Tag Archive for: Wildlife

Warblers of the Shrublands

In my job as Northeast Wilderness Trust’s (NEWT) New York land steward, I come across a spectacular variety of bird species on NEWT preserves and easements. Beyond entertaining the birder in me, this dimension of my role also allows me to observe how land-use changes affect bird species composition. Most of the time, this involves seeing how interior forest birds respond to formerly logged lands rewilding via NEWT’s passive management approach. But sometimes, I’m treated to the surprises of different ecosystems—and the special delight that comes with the sighting of an unexpected species.

I had one such experience recently on a monitoring trip to a 60-acre conservation easement in the Split Rock Wildway in the Adirondack Park. This easement, despite its modest size, packs a big ecological punch. Upon leaving my vehicle, I experienced a landscape I know well. Water rushed over a waterfall while Eastern hemlocks towered above. Further on, an enormous rock face covered in moss and ferns emerged from behind the trees. This was familiar territory for me and for NEWT: an older forest, tranquil and wild.

But as I journeyed on, the landscape became less familiar. By the time I had reached the furthest point from my vehicle, the old forest had transitioned to young successional forest and shrubland. A deer path was the only clear way through this area; dense woody vegetation dominated the scene, with a few younger trees reaching taller than the shrubs.

As I walked through the maze of foliage, I froze in place when from a nearby shrub floated the song of a bird I had never seen before: a Blue-winged Warbler (Vermivora cyanoptera).

These songbirds are shrubland specialists. Their range has expanded northward since European colonization, when settlers cleared much of the Northeast’s forests for farmland. As many of those farms were abandoned, shrublands grew up in their place, creating vast new swaths of suitable habitat for the species.

These human-induced changes to the landscape were great news for Blue-winged Warblers, but not so much for another closely related songbird, the Golden-winged Warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera). Golden-winged Warblers are also a species of shrubby habitats, but they tend to nest in wetlands and then finish out the breeding season in the older forests like the one in which I started my day. The two species are nearly genetically identical, but the Blue-winged Warbler’s northward expansion has led to a dramatic decline in Golden-winged Warbler numbers. The latter often loses out when the two species compete for habitat and resources.

Upon further investigation, I spotted the songster, and found myself even more floored. The bird I spied looked like a Golden-winged Warbler, but was singing like a Blue-winged! The star of my shrubland show was what is known as a Brewster’s Warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera x cyanoptera), a hybrid resulting from interbreeding between Golden- and Blue-winged Warblers.

This was not a species I expected to see that day—or any other day, given that I generally work in the kind of towering forests I described earlier, and that both species specialize in early successional habitat. But it was a great reminder of the importance of a diversity of ecosystem types across the landscape. This shrubland will continue its reversion to forest over the coming years, but the adjacent, state-owned field to the easement’s north will continue to provide the shrubby habitat both species require—and the Golden-winged Warblers will have old forest right next door for their post-breeding needs.

This is a terrific example of the landscape vision of the Wildlands, Woodlands, Farmlands and Communities collective, of which NEWT is a member: a Northeast of diverse land uses and habitats, where wildlands sit side by side with timberlands and farms in a vibrant tapestry of ecosystems and dazzling biodiversity.

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.

NEWT Staff on What Rewilding Means to Them

March 20 is World Rewilding Day, a celebration of the many ecological, societal, and climate benefits of this ecocentric conservation method. To mark the occasion, several NEWT staff members from across the organization reflected on why rewilding is important to them, and offered additional thoughts on everything from their favorite wilderness experiences to how rewilding has made them rethink their views on humans’ relationship with the nonhuman world.

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.

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.

Northeast Wilderness Trust Announces Staff Updates

Northeast Wilderness Trust is pleased to announce changes to our Land Protection, Communications, and Operations teams. While several of the following staff members are familiar faces at the Wilderness Trust, others are new to the work of the wild. This expanded capacity will allow the Wilderness Trust to accelerate its land acquisitions and wilderness storytelling in pursuit of the organization’s ambitious five-year goals.

“I am inspired every day by our staff’s expertise and professionalism. Their boundless enthusiasm for the wild and its wonders will propel us to our new strategic goal of safeguarding 160,000 forever-wild acres by 2030. That target is more than just a number; it represents a tangible increase in wild places and wildlife habitat across the region,” said Jon Leibowitz, President and CEO of the Wilderness Trust.

For more information on current staff, please visit the About page.

The Wild Times: June

NEWT named “Conservationist of the Year” plus our newest land acquisition, wildlife photos from our stewards, and more June updates.

The Wild Times: May

Land protection highlights and other updates from the Wilderness Trust.

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.