Agenda
We are excited to welcome you to join us either in-person or remotely for our Annual Conference. We have an engaging agenda with Dr. Tony D’Amato leading a plenary session to share his knowledge and perspectives on the current state of forest science and stewardship, and how we can use our knowledge and experience as future challenges arise. We will have concurrent contributed talks, working sessions, and a poster session. The schedule is set for Thursday, November 20, 8:00am-5:30pm. We look forward to connecting with our community and hope you will join us to share your experiences and research findings as we learn from each other and plan for the future of our northeastern forested ecosystems.
Forest dynamics and stewardship at a crossroads: science, partnerships, and adaptive strategies for moving forward
November 20
Arrival and check-in. Virtual participants will be able to log in to trouble-shoot any technical challenges and understand how to attend sessions throughout the day.
FEMC Director Alison Adams and FEMC Steering Committee Chair Kyle Lombard will provide introductory remarks.
State Coordinators will provide updates from each state (Eli Ward, Connecticut; Alana Russell, Rhode Island; Eric Peterson, Massachusetts; Jeff Hariman and Aaron Bergdahl, Maine; Larissa Robinov, New Hampshire; Savannah Ferreira, Vermont, and Amanda Dillon, New York).
Northeastern States Research Cooperative updated provided by Executive Committee member
Dr. Anthony “Tony” D’Amato will lead the plenary session, with a focus on the crossroads we face in forest science and stewardship, and how we can use our knowledge and experience to address future challenges.
Bio
Change is a constant in forest ecosystems and society, yet recent ecological and socioeconomic shifts feel seismic. The forestry field and the associated science supporting it have evolved considerably over the past several decades to integrate a wide range of disciplines, worldviews, and adaptive frameworks to sustain diverse values and outcomes from forests, particularly in the context of uncertain future conditions. Nevertheless, the novelty of present conditions threatens many of those values and outcomes and is testing the limits of adaptive strategies for mitigating impacts. This crossroad we now find ourselves at requires both an evaluation of the human and social capital necessary to sustain key forest values into the future, as well as scientific advances that can accelerate solutions to support stewardship in an increasingly complex ecological and sociopolitical context. This presentation will revisit where we’ve traveled from to reach this crossroad and where we might be going in advancing forest science and stewardship to address present and future challenges to our forests.
Parallel tracks of 20-minute presentations contributed by cooperators on various forest ecosystem research, monitoring, and outreach activities.
| Time | Northeastern State Research Cooperative (NSRC) Room: Jost Foundation | Forest Planning Room: Williams | Fungal Ecology Room: Chittenden Bank | The Impact of Language Related to Introduced Plant Management Room: Sugar Maple |
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| 11:20 to 11:40 | Tools for rehabilitative silviculture in degraded hardwood stands John Foppert + ABSTRACT | Planting with Purpose: Lessons from Vermont's New Guidelines for ANR Lands Danielle Owczarski + ABSTRACT | Restoring Multi-Functional Riparian Forested Buffers Jess Rubin + ABSTRACT | Shifting the Conversation: Building Shared Purpose Across Vermont's Landscape (45 min) Emilie Inoue + ABSTRACT | |
Tools for rehabilitative silviculture in degraded hardwood stands Neal Maker, Forest Biometrics Research Institute Presenter: John Foppert, Paul Smith's College Across the Northern Forest, millions of acres of northern hardwoods languish in a degraded condition while, simultaneously, critical early-seral habitats and the wildlife populations that depend on them are in decline. Rehabilitative silviculture strategies to restore productivity, diversity, and resilience to degraded hardwood stands are fairly well developed and if more widely implemented would significantly enrich habitat quality throughout the region. However, significant barriers stand in the way of their implementation. Rehabilitative silviculture requires foresters to assess conditions at tree-, group- and patch-scales in non-uniform, mixed-species stands with highly variable timber quality. They must then assimilate that information into the design and implementation spatially explicit treatments. Few tools exist to support this complicated management decision process, to quantify the prospective gains of the approach, or to guide its implementation if a forester were to put it into practice. This presentation will describe the effort underway to develop management tools to support this important, challenging silvicultural approach. We are developing a decision support toolkit that can specify the optimal spatial arrangement of rehabilitative treatment types within a degraded northern hardwood stand. It combines improved, spatially-explicit empirical models of harvesting costs and residual stand damage, optimized crop tree selection guidelines, and a novel procedure for optimizing the spatial delineation of treatment type using digital elevation models, mapped crop tree locations, and summarized stand-level inventory information. | |||||
Planting with Purpose: Lessons from Vermont's New Guidelines for ANR Lands Danielle Owczarski, Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department Presenter: Danielle Owczarski, Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife How we plant today shapes Vermont's forests for decades to come -- but until recently, state-owned lands lacked a consistent framework to guide when, where, and what we plant. From 2022 to 2024, the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources developed the Planting Guidelines for ANR State Lands, the first set of unified principles designed to improve the success, ecological value, and climate resilience of restoration projects across state properties. These guidelines were built through a collaborative process involving staff from multiple ANR departments, scientific literature review, and lessons in the field. They provide practical recommendations for species selection, seed sourcing, microsite considerations, planting timing, survival benchmarks, and adaptive management. They are intended as a living resource -- grounded in science but flexible enough to be applied across Vermont's diverse landscapes. Equally important is what the guidelines do not do. They are not prescriptive planting lists that replace site-level judgment, nor do they provide a one-size-fits-all monitoring framework. They also do not instruct practitioners in the mechanics of planting -- such as how to dig holes, handle seedlings, or prepare stock for planting. And sometimes, the best action is restraint: the guidelines remind us that in many cases, natural regeneration, soil seed banks, and resilient ecosystems may accomplish restoration more effectively than intervention. This presentation will share the story of the guidelines' development, explore the challenges of balancing flexibility with standardization, and highlight early lessons from implementation. I will also pose a broader set of questions for the FEMC community: How do we balance simplicity and usability with ecological nuance? How can guidelines like these better link to long-term monitoring data? And most importantly, how do we act as responsible stewards today so that future generations in Vermont inherit resilient forests -- and not additional problems? By presenting this work, I hope to spark discussion not just about Vermont's planting guidelines, but about how we -- as a region -- can think differently about the role of planting (and not planting) in sustaining resilient, biodiverse, and climate-adapted forest ecosystems. | |||||
Restoring Multi-Functional Riparian Forested Buffers Jess Rubin, UVM Presenter: Jess Rubin, UVM and MycoEvolve A restoration project, grown from a previous pilot, tested whether mycorrhizae can improve phosphorus (P) mitigation, and pollinator functions of degraded riparian forested buffers (RFBs) on a local farm in Vermont while facilitating Abenaki access to ancestral lands. Six plots within a degraded RFB were restored with a multi-functional plant community. Three restored plots were inoculated with endemic mycorrhizae (RVM), three restored plots were not inoculated (RV), and an additional three control plots (OIV) remained in their degraded state, dominated by aggressive nonnative shrub Rhamnus cathartica. The restoration palette consisted of 42 (10 tree, 6 shrub, 16 herbaceous,10 groundcover) species which were all pollinator hosts and beneficial to Abenaki, offering P removal opportunities through honorable harvest. While Total soil P in restoration treatments were not significantly different, concentrations in the control were significantly higher than in the RV and RVM (p < 0.001) plots. This pattern was mirrored in the Mehlich III extractable P and the water extractable soluble reactive P data. While there was no statistically significant difference in treatment for plant P uptake, there was for both category and species (p < 0.001) respectively. Herbaceous and fruiting plants uptake more P than shrubs. The correlated patterns across the above three soil/water P metrics suggest restoring a degraded riparian buffer with a diverse, multi-synusial palette can mitigate P while providing food and medicine. Phytoextraction with cyclical harvest has promising implications for reducing P concentrations in runoff and percolate. There were statistically significant differences in plant diversity between the control and restored plots (p < 0.001), as expected, but not between restored plots. A mean of 52 volunteer species were detected in the restored plots within a year of restoration, doubling plant species richness, indicating succession. Design and installation of diverse native, polyculture palettes, non-chemical removal of R. cathartica, and strategically timed harvest of P accumulating plants maximizes RFB’s multi-functional support for trophic resilience; and begins socio-ecological reconciliation of colonial agriculture’s legacy. | |||||
Shifting the Conversation: Building Shared Purpose Across Vermont's Landscape (45 min) Pieter van Loon, Vermont Land Trust Presenter: Emilie Inoue, VT Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets What becomes possible when institutions and individuals choose to lean toward one another with curiosity, care, and honesty to face shared challenges? We are living in a time that calls for real and honest conversation if we want to move toward shared understanding and lasting change. Grounded in the context of invasion biology, this story explores how language can both harm and heal, and how reframing it invites accountability, belonging, and transformation. Vermont's scale, culture, and spirit of collaboration offer a unique opportunity to explore what this shift can look like in practice. This presentation tells the story of how an intentional focus on language, rooted in care and connection, has opened space for greater alignment of shared values, goals, and purpose across Vermont's state agencies and non-governmental organizations. Representatives from the Vermont Land Trust, Vermont Agency of Agriculture and the VT Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation share how language became a bridge between boundaries and a catalyst for trust and collaboration. | |||||
