David Abazs
Visionary; systems design implementation
Background & Expertise
David Abazs and his wife Lise run Round River Farm. Abazs' most flattering moment was when he was called the MacGyver of farming by a group of students. His farming and homesteading experiences led him to design and build Victus Farm, an aquaponics facility in Silver Bay, instigate, lead, and manage the design and construction of the Wolf Ridge Organic Farm, and initiated the design and early building years of the North Shore AgroEcology Center, Finland MN. He transitioned in 2018 from those farms to become the executive director of the Northeast Regional Sustainable Development Partnership at the University of Minnesota. Abazs is a former UMN Endowed Chair in Agriculture Systems and authored the Western Lake Superior Food Capacity study and the Local Food as an Economic Driver study and continues research on agrophenology, biochar, cold plasma and deep sustainability. His greatest joy is his family, living connected to land, and imagining and leaning into a more just and sustainable community, country and world!
Fostering Collaboration: Welcoming the 2024 IonE Affiliates
The complex environmental challenges we face today require interdisciplinary collaboration – but what does collaboration require?
At the Institute on the Environment, part of our answer is providing skilled, empowered people the opportunity to build meaningful relationships.
Featured Project: David Abazs
Northeastern Minnesota Climate-Smart Trees
Challenge
As Minnesota warms, maintaining forest cover, increasing carbon stocks and sustaining the timber economy will require large scale planting of climate-forward seedlings. However, there is an insufficient seed supply, limited capacity to produce climate-adapted tree seedlings at scale, and outdated seed-sourcing guidelines that do not account for a rapidly changing climate.
Meet the Project Team
Project Leads
