest remaining at the center. The not-quite square boundaries are also cleared for roads as well as bisecting lines splitting the property into quadrants and a diamond shape connecting each of the bisecting lines where it intersects the property boundary.The same image as before but shown in fall of 2013 so the hardwood patches at the boundaries are starting to turn yellow.
1162
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Doing some archive work and came across our smallest "sunken log" sample. It dates from 1514 to 1729. It had an avg ring-width of 0.42 mm. I am certain it is an old branch given the extensive compressionwood. The wood barely floats indicating it has a density approaching 1 gm/cm3.
A small ellipse or half-moon shaped wood cross-section with a clear plastic ruler overlaid showing the longest radii is about 9 cm. The rings are so narrow as to be barely discernible at this scale. The color of the wood is very orange to red with some bands that are more grey. A few internal spots of decay are present.Same piece of wood in a plastic tub of water. One side sinks below the water surface while the other floats a few mm above the water surface.
180
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
After being proposed for closure by the Forest Service reorganization, the Houghton Forest Research Station (next door to our college) is officially staying open, which is great news for colleagus here and for the forests of this region.
1201
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
I do want to return to research on the climate of the deglacial period and Younger-Dryas, if funding allows, because so many aspects of our knowledge and ability have advanced in the past 15 years.
010
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
The paper I wrote used 14C-dated wood from across the Midwest. What still haunts me is that I have a wood sample collected from a roadcut in Iowa by Samuel Epstein that dates to the formation of the Brady Soil. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_... I Id'd the wood as Yew based on anatomy. Yew in Iowa!
en.wikipedia.org
Samuel Epstein (geochemist) - Wikipedia
120
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Ah, yes it is coming back to me. I did cite this article (and Mason 2001 in Quaternary Research). I did a lot of reading then, but having moved on to many other jobs and research in other regions I forget some things. It is good to revisit this now that I know who wrote the paper.
110
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Do you have a go-to publication that best interprets what the climate conditions were that produced the Brady Soil. Could be one of your own or from someone else. I studied the paleoecology of that period and adjacent areas (northern MO) from a different perspective.
130
Reposted by Steve Voelker
GrumpyUncleSean🔥 @grumpyunclesean.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
1/5 New paper in PNAS led by Andreas Wion! 🔥🌍🧪 For centuries, dry-conifer forests in the western U.S. burned frequently, but mostly at low severity, meaning most trees were not killed by fire. Read on for details ...
doi.org
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
25726
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Just found out that a prof here at MTU graduated from my high school of ~400 students one year ahead of me. We see each other all the time (for work, kids in the same grade) but have absolutely no recollection of each other in HS because he was a jock and I was a band nerd. Life is weird.
050
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Let us give thanks for the corn sweat.
120
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
To make room in the lab this summer I brought home ~2 cubic yards of sunken white pine log "extra pieces" to burn this winter. These trees started growing, on average, around 1550, so it is a shame to release this carbon. But these were only small samples of the whole logs still in the lakes.
A pile of small chunks of log cross-sections in the corner of a basement woodshop with walls covered by oriented strand board.
040
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
It was just a regular weekend. A bar called Max's or something like that along crow creek pass road. It was packed and a lot of fun. I didn't really have $ for eating at restaurants then.
110
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Last jam band I saw live was in Girdwood, early September 2001. There was a minor earthquake during the first set, the lights flickered and the band stopped for ~15 seconds. And then the band started jamming again. Slept next to the river that night and hitched into Anchorage the next day.
100
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
No cheating. Share the past photo of the sky in your camera roll. This is the last pic of the sky that doesn't feature my daughter or family. A couple weeks ago in Sylvania Wilderness.
Blue sky above with puffy white clouds that is also partially reflected by a bog pond surrounded by spruce and fir and grading into northern hardwoods on the upland horizons.
351
Reposted by Steve Voelker
Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Hey folks, this hasn’t gotten much attention, but remember those proposed OMB rule changes we all commented on recently? There’s a new attempt to sneak them just for NSF. We have three days to comment. Please don’t sleep on this!
7756637
Reposted by Steve Voelker
Nick Smith @nickgregsmith.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Today is my first day as Davison & Fuller Chair in Life Sciences and Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln! I will be looking for graduate students, a postdoc, and a lab manager to join me at UNL (ads coming). Please reach out if interested!
University of Nebraska - Lincoln block "N" logoPhysiology for Understanding and Knowledge in ecologY (PhUnKY) Lab logo
74319
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
It is a 2 hr drive from campus. So, not ideal for classes, but maybe useful for individual research projects.
010
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
This past year 80 acres was donated to our college. It is in one of the more remote areas of the UP and requires a steep 1.5 mile hike to get up to it. Initial visit exceeded expectations: Many old trees with no apparent history of logging -- and a beautiful pond rimmed by bedrock and bogs.
A large old hemlock with bedrock outcroppings and some younger hemlocks and white cedars. The understory is sun-dappled but sparse.Another view of some large old hemlocks above the pond, with a sparse understory and a well developed mid-story of younger trees.A small but old and twisted red pine tree hangs more or less horizontally over the pond on the top of a bedrock escarpment.Shallow side of the a pond with floating bogs in the foreground and blue skies with puffy white to grey clouds overhead. In the background is the opposite shore, with a small bedrock peninsula with stunted trees in the center. The background also has some large white pine trees around the edge of the pond.
5470
Reposted by Steve Voelker
Nature @nature.com · 14/08/2026
Nature research paper: Species intraspecific variation drives tropical forest drought resistance go.nature.com/4i5VxKH
go.nature.com
Species intraspecific variation drives tropical forest drought resistance - Nature
Substantial intraspecific variation, together with species turnover, drives coordinated shifts in drought resistance such as increased embolism resistance and wider stomatal safety margins in drier forests.
02115
Reposted by Steve Voelker
James Dinneen @jamesdinneen.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
New in @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
Ancient rise in CO2 was catastrophic for forests: what that means for today’s plants
A widespread dieback of forests due to climate change 56 million years ago has parallels with today.
02817
Reposted by Steve Voelker
Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra @jrossibarra.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
I am excited to announce a job for an Asst Prof in Plant Evolution in the dept. of Evolution and Ecology at @ucdavis.bsky.social. We're looking broadly, from macro (speciation, comparative genomics, evo-devo) to micro (pop biology, adaptive evolution, evo-eco). recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07777
recruit.ucdavis.edu
2127161