| 11:45 to 12:05 | Assessing the future Northern Forest through the lens of seedling survival and sapling recruitment Lucas B. Harris + ABSTRACT | Thirty Years of Organic Family Forestry in Vermont's Center-West Ecoregion David Brynn + ABSTRACT | Fungi of Vermont Savannah Ferreira, Jess Rubin + ABSTRACT | ||
Assessing the future Northern Forest through the lens of seedling survival and sapling recruitment Melissa Pastore, USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Forest Inventory & Analysis Presenter: Lucas B. Harris, University of Vermont Tree regeneration is foundational to forest health and resilience, yet regional assessments of tree regeneration patterns in the northeastern USA suggest widespread and varied challenges related to climate change, herbivory, shifting disturbance regimes and non-native pests and pathogens. In this project supported by the Northeastern States Research Cooperative, we are using data from the national forest inventory to examine tree regeneration patterns across the Northern Forest region and their implications for future forest dynamics and management. In particular, we are building upon recently developed methods to assess bottlenecks in seedling survival and sapling recruitment using a regional dataset called the Regeneration Indicator in which seedlings are surveyed in six different height classes rather than the single size class otherwise used by the national forest inventory. Recently-completed work highlights the growing importance of browsing by white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) on seedling survival, and how browse impacts vary both by seedling size and species palatability. In ongoing work, we are (1) identifying trends in tree regeneration since 2003 and its implications for climate change vulnerability, forest resilience and departure from historical composition; and (2) examining response of tree regeneration to natural disturbances and timber harvests. We have found declines in sapling recruitment for some northern tree species such as Abies balsamea that are projected to fare poorly in future climates, yet also persistently low sapling abundance of species that are more resilient to disturbance and pests and pathogens including Acer rubrum, Acer saccharum and Quercus species. An emerging theme of our work is that composition of the small seedling layer (<30 cm tall) is more favorable than the large seedling and sapling layers in terms of overall resilience as well as abundance of key species, suggesting the utility of management targeted at survival and growth of already-established seedlings. | |||||
Thirty Years of Organic Family Forestry in Vermont's Center-West Ecoregion David Brynn, Vermont Family Forests Foundation Presenter: David Brynn, Vermont Family Forests Found FEMC 2025 Abstract Thirty Years of Organic Family Forestry in Vermont's Center-West Ecoregion Vermont Family Forests was established as a 501c3 non-profit forest conservation organization in 1995 as an alternative to industrial forestry. Forty landowners in Chittenden and Addison Counties attended an initial meeting at the Old Bristol High School. The VFF Optimal Conservation Practice (OCP) checklist in its original form was presented. It was informed by the intention to seek FSC certification. The OCPs have been updated and revised but still focus on maintaining and enhancing forest ecosystem health as inspired by Aldo Leopold: "Health is the capacity of the land for self-renewal!" Rewilding practices to protect our ecological commons were given top priority. These include water quality, wildlife species richness, atmospheric carbon sequestration and storage, and forest ecosystem resilience in the face of a rapidly changing climate and culture. The brief talk will explore VFF's approach to sustainable forestry, which seeks to be ecologically feasible, economically viable, and socially responsible. Practices such as uneven-aged management by area regulation, access roads as 'lines of grace', log forwarding, 'lump sum plus' logging contracts, local value adding, and creating a 'portfolio of what the forest is willing to yield'. VFF Projects such as the McCardell Bicentennial Hall at Middlebury College, the Green Mountain Club's headquarters, UVM's Rubenstein School renovation, and more will be featured. | |||||
Fungi of Vermont Bethany Beech, VT Mycological Society/ Fungal SAG Presenter: Savannah Ferreira, Jess Rubin , State of Vermont The kingdom Fungi contains an estimated 2.2- 3.8 million species worldwide and is one of the most widely distributed organisms on Earth (Hawksworth and Lucking, 2017). Fungi can live in soil or water and often form a spectrum of symbiotic relationships with other organisms, including animals, protists, bacteria, plants, algae, and even other fungi. Despite their cosmopolitan range and broad habitat, only approximately 144,000 species of Fungi have been described worldwide with only 1,165 macrofungi species being observed and reported in Vermont as of 2023 (Willis 2018, VT Atlas of Life). Thus, their diversity remains largely unknown, especially in rare and threatened natural community types. A Fungal Scientific Advisory Group (Fungal SAG) was established in 2023 to elevate the importance of fungi and perform the necessary tasks of documenting their diversity, rarity, sensitivity to current and further development in Vermont, their contribution to forest ecosystems in the Northeast, and their crucial role in natural communities. Fungal SAG received funds from FEMC for the creation of the Vermont Fungi Atlas, an online and publicly available database that will allow the Fungal SAG group to analyze historical trends, create a baseline data set from which to track future trends, and explore landscape patterns of fungi in Vermont and subsequently surrounding states. This database compiled disparate datasets from over 37,000 records and provided a baseline of 3,826 species of fungi in Vermont. In addition, this database will continue to serve as a backbone for data storage and comparison for future fungal forays in rare, threatened, and endangered natural communities in Vermont. | |||||
Parallel tracks of 20-minute presentations contributed by cooperators on various forest ecosystem research, monitoring, and outreach activities.
| Time | Northeastern State Research Cooperative (NSRC) Room: Jost Foundation | Forest Ecology Room: Williams | Pests/Pathogens Part 1 Room: Chittenden Bank | Northern Forest Center Room: Sugar Maple | Wildlife Room: Silver Maple |
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| 1:05 to 1:25 | Comprehensive Utilization of Forest Residue Biomass for Fermentative Bioproducts and Solid Biofuels Ankita Juneja + ABSTRACT | Where the Wildlands Aren't: Expanding Ecological Representation in the Northeast Liz Thompson + ABSTRACT | Terrestrial eDNA surveys for forest and plant pest detection: a trial using spotted lanternfly as a test species in Rhode Island Alana Russell + ABSTRACT | Help Develop a Messaging Guide for Communicating Forest Stewardship (1.5 hour working session) Kendra Collins + ABSTRACT | AMMonitor: A case study in automated detection for invasive Cuban Treefrog with a two-stage machine learning approach Kaitlin Huber + ABSTRACT |
Comprehensive Utilization of Forest Residue Biomass for Fermentative Bioproducts and Solid Biofuels Ankita Juneja, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry Presenter: Ankita Juneja, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry Forest residue biomass (FRB), an abundant yet underutilized lignocellulosic resource, holds significant potential for the sustainable production of bioplastics and biofuels. This study investigates the comprehensive utilization of FRB through a dual approach: valorization of the carbohydrate fraction for fermentative bioproducts and hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) of the lignin-rich fraction for solid biofuels. Residues from Cherry, Ash, and Maple were characterized individually and as a 1:1:1 mixture to evaluate their suitability for bioproduct generation. Distinct bioconversion efficiencies among hardwood species affected overall sugar yields, while the mixed-species feedstock showed promising conversion performance, suggesting improved flexibility for industrial utilization. Varying the mixing composition demonstrated the potential to maximize sugar yields by leveraging the strengths of each species, thereby supporting the development of more robust and adaptable biorefineries aligned with circular bioeconomy principles. The lignin-rich fraction was valorized through HTC, performed on loblolly roundwood residue (LRR) as a representative feedstock. Experiments conducted at 180-280 ?C with a fixed reaction time of one hour revealed that hydrochar yield decreased by 26.26% with increasing temperature, accompanied by marked improvements in fuel quality. The maximum higher heating value at 280 ?C was 1.75 times greater than that of raw LRR, confirming the suitability of the hydrochar as a green solid fuel. The Van Krevelen plot further showed progressive enrichment of carbon and reduction of oxygen, aligning the hydrochar properties with those of conventional coals. Characterization demonstrated that the specific surface area peaked at 2.66 m2/g at 200 ?C before declining at higher temperatures, suggesting trade-offs between fuel densification and surface functionality. This integrated approach highlights the feasibility of complete FRB utilization for advancing resource-efficient biorefineries, enhancing feedstock flexibility, and promoting sustainable strategies for valorization of FRB. | |||||
Where the Wildlands Aren't: Expanding Ecological Representation in the Northeast Brian Hall, Wildlands, Woodlands, Farmlands & Communities Presenter: Liz Thompson, Wildlands, Woodlands, Farmlands & Communities Wildlands--self-willed lands--are places where natural ecological processes prevail. Wildlands were the dominant land cover in the Northeast prior to European settlement. Today, around 6% of the northeast (NY and New England) is currently conserved as Wildland. But where exactly are those wildlands located, and what do they protect? We assessed the distribution of Wildlands across the Northeast, and the natural communities that are represented in Wildlands. While the mountains and high-elevation natural communities are relatively well-represented in Wildlands, most ecoregions of the northeast essentially have no Wildlands, and many widespread natural community types are very poorly represented in Wildlands. We propose that Wildlands should be distributed across all ecoregions of the northeast, and should represent all the natural communities of the region. To assist in future conservation, we present a draft web map tool that identifies ecoregions and natural communities that are poorly represented in Wildlands. | |||||
