After a much needed break to get caught up on work at home, Class IX dug back in Wednesday June 21st, with our June Duluth session to learn about leadership in agriculture and resource management in the north woods.
We started off the session with a picnic at the University of Minnesota, Cloquet Forestry Center. Here we were able to introduce our families to the rest of the cohort and join in on catching up on what we have been up to since the March session.
After a quick lunch, we learned about forestry management, land stewardship and natural resource conservation. The Cloquet Forestry Center was a great introduction to the northwoods timber industry and we learned about the research being done by the University of Minnesota to ensure the forestry industry will be viable for a long period of time.
Following our hike through the woods, we headed over to, Class VI alumnus, Doug Hoffbauer’s family farm. 
There we learned what it looks like to grow fresh market produce in the north shore climate. In addition to the farming operation we had 3 breakout sessions with local leaders regarding ag tourism (by Bruce Miller, MN Farmers Union), local market branding and marketing (Lucy Amundsen – Locally Laid), and agricultural predator management (Mark Liebaert).
To wrap up the day, we closed back at the hotel with a session on framing issues. Here program leader, Eriks Dunens, shared with us the benefits of framing issues and how we can use framing to influence how an audience receives the messages we share with them.
Submitted Josh Betcher
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