Tag Archive for: Vermont

Studying Birds and Wildlands Ecology on the Great Plains

It’s difficult to imagine a starker contrast to Vermont’s humid, hardwood forests than the dry, flat, spiny sweep of a shortgrass prairie. As Northeast Wilderness Trust’s (NEWT) Wildlands Ecologist, I spend most of my time studying the former—traversing rolling, rewilding forests of hemlock, maple, birch, and spruce, dotted with beaver ponds and bogs. But on a late-spring morning in early May, I found myself at work in an almost unrecognizable landscape: binoculars in hand, surrounded by sagebrush, yucca, and cholla on the banks of the Purgatoire River in southeastern Colorado.

Bison herd

Perhaps the term “river” is a generous description for that particular waterway. In the Northeast, it would likely be called a “creek” or “brook,” but on these arid plains, which receive only about 12 inches of rainfall annually, this modest waterway serves as a vital corridor and safe haven for plants, wildlife, and people. For three days this May, it also became a meeting place for rewilding advocates from across the United States to network and discuss bird conservation.

How Beavers, Rewilding Allies, Transform the Landscape

Several years ago, I moved into a cabin in a cold mountain hollow adjacent to NEWT’s Woodbury Mountain Wilderness Preserve. At the time, an alder swamp fed by the headwaters of Pekin Brook filled the bottom of the valley. According to the previous landowners, there had been a beaver pond there until floodwaters from Hurricane Irene breached the dam in 2011, draining the pond within minutes. With the area’s hardwood supply depleted, preventing the resident beavers from rebuilding the destroyed dam, they apparently chose to relocate. Over the 13 years since the beavers left, the pond transitioned first to a wet meadow, and then eventually to an impenetrable alder swamp.

According to Tom Wessells’ Reading the Forested Landscape, beavers will almost always return to the site of a previous pond, though they will usually wait until the woody vegetation reaches at least “pole size.” Since beavers receive most of their nutrition from cambium – the outermost layers of a tree – a decade-old alder swamp provides them with an abundant source of stems that are relatively easy to fell and transport, as well as plenty of cambium-filled surface area for them to chew on.

A Woody Window into Wildlife Habitat and Behavior

As a member of NEWT’s Wildlands Ecology team, I study how ecological processes play out on our forever-wild preserves and easements. A key difference between these and managed forests is that the former tends to be “messier.” A walk through a rewilding forest, where human influence is minimal, will reveal landscape features like the exposed root balls of fallen trees (“tip-up mounds”) and other forms of dead and decaying wood strewn about the forest floor. This material, which scientists refer to broadly as “coarse woody debris” (CWD), is a critical ecosystem element that provides everything from homes for numerous species to vital soil nutrients. And because wildlands abound with CWD, which is often lacking in managed landscapes, they offer a terrific opportunity to better understand how wildlife interact with CWD as they go about their wild business.

To investigate further, I piloted a year-long CWD study at NEWT’s Woodbury Mountain Wilderness Preserve in Vermont to examine whether the size of a CWD element, such as a fallen tree, plays a role in how different species of wildlife make use of it. I deployed five pairs of cameras, 10 cameras in total, on five of our preexisting research plots across Woodbury Mountain. At each plot, I pointed one camera toward a large piece of CWD (greater than 40 centimeters in diameter), and the other toward a small one (10 to 30 centimeters in diameter). The motion-activated cameras collected footage over five months.

Reviewing the Footage

After collecting the cameras, I sorted through the more than 5.5 hours of footage, which captured 23 species, including raccoon, Ruffed Grouse, white-tailed deer, and more.

Typically, the largest of the species recorded made use of the larger CWD: a bobcat perching on a  large fallen tree, a black bear family dancing across an old yellow birch, curious coyotes sniffing the cameras after walking across gnarled, decaying logs. Moose stepped over large trunks and weasels settled on branches to wait for an opportunity at dinner.

The footage of the small CWD featured a different suite of species. Hermit Thrushes and other songbirds alit in search of a snack, while flying squirrels leapt from tree limbs. Mink scampered along a sunlit branch, fisher cats stopped as though enjoying the quiet, and chipmunks bounded along limbs of fallen tree crowns in pursuit of nuts and seeds.

In Support of Messy Landscapes

The CWD interactions documented by each of the 10 cameras are hallmarks of wilderness. Downed wood might look unsightly to us, but as the footage demonstrates, wildlife might depend on it for a diversity of uses. The family of bears ambling single file across a rotting birch suggests that some species take advantage of higher ground to monitor for threats. A flycatcher landing on a detached branch and zipping out to catch a flying insect highlights how these landscape features we might not notice on a walk in the woods serve a vital purpose for aerial insectivores, an ailing class of birds.