Terrestrial eDNA surveys for forest and plant pest detection: a trial using spotted lanternfly as a test species in Rhode Island Alana Russell, Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management Presenter: Alana Russell, Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management Terrestrial environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling is an emerging survey technique that has enhanced the detection and monitoring of cryptic or emerging pest species, especially in areas where there are barriers to conventional sampling. These surveys involve the collection of minute traces of DNA left behind by target species (such as insect molts, frass, or honeydew) on bark or foliage, and performing highly sensitive lab assays to confirm presence/absence of eDNA. In the fall of 2023 and 2024, the Rhode Island Forest Health Program conducted a state-wide eDNA survey for the invasive plant pest spotted lanternfly (SLF). Objectives were two part: (1) to assist the RI Division of Agriculture with SLF detection and (2) use SLF as a test species to advance program and partner skills for future eDNA surveys of forest health threats. We will discuss the results of the two-year SLF eDNA survey, including strengths and weaknesses of using eDNA sampling in detection of a fast-spreading plant pest. We will also discuss the potential for using terrestrial eDNA surveys for other forest pest detection efforts and summarize current research efforts and protocol development for other target species. | |||||
Help Develop a Messaging Guide for Communicating Forest Stewardship (1.5 hour working session) Presenter: Kendra Collins, Northern Forest Center Communicating about forest stewardship and the many values of responsible forest management is a common challenge across the region. A generally disconnected public combined with increased interest in the role forests can play in mitigating climate change has added an additional layer to communicating about a complex subject. The Northern Forest Center has been working to identify key messages about forests and forest management to be potentially shared across a range of platforms and used by many. Using these key messages, we have developed a messaging guide that brings this information forward in several formats for a wide range of uses. | |||||
AMMonitor: A case study in automated detection for invasive Cuban Treefrog with a two-stage machine learning approach Kaitlin Huber, Vermont Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit Presenter: Kaitlin Huber, Vermont Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit The AMMonitor package is a data storage and analysis ecosystem that can be utilized to improve automated detection and adaptive management of target species. In a case study of AMMonitor, we illustrate one method of automated detection for the Cuban treefrog, an invasive species in the southern United States of particular management interest. We used a two-stage approach for detecting these treefrogs. In the first stage, audio data is screened for initial detections using template matching, in which the detections contain both true and false positives. In the second stage, false positives are filtered out using machine learning classifier algorithms. We used this method to process 139,985 audio recordings collected at 13 locations in Louisiana and Florida from 2014-2022. From the stage 1 template matching, we detected 83,191 Cuban treefrog signals across recordings. The stage 2 machine learning model was able to identify stage 1 false positive detections with a testing accuracy of 98.46% and a testing false positive rate of 1.116%. After pruning false positive detections, a total of 20,271 individual Cuban treefrog detections remained, distributed mainly across 3 sites in an area with known presence. Incorporated into ongoing acoustic monitoring programs, our automated detection approach may help expedite removals and slow the dispersal and establishment of this species into new areas. Additionally, we provide a short introduction to the upcoming AMSDM R package, which includes a collection of tools for both "structured decision-making" and "species distribution modeling" in wildlife management within the AMMonitor system. | |||||
| 1:30 to 1:50 | Sustaining basketmaking in Waponahkik through increased accessibility, processing, and storage opportunities John Daigle + ABSTRACT | Caterpillar abundance in a northern hardwood forest: exogenous effects, endogenous feedbacks, and multidecadal trends Miranda Zammarelli + ABSTRACT | A resurgence of red pine scale in New York Amanda Dillon + ABSTRACT | Acoustic Monitoring Informs Ruffed Grouse Habitat Management in Northeastern Forests Kayley Dillon + ABSTRACT | |
Sustaining basketmaking in Waponahkik through increased accessibility, processing, and storage opportunities Darren Ranco, Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Wabanaki Center University of Maine Presenter: John Daigle, Ash Protection Collaborative Across Waponahkik (APCAW) at the University of Maine With the onset of EAB in forests where Wabanaki basketmakers harvest, our project goal is to advance basketmaker stewardship of remaining healthy ash and develop technologies that support the processing and storage of ash splints before widespread mortality. Ultimately, this will sustain the material supply for Wabanaki basketry. Woven into each component of this project are experimental learning and involvement opportunities for youth in the Wabanaki Youth in Science (WaYS) program at sites of cultural access, demonstrations of harvesting technologies, and planning workshops for long-term ash storage. This project takes a community-driven approach that prioritizes participation of Wabanaki ash harvesters. We will partner with Tribal Nations, nonprofits, and an intertribal data trust to further Indigenous-led adaptation responses to EAB. Wabanaki ash harvesters identified three bottlenecks in their basketmaking processes, which will be addressed through the methods below: 1. Access: Gather Wabanaki ash harvesters on funded trips to locations in the Northeast forest region with healthy brown ash, where landowners permit Wabanaki harvesting. After these trips, hold semi-structured discussions with participants to understand their preferences for accessing sites and data sovereignty. 2. Processing: Travel with Maine-based Wabanaki ash pounders to other Northeastern Indigenous communities to learn from other mobile pounding machine models. Hold demonstrations of a local mobile pounder machine, before holding a workshop with Wabanaki harvesters to plan its governance. 3. Storage: Host public community sessions with Tribal Nations beyond Maine to discuss ash storage efforts. Bring together interested individuals and Tribal Natural Resource staff to workshop a Maine Wabanaki community ash storage center. Each of these project methodologies will strengthen Wabanaki people's connection to ash by providing access to brown ash stands, technologies for processing brown ash, and direct material supply, thereby supporting intergenerational cultural knowledge transfer. | |||||
Caterpillar abundance in a northern hardwood forest: exogenous effects, endogenous feedbacks, and multidecadal trends Matthew Ayres, Dartmouth College Presenter: Miranda Zammarelli, Dartmouth College In many ecosystems, caterpillars (Lepidoptera larvae) are the dominant primary consumers and serve as conduits for energy flow to other invertebrates, birds, bats, and other higher order consumers. As such, fluctuations in caterpillar abundance can influence ecosystem processes such as energy flow and material cycling. We measured caterpillar abundance in a north-temperate hardwood forest for 50 years. Caterpillars varied by > 20-fold among years. The fluctuations involved concordant dynamics of different Lepidoptera clades. There was density-dependence in aggregate abundance with a noisy equilibrium that declined from about 50 to 20 caterpillars / 8000 leaves from 1970 to 2021. We tested mechanisms for determination of caterpillar abundance that included weather, host plant quality, and predator abundance. We found no relations between caterpillar abundance and thermal sum, minimum winter air temperature, date of leaf-out, temperature during leaf expansion, or foliar nitrogen. Nor were there relations with abundance of birds or Hymenoptera. Precipitation was the only putative mechanism we found. High precipitation in water-year t-1 and in the summer of t-1 was associated with fewer caterpillars in year t. Furthermore, average annual precipitation increased from 1355 to 1568 mm between 1965 and 2023, so we hypothesize that precipitation favors fungal entomopathogens, which negatively affect caterpillars. Although poorly known and rarely studied, fungal entomopathogens might be rising or falling in importance in any ecosystem where precipitation is changing. Future studies need to evaluate the effect of fungal pathogens on caterpillar populations to understand the impact of changing caterpillar abundance on ecosystems. | |||||
A resurgence of red pine scale in New York Liam Somers, NYSDEC Presenter: Amanda Dillon, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation In August 2024, NYSDEC staff morphologically confirmed red pine scale infestations inside the Adirondack Park after conducting surveys of declining red pine on islands in Lake George and in a nearby red pine plantation. Red pine scale was first discovered on Long Island in 1950 after which it is believed to have quickly wiped out all red pine south of Westchester County. It continued to expand its range northward up the Hudson valley with the next most recent report from Dutchess County in 1985. After that, reports are silent either because of difficultly in survey and identification or cold winter temperatures precluding further northward expansion. In 2025, NYSDEC staff conducted surveys of red pine stands from a radius centered on the 2024 detections to determine the extent and severity of red pine scale across the northern part of the state. At each site we collected samples for microscopic examination and morphological confirmation of red pine scale. We also characterized red pine health at randomly located plots recording live crown ratio, crown transparency, and severity of dieback via a flagging score. To date, it looks like this most recent infestation may be limited to the immediate vicinity around the 2024 detection, sites to the north and west are, so far, clear of red pine scale infestations. Preliminary results suggest that in the presence of red pine scale, red pine health is worse in plantations than in natural-occurring red pine stands. As single-species, even-aged plantations have matured, they've become increasingly stressed from competition, poor site conditions, and climate extremes like drought and heat. The stress weakens the trees' defenses and allows opportunistic pests, like red pine scale, to successfully attack. We have also identified other insects taking advantage of weakened red pines including pine gall weevil, red pine cone beetle, and red pine adelgid. Further complicating this study is the fact that genetic testing of specimens collected in 2024 confirmed the insect was not the same species as the red pine scale introduced from Japan. It is unknown if this species has diverged genetically over the past 80 years from feeding on a novel host or if this is an entirely different insect altogether. Collaboration this summer with the Canadian Forest Service in trapping individuals for a population genetics study will hopefully elucidate what exactly we are dealing with and how best to manage it on the landscape. | |||||
