The Vermont Monitoring Cooperative has a long history of monitoring and research at two intensive sites: Lye Brook Wilderness Area on the Green Mountain National Forest in southern Vermont, and State-owned lands on Mt. Mansfield within the Browns River, Stevensville Brook and Ranch Brook watersheds. Studies at these intensive sites were co-located to better understand ecosystem processes and impacts across biotic and abiotic strata. In recent years, VMC has also supported real-time data collection from three meteorological stations on Lake Champlain to better understand atmospheric dynamics in the airshed influencing Vermont forests.

Over the past decade, VMC efforts have expanded beyond these intensive research sites, in part by design to improve our understanding of a diversity of habitat types, but also because of the widening network of collaborators working across the region. The VMC database now contains data from across the state, as well as state and region-wide geospatial data layers relative to forest ecosystem health

Vermont Monitoring Cooperative Intensive Study Sites

Picture of Mount Mansfield

Mount Mansfield

A combination of state and university land straddling the summit of Mount Mansfield in Vermont's northern Green Mountains

Picture of Lye Brook Wilderness

Lye Brook Wilderness

18,112 acres of high-elevation wilderness in Vermont's southern Green Mountains

Colchester Reef and Diamond Island meteorological monitoring stations

Lake Champlain

Three stations established along Lake Champlain measuring a range of meteorological variables

Looking to do research at a VMC site? Find more information about site applications here