The ecological benefits of CWD showcased by the footage are many. Dead wood forms part of the structural complexity typical of old forests, which tend to host higher levels of biodiversity and sequester more carbon than their younger, cleaner counterparts. But the footage also peels back another layer of significance. It allows us to peer into the wild, untrammeled world; to see many of the Northeast’s revered species thriving in their natural habitat. And it shows them doing so on a property that, thanks to NEWT’s forever-wild conservation method, is protected as wilderness in perpetuity, where Nature directs the ebb and flow of life and our wild kin have the freedom to exist simply for their own sake.

New conservation easement helps protect 6,250 acres of ‘forever-wild’ lands

Vermont River Conservancy took the final steps to permanently protect more than 6,000 acres owned by Northeast Wilderness Trust at the headwaters of the Lamoille and Winooski Rivers, the organization’s largest undertaking in its 30-year history.

The “forever-wild” conservation easement ensures the property’s abundant wetlands and forests will be allowed to grow old over time, improving flood resilience for adjacent communities and protecting key wildlife habitat. The project was initiated by Northeast Wilderness Trust, which acquired multiple properties to create the expansive Woodbury Mountain Wilderness Preserve and subsequently donated the conservation easement to Vermont River Conservancy. “Northeast Wilderness Trust conveys conservation easements to other land trusts to ensure permanence beyond our ownership,” said Caitlin Mather, Land Conservation Director at Northeast Wilderness Trust. “This added layer is the highest form of legal protection. We are grateful to have partnered with Vermont River Conservancy to achieve this forever-wild outcome.”

The Preserve protects the summit of Woodbury Mountain, Eagle Ledge, expansive wetlands, and 36 miles of headwater streams.

“All climate models predict central Vermont will see more drought and more floods, just as we’ve seen over the past 2 years. Protecting vibrant wetlands and allowing headwater forests to grow old is critical to rebuilding the spongy soils that store massive amounts of water – ultimately helping keep communities safer during droughts and floods,” said Erin De Vries, conservation director for Vermont River Conservancy.

Landscape photo of Woodbury

Rare Lynx Sightings Put Carnivores and Wildlands in the Spotlight

One of North America’s most elusive predators has grabbed the Vermont spotlight this autumn. A Canada lynx was sighted in August in Rutland County and has been spotted multiple times since in its journey north. Just seven sightings of the state-endangered and nationally threatened wildcat have been confirmed in Vermont, mostly in the Northeast Kingdom, since 2016. Northern New England forms the southern periphery of the lynx’s range, most of which spreads across Canada’s boreal forest.

According to Shelby Perry, Northeast Wilderness Trust’s (NEWT) Wildlands Ecology Director, the lynx in question was probably after love and land: “Like cougars and other wide-ranging carnivores, lynx will travel long distances in search of a home range and a mate. This lynx was likely on the move in search of a female and a place to settle down.”

 

The Canada Lynx in question photographed in Vermont’s Addison County during dispersal. Courtesy of the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department.

New Addition to Largest Non-Governmental Wilderness in Vermont

Northeast Wilderness Trust, a regional land trust based in Montpelier, VT, has purchased 160 acres of forestland surrounded on three sides by its 6,097-acre Woodbury Mountain Wilderness Preserve.

Northeast Wilderness Trust hosts second Learning Circle book group

Sign up to join Northeast Wilderness Trust’s second Learning Circle book group. 

Woodbury Mountain BioBlitz

Become a nature detective and a citizen scientist by participating in the Woodbury Mountain BioBlitz from August 2023 through July 2024.

Northeast Wilderness Trust hosts first Learning Circle book group

Northeast Wilderness Trust is launching our first Learning Circle book group in January 2024.

New Poem Inspired by Woodbury Mountain Wilderness Preserve

Poet Sean Prentiss has shared a new poem, “World Grow Wild”, written during his time in residency at Woodbury Mountain Wilderness Preserve.

Woodbury Mountain BioBlitz: September Events

Get curious about turtles, amphibians, and late season pollinators with Northeast Wilderness Trust at two events on the land this fall.

5th Anniversary Walk for Wilderness – October 11-15th, 2023

Shelby Perry, Wildlands Ecologist, is Walking for Wilderness for the fifth year in a row, with an ambitious goal to raise $10,000 to help protect Bear’s Nest Wilderness Preserve in Vermont.