Acoustic Monitoring Informs Ruffed Grouse Habitat Management in Northeastern Forests Katherina Gieder, Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife, Rutland, VT, USA Presenter: Kayley Dillon, Vermont Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA Ruffed Grouse are a charismatic bird species that thrives in early successional forests in the northeast. As young forests have become increasingly scarce in the region, grouse populations have declined, fueling interest in forest management efforts to create suitable habitat for early successional species. We used passive acoustic monitoring and machine learning to document Ruffed Grouse distribution patterns, analyze their habitat associations, and inform future forest management efforts. Over the past 3 years, we monitored 62 sites in Green Mountain National Forest (GMNF) and collected over 15,000 hours of audio recordings. We identified both drumming males and vocalizations made by other grouse such as females and nonbreeding individuals. In this talk, we present preliminary results from multi-season, multi-state occupancy models to better understand the effects of forest structure and composition on grouse distribution and inform habitat management efforts in GMNF. | |||||
| 1:55 to 2:15 | Evaluating the utility of static stand structure-derived estimates of forest demographic change in the wake of nonnative insect pests and disease Jeff Garnas + ABSTRACT | Protecting birds in protected areas: a multi-scale analysis of forest structure on avian occurrence Bruna Amaral + ABSTRACT | The New Kid on the Block: Laurel Wilt in New York State Kelsey McLaughlin + ABSTRACT | DeepFaune New England: Building a regional trail camera species classifier Laurence A. Clarfeld + ABSTRACT | |
Evaluating the utility of static stand structure-derived estimates of forest demographic change in the wake of nonnative insect pests and disease Carlisle Bascom Jr., University of New Hampshire/Virginia Tech Presenter: Jeff Garnas, University of New Hampshire Nonnative insect pests and diseases (NNPDs) have reshaped forest ecosystems across northeastern North America and globally, yet the long-term impacts of these sustained biotic disturbances on forest structure and composition remain poorly understood. We applied de Liocourt's Law, a log-linear, forest-scale model of the tree size-density relationship, to assess how six major NNPDs have altered host tree demography across the eastern U.S. Using Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data and historical invasion records at that county or multi-county scale, we calculated baseline relative mortality (BRM) and estimated sapling abundance (ESA) for host species across gradients of invasion duration. Among the six NNPD-host systems studied, only American beech (Fagus grandifolia) exhibited a sustained demographic shift in response to beech bark disease (BBD), with a 38-fold increase in ESA and roughly a doubling of BRM across the invasion gradient. This pattern reflects the strong mortality-recruitment feedbacks characteristic of the beech-BBD pathosystem. In contrast, other systems--including hemlock-hemlock woolly adelgid, ash-emerald ash borer, and oak-spongy moth interactions--showed minimal or inconsistent changes in host tree BRM and ESA, despite clear evidence of elevated empirical mortality (EM) in some cases. Butternut and American chestnut densities were insufficient to effectively estimate de Liocourt-derived demographic rates. ESA was positively correlated with empirical sapling density (ESD) across systems (r = 0.81; P < 0.0001) suggesting that de Liocourt-derived metrics can serve as useful proxies for recruitment potential. However, BRM and EM were generally uncorrelated, highlighting the complexity of interpreting structural change from static size distributions. Our findings demonstrate that NNPDs do not uniformly disrupt forest structural equilibria, even for highly impacted host species, and that recruitment dynamics--in addition to mortality alone--are critical to understanding long-term forest trajectories. This work highlights a plausible framework for assessing forest resilience and demographic change in response to biotic disturbance. | |||||
Protecting birds in protected areas: a multi-scale analysis of forest structure on avian occurrence Bruna Amaral, Michigan State University Presenter: Bruna Amaral, Michigan State University Protected areas are critical for conserving biodiversity, but their effectiveness may depend on conditions beyond their boundaries. In the Northeastern US, 40% of the land is forested across protected, private, and public ownerships, yet several National Parks in the region have experienced avian declines. Understanding how habitat structure across spatial scales influences bird occurrence is key to evaluating the role of protected areas in long-term conservation. We used bird point counts and forest structure data from eight National Parks to assess how tree density, basal area, conifer cover, late-successional forest, and shrub cover influence the occurrence of 16 forest-interior bird species. Using a multi-park, multi-scale removal-sampling model, we tested how these forest structure effects at the local, park, and county levels affect bird occurrence. Forest structure within parks was more frequently selected than regional-scale covariates (23 vs. 10 times), underscoring the strong influence of habitat inside protected areas. Local-scale factors had the greatest support, affecting 13 species, while county-scale variables influenced 12, showing that surrounding landscapes also shape occurrence. Tree basal area was the most influential variable (nine species). Late-successional basal area was generally positive, except for black-throated blue warblers, reflecting their use of intermediate-age and early-successional habitats. Shrub cover supported several species, while high tree density favored red-eyed vireos and black-throated green warblers. Although park size affected relatively few species, larger parks benefited ground-foraging birds and bark-nesters. Our findings highlight that even relatively small protected areas (28 - 1,156 ha) provide essential breeding habitat for forest-dependent birds. However, species' presence was often affected by broader landscape conditions, underscoring the need to integrate landscape context into conservation strategies. These insights can help managers identify species most vulnerable to land-use change and design management actions that support the persistence of forest bird communities. | |||||
The New Kid on the Block: Laurel Wilt in New York State Kelsey McLaughlin, NYS DEC Presenter: Kelsey McLaughlin, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation The New York State Departments of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Agriculture and Markets, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County, and the Cornell University Plant Disease Diagnostic Clinic confirmed the presence of laurel wilt on Long Island in September 2025. The invasive ambrosia beetle that vectors the disease, the redbay ambrosia beetle, was also discovered in the diseased area. This represents a jump of over 580 miles and is the first record of the pathogen infecting trees in the northeast. DEC has responded by surveying over 3,000 host plants (sassafras and spicebush) throughout New York State. This presentation will cover the history of the initial detection, what we've learned since through surveys, the biology of the pathogen and its vector, and survey tips and tricks to help other states be on the lookout for this pathogen. | |||||
DeepFaune New England: Building a regional trail camera species classifier Katherina D. Gieder, Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife, Rutland, VT, USA Presenter: Laurence A. Clarfeld, Vermont Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA Trail cameras allow for the rapid collection of troves of images that traditionally require manual annotation to identify animals. This manual labeling can be labor intensive, requiring substantial resources and potentially delaying analysis and management/conservation actions. Recent advances in image classification have allowed machine learning models to achieve high (>90%) performance in identifying species from trail camera imagery. Here, we describe the process of training DeepFaune New England, a model for classifying 24 taxa (including the "no-species" label to indicate the absence of animals) from the northeastern United States. The model achieved 97% accuracy when tested on out-of-sample images. We describe the formation of a training dataset, model training via transfer learning, evaluation of model performance, and areas for future development. | |||||
| 2:20 to 2:40 | Tree Rings and Mud: An (ongoing) Collaborative Reconstruction of Historical fire regimes in Northern New Hampshire Simon Pendleton + ABSTRACT | Tracking spring wildflower temporal niche across the microclimatic gradients of northeastern temperate deciduous forests Morgan Southgate + ABSTRACT | Jumping worm monitoring at FEMC forest health monitoring plots Ben Porter + ABSTRACT | Analyzing habitat factors consistent with river otter (Lontra canadensis) abundance in the Lewis Creek watershed Lydia Emry + ABSTRACT | |
Tree Rings and Mud: An (ongoing) Collaborative Reconstruction of Historical fire regimes in Northern New Hampshire Lisa Doner, Plymouth State University Presenter: Simon Pendleton, Plymouth State University The presence and use of fire in northern forests is an increasingly important topic in light of ongoing climate, land use, and population changes. While the displacement of Indigenous populations, a gradually wetter and more humid climate, and the implementation of fire suppression have dramatically decreased the frequency and severity of wildfires in New England over the last century, it has also, in part, driven changes in forest composition, health, and fire risk. In particular, fire adapted ecosystems have shrunk and become fragmented. Recently, land managers have begun to embrace the need for restoration of fire adapted forest types and have begun to integrate prescribed fire into management plans but lack direct actionable data on past fire regimes. To fill this need, we assembled a broad collaborative group that includes paleoecologists, managers, and Indigenous partners engaged in reconstructing past fires in the Saco and Swift River basins of northern New Hampshire. Tree-ring records from fire-adapted red pine stands, along with charcoal and pollen analyses from nearby lake and bog sediments are being used to build comprehensive regional records of fire from modern to pre-colonial times. Preliminary lake sediment charcoal analyses reveal copious but variable charcoal concentrations following deglaciation through ~7.5 ka, followed by lower but more consistent charcoal concentrations. Over a dozen tree-ring fire scar sites, most extending into the 1700s or earlier, from the study area reveal patterns of recurrent, low to moderate severity fire on 10-20-year intervals. In some areas, scarred trees document extensive, landscape-scale fires through the 18th and 19th centuries, ending after 1909 when the state passed its first forest protection laws. Already in this nascent endeavor we are finding unequivocal evidence that contradicts the northern forests as purely "asbestos" and, moreover, that there is value in preserving and using fire to maintain relic red pine communities that have experienced fire for thousands of years until the recent century. | |||||
