In the (Outdoor) Classroom with NEWT’s Wildlands Ecologist

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On Saturday, September 7, Northeast Wilderness Trust’s (NEWT) Wildlands Ecology Director Shelby Perry co-led a class on old forest ecology for students of North Branch Nature Center’s “Biodiversity University” program. Perry, joined by fellow ecologist Bob Zaino of the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, paired a classroom lecture with a dynamic, interactive walk-and-talk through Montpelier and East Montpelier’s North Branch Park. The class, titled “Old Forest Ecology: The Wonders & Mysteries of Our Ancient, Gnarled, & Majestic Old Woods,” provided students with a hands-on crash course in the ecological characteristics and benefits of old forests.

Perry and Zaino began the Saturday portion of the two-day class by helping students to wrap their heads around Vermont’s varied natural landscape. The state is home to anywhere between 24,000 to 43,500 species spread across 97 natural communities. The most common of these communities is Northern Hardwood Forest, which came to dominate what is now Vermont about 13,000 years ago upon the recession of the glaciers from the Northeast.

The rampant deforestation of the colonial era felled most of these sprawling old-growth forests. When agriculture shifted west in the eighteenth century, abandoned farm fields began to regrow. So while forest now covers more than 80 percent of New England, these woods are “middle-aged” on arboreal time-scales: between 90 and 120 or so years old. Old forest, which Perry defined in her presentation as “biologically mature forests with some characteristics of old-growth forests, exhibiting minimal evidence of human-caused disturbance,” persists on less than 1 percent of the state. These remaining old forests are characterized by elements like canopy gaps, a mix of old and young trees, an abundance of standing dead trees and downed wood, and above all, a state of “seeming disarray.”

The age range of Vermont’s forests has implications for the composition and abundance of the state’s flora and fauna, as well as the power of its carbon sink and the stability of the planet’s climate. For the human observer, a forest’s age determines what might be seen on a walk in the woods. Certain plant, animal, and fungi species prefer young forests, while others thrive in old woods.

Attendees took notes and asked questions throughout Perry and Zaino’s presentation. And while the two speakers fielded these questions, they chose to answer many of them in a way befitting a class on old forests: via a trip into the woods.

Hands-On Learning

Perry stood in front of a large, wizened eastern hemlock beside a trail through Montpelier’s North Branch Park. She held up a sign with the tree’s scientific name: Tsuga canadensis. The stop was one of multiple along the trail to introduce the students to North Branch’s (and the northern forest’s) common tree species, including yellow birch, bigtooth aspen, and red maple. With each short species primer, Perry and Zaino had their students scan the surrounding area. They guided the pupils through a holistic analysis of their surroundings as an introduction to landscape-level thinking.

After a mile or so of hiking, the group arrived at the day’s ultimate destination: a patch of the East Montpelier Town Forest. Perry, Zaino, and the students rested to eat lunch, wander off into the woods, and spend a quiet moment with the hulking hemlocks and moss-covered logs around them, listening to the scattered calls of ravens, chickadees, and nuthatches.

After the students had reconvened, Perry again asked them to take stock of their surroundings. What did they notice about the landscape? How “seemingly disarrayed” was it? Did the woods display the old-forest elements for which they had been taught to look?

By their responses, it was clear the students had absorbed the day’s earlier lessons in landscape reading. One student noted the abundance of coarse woody debris on the forest floor. Another pointed to the many and varied canopy gaps. Yet another identified several “tip-up mounds,” downed trees whose root balls lie inverted and exposed atop the duff. The students had quickly become keen observers of the forested landscape.

For the remainder of the afternoon, Perry and Zaino guided the students through additional exercises in old-forest identification. They took a soil sample and studied it for hints of the area’s geological past. They learned about mosses and liverworts, organisms that abound in undisturbed forests teeming with dead wood. To close out the day, Perry and Zaino brought the students back to the indoor classroom for a closing lesson on old-forest inventories and government policies that can support the expansion of the region’s old forests. The following morning, they set out for a conserved forest farther south in the state, learning additional old-forest ID techniques and adding to their repertoire of newly acquired ecological skills.

Future Classes and Events

Sign up for the Wilderness Trust’s monthly newsletter to be notified of future classes and events with Shelby Perry and the Wildlands Ecology program. And consider registering for the final session of our “BioBlitz” series, led by renowned ecologist and Wilderness Trust board member Brett Engstrom, at Woodbury Mountain Wilderness Preserve on Sunday October 13.

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In the (Outdoor) Classroom with NEWT’s Wildlands Ecologist

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