Tracking spring wildflower temporal niche across the microclimatic gradients of northeastern temperate deciduous forests Morgan Southgate PhD, Research Team, Appalachian Mountain Club Presenter: Morgan Southgate, Research Team, Appalachian Mountain Club In the temperate deciduous forests of eastern North America, spring-active wildflowers are vulnerable to climate change based on their strategy for seasonal light acquisition. This diverse group of plants is characterized by their temporal niche, emerging after snowmelt but before canopy leaf-out to assimilate a significant portion of their yearly carbon budget. This shade-avoidance strategy, known as phenological escape, is particularly important for the spring ephemerals, which rely entirely on the spring light window for their yearly growth. As canopy trees leaf out earlier with warmer spring temperatures, is wildflower phenology keeping pace with this shift? This study is the first year of a long-term monitoring effort aimed at tracking the temporal niche and seasonal growth dynamics of a diverse set of spring wildflowers at fine spatial scales. In the spring of 2025, we established 32 plots across Mt. Equinox (in southern Vermont) and Mt. Moosilauke (in central New Hampshire). We determined plot location by stratifying across gradients of topography and elevation: specifically, we 1) identified warm and cool aspect slopes, 2) separated each slope into increments spanning 200 ft of elevation gain, and 3) identified exposed and sheltered microsites within each slope aspect and elevational band combination. We resampled all plots nine times, following National Phenology Network protocols to generate more than 7000 phenological observations of 110 species of understory plants. We measured physiological parameters for a subset of spring wildflower taxa using a LI-COR LI-600, estimated percent canopy cover with a spherical densiometer, and measured photosynthetically active radiation using a MQ-500 quantum light meter. We stationed a TOMST TMS-4 datalogger at each plot, generating measurements of soil moisture, soil temperature, and air temperature at sub-daily temporal scales. We used a Bayesian generalized additive mixed modeling framework to assess temporal variation in spring wildflower phenological and physiological traits, with functional group, light availability, and microclimate as population-level effects. Preliminary results demonstrate significant differences in physiology by functional group, with proxies for photosynthetic rate highest for the spring ephemerals, indicating an aggressive growth strategy to compensate for their short growing season. Microclimate varied significantly along gradients of elevation and topography; adjacent sheltered and exposed microsites exhibited strong differences in soil moisture and subtle differences in soil and air temperature. We will leverage results to assess the possibility of identifying microrefugia for spring wildflower biodiversity - microclimates where the extremes of macroclimatic warming are buffered, potentially providing vulnerable taxa with more time for adaptation and migration and helping to prioritize conservation efforts. | |||||
Jumping worm monitoring at FEMC forest health monitoring plots Ben Porter, FEMC Presenter: Ben Porter, Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative Jumping worms (Amynthas spp.) are an emerging invasive threat to northeastern forests, altering soil structure, nutrient cycling, and forest regeneration. Distribution of these invasive worms in the forested landscape is somewhat unknown in our region. To address knowledge gaps in their prevalence and distribution in northeastern forests, the Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative (FEMC) has integrated jumping worm surveys into its existing regional forest health monitoring protocol. This addition leverages FEMC's established network of 196 long-term monitoring plots located across forests in New England and New York to collect data on jumping worm presence/absence and habitat conditions. Preliminary findings provide insight into the spatial extent of infestations across the northern forests. | |||||
Analyzing habitat factors consistent with river otter (Lontra canadensis) abundance in the Lewis Creek watershed Lydia Emry, University of Vermont Presenter: Lydia Emry, University of Vermont Human encroachment, development, and land-use change degrade the quality and functionality of floodplains throughout North America. River otters are often considered to be an indicator species of the health of freshwater and floodplain ecosystems, and a keystone species due to their effects on other species and ecosystem function. In Vermont, river otters are widespread, but are sensitive to environmental change such as habitat alteration, conversion, and loss. Habitat associations in the state are poorly understood and important for better understanding the species’ ecology and responses to environmental change. We collected otter detection/nondetection data using camera traps at 49 sites located every 1.5-kilometers along a stream network in the Lewis Creek Watershed from May, 2024, to December, 2024. We predicted that river otter presence would be associated with conifer forests, silty soils, and incised banks, which provide sources of prey and shelter. Logistic regression and a model selection approach were used to determine the factors that had the greatest impact on river otter presence. The top model indicated that bank vegetation protection (+), the presence of agriculture (+), and medium intensity developed lands were the best predictors of river otter presence (+). It is possible that the increased implementation of riparian buffers and best management practices in Vermont’s agricultural areas may result in an increase in vegetative protection around the entrance of river otter dens, reduce nutrient inputs that may hinder their abundance of prey, and improve the connectivity between aquatic and terrestrial habitats more efficiently than our original predictions. | |||||
Parallel tracks of 20-minute presentations contributed by cooperators on various forest ecosystem research, monitoring, and outreach activities.
| Time | Avian Acoustics Room: Silver Maple | Highlights from long-term research and monitoring on watersheds of Mt. Mansfield Room: Williams | Pests and Pathogens 2 Room: Chittenden Bank | Forests & community Room: Sugar Maple | Fire in Northeastern Ecosystems Room: Jost Foundation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3:00 to 3:20 | Utility of passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) to assess long-term patterns of songbird community composition within northeastern forests Aaron Weed + ABSTRACT | Warmer winters drive snowpack declines and runoff increases in a headwater region of the northeastern United States Kate Hale + ABSTRACT | 2025 Maine Spruce Budworm Update Allison Kanoti + ABSTRACT | A citizen science early-detection system: Managing forests in Maine with help from iNaturalist and eBird users Kyle Lima + ABSTRACT | A Post-Smoke Critique: "Asbestos Forest" Management Paradigms in the Northeastern USA Dr. Andrew L. Vander Yacht + ABSTRACT |
Utility of passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) to assess long-term patterns of songbird community composition within northeastern forests Pooja Panwar, Biological Sciences Department, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH Presenter: Aaron Weed, Inventory and Monitoring, National Park Service Forests provide critical breeding habitat for a large diversity of resident and migratory birds, whose community structure is closely linked to forest age and composition. Given the variety of stressors affecting northeastern forests and projected patterns of its composition into the future, long-term monitoring is critical to understand bird population and community responses so that conservation and management actions can appropriately integrate compositional and cross-scale effects of future disturbances on bird communities. In this study, we evaluated the use of passive acoustic monitoring for its ability to improve long-term songbird monitoring of forests with unique historical management histories. Acoustic recording units (ARUs) were placed at 104 sites distributed across 3 national park units (ME, VT) and one experimental forest (NH) to evaluate the performance of PAM. We assessed performance by comparing species richness estimates of songbirds generated by (a) traditional 10-minute point counts, (b) processing many sound files with BirdNET (a machine learning algorithm), and (c) manually listening to a subset of the sound files by expert birders. Our results suggest that PAM coupled with birdNET is an incredibly powerful approach for monitoring songbirds to better understand seasonal patterns of habitat use and provide robust estimates of species richness in northeastern forests. We found that analyzing sound files collected across an entire breeding season with BirdNET greatly enhanced species richness estimates compared to the other methods. However, BirdNET performed poorly at identifying a few species, especially those with low-frequency vocalizations. The results of this work encourage the continued use and integration of PAM into songbird monitoring programs to better understand how forest dynamics affect songbird diversity. | |||||
Warmer winters drive snowpack declines and runoff increases in a headwater region of the northeastern United States Andrew Schroth Schroth, Department of Geography and Geosciences, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, USA Presenter: Kate Hale, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada In montane, snow-affected regions of the United States, a warming climate threatens the timing and amount of future water delivery. It is expected that winter precipitation falling as snow will continue decreasing and the frequency of winter snowmelt events will continue increasing, with unknown impacts on partitioning of water between evapotranspiration and runoff, water quality, flooding, and drought. The northeastern United States represents a humid climate with relatively uniform precipitation seasonality and a transient snowpack. Limited research about changing winter conditions and water availability has been conducted in the region, in part due to scarce observations. Leveraging decades of continuous meteorological, hydrological, and snowpack monitoring in the Mount Mansfield region of Vermont, we relate long-term snowpack characteristics to seasonal and annual runoff within the headwater Ranch Brook watershed (9.6 km2). In the last 57 years, average winter temperatures have increased by 2.6 oC, snow season length has decreased by nearly three weeks, average seasonal snow water equivalent has decreased by 13%, and winter season rain-on-snow (ROS) event frequency has increased from 1 to 3.5 per year. In response, average winter season runoff has increased, which strongly related to increased annual runoff ratios (R2 = 0.70). To evaluate a potential physical mechanism driving such relationship, we separated the 22-year runoff record into water years with more and less winter season runoff. We determined that years with more winter runoff corresponded to increased winter temperatures, , 15% smaller snowpack, two times more ROS events, increased water partitioning to runoff in winter months, 31% larger annual runoff ratio, and increased summer rainfall variance. A steady decline in the regional snowpack and related impacts on downstream water resources may have implications for ecosystems and agricultural, industrial, and domestic water supply. | |||||
2025 Maine Spruce Budworm Update Allison Kanoti, Maine Forest Service Presenter: Allison Kanoti, Maine Forest Service Coming Soon | |||||
A citizen science early-detection system: Managing forests in Maine with help from iNaturalist and eBird users Kyle Lima, Schoodic Institute Presenter: Kyle Lima, Schoodic Institute Climate change, development, and invasive species are rapidly changing forested ecosystems in the seven-state FEMC region and beyond. Detecting these changes early is critical to implementing cost-effective management and effectively limiting the impact of disturbances. However, many forest disturbances go undetected for too long because current monitoring protocols are labor intensive, focus on small monitoring plots which often miss invasive species, and often require specialized skillsets. This often results in larger, more sustained, and costly management strategies to prevent spread and further impacts. An early-detection system that can be applied over large spatial scales is needed to help protect forests and improve management of invasive species. We've attempted to fill this monitoring gap by engaging and inspiring the large, and rapidly growing, number of citizen scientists already interacting with protected areas. In partnership with Maine Coast Heritage Trust (MCHT) who manages over 170,000 acres of land in over 150 preserves in coastal Maine, we have developed an automated early-detection system that communicates observations of species of management priority to stewards that are reported in or near the 150+ preserves. We supplemented the general influx of citizen science data submitted to major citizen science platforms with organized bioblitzes at MCHT properties that also serve to train and encourage a dedicated base of volunteer monitors. This early-detection system is fully automated thus requiring no maintenance from managers or stewards, and is transferable to any protected area or at any scale. | |||||
A Post-Smoke Critique: "Asbestos Forest" Management Paradigms in the Northeastern USA Andrew Vander Yacht, SUNY ESF Presenter: Dr. Andrew L. Vander Yacht, SUNY ESF In the summer of 2023, unprecedented amounts of smoke from Canadian wildfires descended upon the northeastern United States. As a result, millions of people in this fire-infrequent region were exposed to extremely hazardous air quality and grew more aware of wildland fire issues they had previously been largely insulated from. Before this event fades from memory, and before forecasted increases in fire activity reach the region and others like it across the globe, an opportunity exists to broadly reconsider fire management within currently fire- infrequent regions. We review related science and conclude that climate-change driven increases in fire activity are predicted for many fire-infrequent regions where fire-sensitive structures and species compositions have been recently promoted by strong adherence to passive "asbestos forest" management paradigms (i.e., approaches over-minimizing fire's historical influence). Without intervention, shifts towards drought- and fire- sensitive trees will continue ahead of forecasted increases in fire activity - risking future degradation of regional forests and associated ecosystem services. However, prescribed fire and mechanical surrogates - and research refining effective application - could enhance fire resilience by restoring disturbance-dependent biodiversity. Unfortunately, positive feedback between asbestos paradigms and ecological change in the absence of fire continue to limit the use of such tools and related research. The 2023 smoke event in the northeastern U.S. provides an opportunity to galvanize global stakeholder support for researching and applying disturbance-integrated land management. These perspectives will be key to enhancing forest resiliency across similar regions where fire activity is currently rare but predicted to increase in the future. | |||||
| 3:25 to 3:45 | Evaluating machine learning's potential for assessing forest-dependent and migratory bird species presence in the Colombian Amazon Charles Arthur Tebbutt + ABSTRACT | The Summit-to-Shore Snow Monitoring Network in Vermont Arne Bomblies + ABSTRACT | Beech Leaf Disease Monitoring and Mitigation via Silvicultural Treatments Kelsey McLaughlin + ABSTRACT | Forests Are Part of our Story: Enhancing Forest Resilience throughout Northeastern National Parks Rachel Swanwick + ABSTRACT | Restoring Ecosystem Health with Fire in a Rare Inland Pine barrens. Neil A. Gifford + ABSTRACT |
Evaluating machine learning's potential for assessing forest-dependent and migratory bird species presence in the Colombian Amazon Charles Tebbutt, Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States of America Presenter: Charles Arthur Tebbutt, Cornell University Passive acoustic monitoring offers growing potential for collecting large-scale, contemporaneous biodiversity data across landscapes. Combining these acoustic recording methods with automated species detection presents further opportunities for rapidly assessing biodiversity and ecosystem health. Such efforts rely on large amounts of acoustic training data, which is limited in less extensively surveyed regions of the world, such as the Colombian Amazon. To address this challenge, we collected four seasons of acoustic data from 63 forest and farmland sites in the Colombian Departments of Guaviare and Caqueta. Using BirdNET Analyzer, we validated detection confidence thresholds for over 150 bird species, including migratory songbirds from North America and forest-dependent residents, for both SwiftOne and Audiomoth recorder types. We then used additional data to train a BirdNET custom classifier on underperforming species and validated its results. We find that passive acoustic monitoring, combined with BirdNET's machine learning analysis of the data, successfully identifies nearly 30% of our chosen species for both recorder types. Improvement with a custom classifier can raise this figure to nearly 40%. The results can be used to evaluate meaningful differences between bird species community composition across different landscape units, with clear implications for applied forest conservation research in regions with limited training data and which constitute migratory birds' wintering grounds. | |||||
The Summit-to-Shore Snow Monitoring Network in Vermont Arne Bomblies, University of Vermont Presenter: Arne Bomblies, University of Vermont We present the Summit-to-Shore Environmental Observation Network, a network of 22 weather- and snow monitoring stations which is designed to monitor snowpack characteristics and meteorological variables at high temporal resolution. Stations are located along a transect that spans central Vermont from South Burlington to Danville, with a particularly high station density in Mount Mansfield's Ranch Brook watershed. Various elevations, slopes, aspects and forest cover types are monitored in order to capture drivers of snow variability. Ground-based observations are supplemented by UAS-based lidar snow depths, and resulting snow data are used as the basis for physics-based and machine learning approaches to snow modeling. Wet snow environments such as in Vermont are understudied, difficult to model, and in need of further research, for which the current and future data are valuable. Practical applications of monitoring include flood risk analysis from rain-on-snow events and climate change impacts on snowpack. | |||||
Beech Leaf Disease Monitoring and Mitigation via Silvicultural Treatments Kelsey McLaughlin, NYS DEC Presenter: Kelsey McLaughlin, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has been surveying for and researching beech leaf disease (BLD) since it was first found in New York in 2018. The DEC is researching how the disease progresses with the US Forest Service monitoring plot program, and has up to seven years of data at the oldest plots. Changes in leaf cover, symptom expression, and mortality over time will be discussed. While various chemical treatments for beech leaf disease are being studied, treatments for beech in the forest have largely been unaddressed. DEC, the US Forest Service, and SUNY-ESF are studying silvicultural treatments on 210 acres across New York State to look at the effects of canopy thinning and understory removal on BLD progression. While the project is still ongoing, the pretreatment data, project setup, and current year's data will be discussed. This presentation will provide attendees with an overview of ongoing statewide beech leaf disease research in New York. | |||||
Forests Are Part of our Story: Enhancing Forest Resilience throughout Northeastern National Parks Rachel Swanwick, Forest Stewards Guild Presenter: Rachel Swanwick, Forest Stewards Guild Forests are iconic to the National Park experience, including the cultural and historic sites predominant in the Northeast region of the National Park Service. These forests are threatened by a complex array of stressors (e.g., invasive plants, pests, pathogens, herbivory) that impact the landscape, cultural values, and park visitor experience. To address this growing challenge, the Resilient Forest Initiative (RFI) fosters partnership between the National Park Service, Forest Stewards Guild, and local businesses to conduct restoration that will enhance the ecological integrity and resilience of these forests. The RFI aims to contribute to ecosystem structure and function and fulfill social values now and into the future. Stewardship approaches include removing invasive plants, planting native trees, and protecting native regeneration and plantings from herbivory. Thus far, the RFI has been working across 20 National Parks, restored 642 acres, planted 5,300 trees, and employed 22 youth. The impacts of this initiative are expected to grow in the coming years and demonstrate the value of ensuring forests remain a central part of the National Park experience in the Northeast and beyond. | |||||
Restoring Ecosystem Health with Fire in a Rare Inland Pine barrens. Neil Gifford, Mr. Presenter: Neil A. Gifford, Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission Fire is the heartbeat of the pyrogenic ecosystems, but attempting to restore ecosystem dynamics and endangered wildlife habitat by simply applying what we know of post-colonial disturbance regimes can be logistically challenging and ecologically ineffective. This is especially true for those of us managing systems, like inland pitch pine-scrub oak barrens (PPSOB), for which there are not any fully "functional" reference communities left to guide our work. The Albany Pine Bush Preserve (APBP) contains one of the best remaining examples of an inland PPSOB and habitat for 114 rare (S1-S3) wildlife including >70 of NY State's 366 wildlife species of greatest conservation need and the federally endangered Karner blue (Plebejus samuelis). Since 1991 managers have employed strategies (mechanical, chemical, pyric) to restore fire's fundamental role in this landscape. Limited ecological success and extreme fire behavior presented significant early challenges and resulted in a paradigm shift in our understanding of PPSOB ecosystem dynamics. It also revealed important clues about restoration and maintenance fire regimes. Applying a dual front approach while simultaneously tracking rare wildlife populations has helped define and monitor ecosystem health. It has also resulted in increased distribution and abundance of rare wildlife - including the complete recovery of the local Karner population and the return of the eastern whip-poor-will- while dramatically reducing wildfire risk and improving Rx fire logistics in a congested and complicated wildland urban interface at the NYS Capital. | |||||
| 3:50 to 4:10 | Can we predict abundance from acoustic data? Vijay Ramesh + ABSTRACT | Determining Links Between LiDAR-Derived Canopy Metrics and Daily Changes in Snow Depth around Vermont, US Jacob LaDue + ABSTRACT | 15 Years of White Pine Needle Damage: What Have We Learned? Nicholas J. Brazee + ABSTRACT | Spotlight on Black Ash Communities in Vermont: Outreach, treatment, and seed collection on State Land Joanne Garton + ABSTRACT | Keeping the Pine in the Pine Barrens on Long Island Kathy L. Schwager + ABSTRACT |
Can we predict abundance from acoustic data? Vijay Ramesh, K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics, Cornell Lab of Ornithology Presenter: Vijay Ramesh, Cornell Lab of Ornithology Inferring species abundance is critical for biodiversity monitoring. Survey techniques such as systematic point counts and mist netting provide detailed estimates of species densities. However, such techniques can involve significant human effort over long periods of time to arrive at the numbers of individuals. In remote geographies where extensive human surveys are not possible, passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) has emerged as an important survey technique to detect species across space and time. However, acoustic information so far has largely informed species presence without informing how many individuals of a species occur at a survey location. Using synchronously collected data for 45 bird species using point-counts (PC) and autonomous recording units (ARU) across 104 locations in the Northeastern United States, we asked (1) can we predict species densities from acoustic data alone? and (2) are there functional traits that may explain predictive associations between PC and ARU data? At the community level, species that were seen more often were also heard more often, as estimated from ARU data and abundance from PC data. Species-specific regressions revealed a positive slope for less than half of the species examined. However, for only a few species (n=4/45), we identified a statistically significant predictive relationship between ARU and PC data (Adj-R2 > 0.4). Further, species functional traits did not explain the above relationship. Our study revealed that acoustic data cannot be solely relied on to estimate densities for certain species. We suggest follow-up approaches to determine whether it is possible to predict species with strong PC-ARU associations. | |||||
Determining Links Between LiDAR-Derived Canopy Metrics and Daily Changes in Snow Depth around Vermont, US Beverley Wemple, Department of Geography and Geosciences, University of Vermont Presenter: Jacob LaDue, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Vermont Snowpack dynamics are understudied in the Northeastern US and few studies have documented the role of vegetation on snowpack dynamics in this setting. In the Green Mountains of Vermont, mixed and deciduous forest canopy have undocumented effects on snow accumulation and ablation. This study addresses this gap by assessing the role of forest canopy attributes on snow accumulation and melt over three winter seasons from fall 2022 - spring 2025 . Airborne LiDAR scanning (ALS) and aerial imagery data were analyzed to compute a suite of forest canopy structure metrics around stations from the University of Vermont's Summit to Shore Environmental Observation Network which collects snow and meteorological observations along an elevational transect from the shores of Lake Champlain to the state's highest summit. These forest canopy structure metrics fall into five categories describing canopy: (1) density, (2) height, (3) arrangement, (4) openness and (5) variability. The Random Forest machine learning algorithm was leveraged for its utility in modeling complex, non-linear relationships between numerous features. Random forest models were trained on different combinations of temporal meteorological and static forest canopy metrics with the goal of predicting snow depth. Results show that forest canopy metrics lead to higher accuracy random forest models compared to those with solely meteorological features. Importance and SHAP values were examined to deduce specific mechanisms of the forest canopy metrics on snow accumulation and ablation. This work shows how machine learning can be applied to forest hydrology and provides new insights into the interactions of weather and forest canopies on snowpacks of the Northeastern US. | |||||
15 Years of White Pine Needle Damage: What Have We Learned? Nicholas Brazee, University of Massachusetts Presenter: Nicholas J. Brazee, University of Massachusetts Eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) has an outsized importance throughout New England as the region's most abundant conifer. For the past 15 years, white pine needle damage (WPND) has stressed and weakened white pines across natural and managed forests. This talk will briefly summarize what we have learned about this disease and how landowners and stewards can best manage WPND. Specific topics will include: (1) the native fungal needle blight pathogens responsible for the disease; (2) the role that climate change has in stimulating disease development; (3) how eastern white pines are responding and adapting to the chronic stress of premature needle loss; and (4) specific management strategies that can reduce disease severity. With no end in sight, forest managers must actively incorporate WPND mitigation into their management plans to maximize the health of white pines. | |||||
Spotlight on Black Ash Communities in Vermont: Outreach, treatment, and seed collection on State Land Joanne Garton, VT Forests, Parks & Recreation Presenter: Joanne Garton, VT Forests, Parks & Recreation The unique ecosystems that support black ash (Fraxinus nigra) trees are changing rapidly as emerald ash borer spreads throughout Vermont and the northeast. Facing functional extirpation from the landscape, black ash trees require specific care and management to preserve their legacy on the land in swamps and seepage forests. In human-centered communities, black ash trees are the root of connection to history, crafts, and culture through selected tree harvest, pounding events, and weaving with splints. Vermont Forests, Parks & Recreation and Vermont Fish & Wildlife are carefully selecting and monitoring black ash stands on state-owned land as part of a four-pronged forest health project involving: 1) mapping, identification, and outreach about black ash stands on public and some private lands, 2) selection of 14 black ash preservation patches on state-owned land for treatment with systemic insecticides, 3) monitoring for seed collection from female black ash trees, and 4) harvest of black ash for public black ash pounding workshops led by Abenaki basket makers and educators. By partnering with The Intervale Seed Collection Program, Northwoods Stewardship Center seed collection field crews, and by hosting a forestry student intern from the University of Vermont, VT FPR and F&W are staying connected to emerging research and methodology surrounding black ash stewardship and benefiting from on-the-ground observation and monitoring throughout diverse ecoregions statewide. The natural community types that benefit from this work include the Red-Maple Black Ash Seepage Swamp, Calcareous Red Maple-Tamarack Swamp (rare), Red Maple-Northern White Cedar Swamp (rare), and Maple-Green Ash Swamp (rare) among others. In 2025, FPR staff treated black ash trees at three locations in State Parks and Wildlife Management Areas. In 2026, treatment of up to 11 other sites will lay the groundwork for future regeneration of black ash, potential for seed saving, and potential for monitoring locations when trees are retreated every three to four years. Stay connected to opportunities on state-owned land to continue collaboration of black ash stewardship and research, and consider how your audiences can contribute to the ongoing learning and discussion. | |||||
Keeping the Pine in the Pine Barrens on Long Island Kathy Schwager, Brookhaven National Laboratory Presenter: Kathy L. Schwager, Brookhaven National Laboratory Atlantic coastal pine barrens are a globally rare, fire-dependent ecosystem that occurs in only three areas across the Atlantic Coastal Plain of the eastern US. The Long Island Central Pine Barrens (CPB) is one such example. These communities are known to be characterized by an open canopy of pitch pine (Pinus rigida) with an understory of scrub oak (Quercus ilicifolia), and a variety of heath species and grasses. A century of fire suppression, intensive development, and the complete absence of forest management has resulted in a destabilized and stressed system that is gradually succeeding into closed canopy mixed oak (Quercus spp.) forest. This is further facilitated by the arrival of southern pine beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis) that has killed millions of pitch pines throughout the CPB region. The need for active management through prescribed fire and mechanical treatments has never been more urgent. Implementing management on the scale necessary and balancing a variety of objectives that include fuels mitigation in addition to ecosystem restoration has proved challenging, particularly because we do not have a reference ecosystem to use as a benchmark. Monitoring of vegetation and wildlife--formally and informally, qualitatively and quantitatively--helps to inform and refine management strategies in the face of stressors brought upon by the introduction of invasive species and a changing climate. | |||||
| 4:15 to 4:35 | Evaluating Machine Learning Threshold Stability in Large-Scale Passive Acoustic Monitoring Sharon J Martinson + ABSTRACT | Insights from 25 Years of Biological Monitoring in the Ranch Brook and West Branch Little River Watersheds: A Comparative Study of Benthic Macroinvert Meaghan Hickey + ABSTRACT | Hemlock woolly adelgid biological control: Signs of hope for eastern forests Nicholas J. Dietschler + ABSTRACT | Advancing Workforce Development in Forestry through a Multi-Pronged Educational Approach Paulina Murray + ABSTRACT | Prescribed Fire and Resiliency in Southeastern Massachusetts: Managing for an Uncertain Future Alex Entrup + ABSTRACT |
Evaluating Machine Learning Threshold Stability in Large-Scale Passive Acoustic Monitoring Sharon Martinson, Cornell Lab of Ornithology Presenter: Sharon J Martinson, Cornell Lab of Ornithology Bioacoustics, the study of the natural world through sound, can be a powerful way to learn about the presence, relative abundance, interactions, habitat use, and general ecology of soniferous organisms. While traditional bioacoustic methods involve active listening in real-time to detect animals, advances in technology increasingly allow for sounds to be recorded and analyzed through post-hoc analysis. Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) involves gathering audio data from programmed autonomous recording units (ARUs). Often, arrays of many ARUs are deployed across broad geographic areas and for long durations (weeks to seasons to years), which provides a rich data source for further insight into the ecology of these animals. However, this also presents challenges, as the sheer volume of data collected would be impossible to analyze by ear. Artificial intelligence (AI), specifically machine learning (ML), partially automates much of the process that turns audio recordings into usable data. We present an overview of the pipeline for analyzing passive acoustic monitoring data using machine learning, with particular focus on the considerations and caveats for generalizing analyses across space and time. Machine learning approaches often rely on empirically established thresholds to determine which potential detections to retain or discard. Being able to generalize thresholds across space and time would facilitate rapid analysis of large datasets, but with potential costs to accuracy and the possibility that inaccuracies are not uniformly distributed across space or time. Some types of statistical analyses will be more sensitive to these errors and assumptions. As conservation efforts increasingly integrate multiyear datasets that span large geographic areas, it is unknown whether thresholds remain stable or need to be tested and recalibrated. Using audio data from across New England, we test the stability of these thresholds across a range of species and provide general guidance for their use in the analysis of acoustic data. | |||||
Insights from 25 Years of Biological Monitoring in the Ranch Brook and West Branch Little River Watersheds: A Comparative Study of Benthic Macroinvert Meaghan Hickey, Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation Presenter: Meaghan Hickey, Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation Brook and West Branch Little River, two similarly sized high-elevation watersheds in the Mount Mansfield region. Ranch Brook, a minimally disturbed reference site, and the more developed West Branch Little River site provide an insightful comparison for assessing the effects of environmental change on stream biological communities, particularly in response to stressors such as drought, flooding, and rising temperatures. Monitoring efforts include annual benthic macroinvertebrate surveys, ambient chemistry, habitat, and stream flow data collection, as well as continuous water temperature measurements at Ranch Brook. These datasets provide a comprehensive understanding of the stream condition at both sites including biological community and disturbance tolerance metric calculation, ecosystem health assessments, examination of trends over time, and comparative analysis of the biological responses at both sites to temperature and flow regime changes. Differences in macroinvertebrate resilience and recovery between the sites highlight the role of land use and restoration in shaping aquatic responses. Furthermore, the Ranch Brook monitoring site has been used in several additional special studies as a reference dataset including in an investigation into the recovery of nearby Cotton Brook from a landslide, a flood recovery study following the July 2023 and 2024 flood events, and the EPA's Regional Monitoring Network, a collection of long-term data for region-level analyses and trend detection, particularly in relation to climate and temperature changes. Twenty-five years of monitoring at these paired watersheds underscores the importance of long-term data in providing critical insights into the drivers of stream ecosystem resilience and supporting efforts to protect the biological health of Vermont's rivers and streams in a changing climate. | |||||
Hemlock woolly adelgid biological control: Signs of hope for eastern forests Nicholas Dietschler, Cornell University Presenter: Nicholas J. Dietschler, Cornell University The hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA, Adelges tsugae) is a non-native pest threatening eastern and Carolina hemlock forests across eastern North America. Multiple management strategies are being implemented throughout the invaded range, with classical biological control showing the greatest promise for long-term suppression. Two predatory beetles, Laricobius osakensis from southern Japan and La. nigrinus from western North America, and two predatory flies Leucotaraxis argenticollis and Le. piniperda from western North America are currently the most promising agents. The Laricobius species have become widely established and dispersed widely across parts of HWA southern introduced range, often being successfully integrated with chemical treatments. Until recently, beetle establishment was under-studied in the Northeastern US, with previous research indicating establishment is limited by winter temperatures. However, new surveys have confirmed Laricobius populations at release sites in Pennsylvania, New York (NY), and Maine, with La. nigrinus now spreading naturally across NY suggesting beetles may be more suitable to northeastern climates than previously thought. Although Laricobius predation on the overwintering (sistens) generation of HWA is substantial, long-term suppression has been constrained by density-dependent rebound of the spring (progrediens) generation, highlighting the need for complementary predators. The Leucotaraxis fly species show strong potential to fill this role. Leucotaraxis argenticollis has demonstrated suitability to eastern conditions in field trials, and early signs of establishment have been documented in NY and Virginia. In summer 2025, Le. argenticollis was recovered from a NY site four years post-release, the first confirmed evidence of wild establishment. As HWA continues its northward spread, these advances in biological control provide renewed hope for the future of northeastern hemlock forests. | |||||
Advancing Workforce Development in Forestry through a Multi-Pronged Educational Approach Logan Johnson, Maine TREE Foundation Presenter: Paulina Murray, Maine Timber Research and Environmental Education (TREE) Foundation Maine's forestry industry supports thousands of jobs and communities across the state, yet faces a rapidly changing workforce. For example, 37% of the 2020 workforce will have reached or surpassed retirement age by 2031. Maine Timber Research and Environmental Education Foundation (Maine TREE) takes a multi-pronged approach to facilitating green jobs exposure and empowerment for Maine's students at multiple educational levels- elementary, high school, undergraduate, and graduate. Through job fairs, direct classroom engagement, and bringing students to the field, Maine TREE, and its collaborators promote and advance opportunities in workforce development for the students who will manage Maine's forests in the future. This presentation will explore Maine TREE's workforce development approach, highlight Holt Research Forest as a case study for forest-based research careers and long-term ecological monitoring, and discuss how immersive, stage-appropriate learning experiences can foster exploration and understanding of Maine's forests across age groups and educational stages. We will also share the successes and challenges in creating a collaborative and inclusive environment that promotes career interest and professional skill development in forestry. | |||||
Prescribed Fire and Resiliency in Southeastern Massachusetts: Managing for an Uncertain Future Alex Entrup, MassWildlife Presenter: Alex Entrup, MassWildlife MassWildlife and the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation are restoring nearly 2,400 acres of pitch pine and scrub oak barrens in the Myles Standish Complex in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The habitat restoration project is a mix of barrens habitats that includes pine oak woodlands, scrub oak thickets, heathlands, coastal plain ponds, and sandplain grasslands. Numerous rare and state listed species that are dependent on these open habitats occur within the Complex. The site has a history of large and catastrophic wildfires. The recent arrival of the Southern Pine Beetle from the mid-Atlantic region has put the pitch pine ecosystems at risk of infestation and widespread tree mortality. The dense pine trees covering the Complex have been, and continue to be thinned to create a more open landscape with widely spaced trees and low rolling glades of plants like scrub oak, low bush blueberry, and native warm season grasses. Prescribed fire is used to maintain and diversify structure while promoting the species composition typical of high-quality pine barrens. This restoration and management regime promotes habitat for rare species, reduces the risk of catastrophic wildfire, and improves resistance to novel threats such as the Southern Pine Beetle. This project is an example of improving landscape resilience through habitat improvements and restoration of ecosystem processes such as prescribed fire. | |||||
Light hors d’oeuvres available. Poster awards announced.
Across the Northern Forest: Wood Products Businesses Share Their Forest Story
Presenter: Amy Robinson, Northern Forest Center
A collaborative regional approach to forest insect monitoring and management
Presenter: Valerie Watson, Schoodic Institute
Analyzing habitat factors consistent with river otter (Lontra canadensis) abundance in the Lewis Creek watershed
Presenter: Lydia Emry, University of Vermont
Assessing eco-geomorphic habitat factors associated with amphibian diversity in riparian floodplains of the Lewis Creek watershed
Presenter: Margreta Grady, University of Vermont
Finding lingering ash for resistance breeding: MaMA 2025 program update
Presenter: Jonathan Rosenthal and Radka Wildova, Ecological Research Institute
For the Love of Snow: Snow Monitoring with Community Science
Presenter: Georgia Murray, Appalachian Mountain Club
Forest management strategies to rehabilitate a coastal red spruce forest in Maine
Presenter: Reg Clarke, University of Maine
Help Us Find Additional Survivor Elms!
Presenter: Christopher Hansen, University of Vermont
Implications of cold air pooling on dynamic soil properties and carbon storage
Presenter: Grace Wang and Shealagh Brown, Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources,University of Vermont, Burlington, VT. 05405
Interactions between neighborhood effects and microsite factors may inhibit or facilitate upslope tree range shifts
Presenter: Nathan G Kiel, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
New Progeny Planting of Recurrent Genomic Selections of American Chestnut on the Green Mountain National Forest
Presenter: Paula Murakami, USDA Forest Service - Northern Research Station
NRS Research and Conservation Partnerships in Vermont 2025
Presenter: John R Butnor, USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station
Optimizing Vegetation Indices for Enhanced Management of Parks and Protected Areas: A Case Study from Acadia National Park
Presenter: Min Kim, Stockton University
Power in the Patchwork? Enhancing Biodiversity and Resiliency by Using Summertime Patch-cutting to Create Uneven-Aged Northern Forests.
Presenter: Audrey Tamasy, SUNY ESF Department of Sustainable Resources Management
Prioritizing sites to search for lingering hemlock
Presenter: Radka Wildova and Jonathan Rosenthal , Ecological Research Institute
Snow refugia: Managing temperate forest canopies to maintain winter conditions
Presenter: Sarah J. Nelson, Appalachian Mountain Club, Gorham, NH
Spatio-Temporal Patterns of Bird Communities Using Regional Passive Acoustic Monitoring
Presenter: Pooja Panwar, Dartmouth College
The Maine Woods Initiative: Protecting 130,000 Acres of Land in the 100-Mile Wilderness
Presenter: Jordon Tourville, Appalachian Mountain Club
Tracking forest soil health: 25 years of soil monitoring by the U.S. Forest Inventory and Analysis program
Presenter: Melissa Pastore, Northern Research Station, USDA Forest Service
Turning Objectives into Action: Adaptive Planting on Vermont Lands
Presenter: Danielle Owczarski, Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department
Utilizing Bioacoustics to Study the Elusive Habits of Bats in North-temperate Forests
Presenter: Jessica Jones, Dartmouth College
What's in a song? An analysis of avian vocalization patterns in a northeastern forest
Presenter: Matthew Ayres, Dartmouth College