Long-term Forest Ecosystem Monitoring

The Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative archives and maintains long-term forest health monitoring records from the northeastern region collaborating with the US Forest Service, National Forests and state and municipal natural resource agencies. FEMC supplements these national efforts with on-the-ground forest health monitoring in rural and urban settings, and maintains a highly skilled field team available for hire.

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In 2014, FIA¹, UFHHEQ², and research units of the USDA Forest Service³ combined efforts to deliver an annualized inventory of urban forests analogous to the nationwide forest inventory, called Urban FIA. FEMC has been part of this collaboration since 2011, working with 200 University of Vermont students to inventory plots in Burlington using i-Tree. In 2016, FEMC transitioned to supporting the state in its effort to implement a statewide Urban FIA program. For more information about the USFS's annual forest inventory, visit the FIA national web site. For more information about the UFHHEQ visit their page on urban forests

¹ Forest Inventory and Analysis
² Urban Forests, Human Health, and Environmental Quality
³ USDA Forest Service

The FEMC air quality monitoring records extend back decades and include international, national, and regional partners. We do hands-on monitoring at the Proctor Maple Research Center in Underhill, VT providing data to inform policy that improves air quality in the region.

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Beyond their delightful qualities, birds also serve as indicators of ecosystem health. The Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative supports monitoring of forest bird populations and demographics of rare habitat specialist species. These datasets shed light on the effects of high-elevation development and recreation on birds over time.

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Amphibians are excellent indicators of environmental change because their survival depends on clean water and a narrow range of soil and water acidity. Pollution, habitat loss and other anthropogenic factors are observable from changes in amphibian population and distribution. The FEMC supports long-term monitoring of both common and rare species that aid in the assessment of these stressors.

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Supported as a collaboration between the FEMC and the US Geological Survey, hydrological monitoring provides information on stream water heights (stage), which are related to discharge (flow). These long-term hydrologic patterns and water quality trends include baseline conditions, trends in stream acid/base status, cations, anions, suspended sediment output, snowpack and snowmelt, extreme climate events, forest health assessments, and biological monitoring.

This monitoring provides valuable information on mountain hydrology, and how mountain landscapes respond to development and extreme events. This monitoring is unique, coming from gages in a watershed with a ski resort and a neighboring watershed with little development. The gages have supported projects on snow hydrology and water quality by the University of Vermont, Sterling College, Vermont ANR, and others.

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Annual tree phenology measurements (springtime leaf expansion and fall senescence) establish the timing of developmental events and trends. This information enables the separation of stress events on forest condition from long-term changes due to effects of global climate change. FEMC collects and archives yearly phenology assessments stretching back to 1992. Working with partners, FEMC is developing a landscape-scale model of forest productivity based on remote sensing of forest phenology.

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The FEMC Long-Term Soil Monitoring program will monitor a century of change in forest soils due to human-caused impacts, such as climate change and air pollution. Sampling of vegetation, chemistry and soil structure began in 2000, and will continue every 5 years over at least a 100-year period in undisturbed forest settings. These plots are co-located with Soil Climate Analysis Network sites, a national network that measures soil temperature and moisture among other variables. Major partners in this project are the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, University of Vermont, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station, The Green Mountain and Finger Lakes National Forests, and the US Geological Survey.

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Weather and climate are related but very different phenomena, weather being the condition of the atmosphere (precipitation, temperature, etc.) over the short term, while climate refers to longer-term trends and seasonal patterns. Without long-term weather records it would be impossible to tease out annual anomalies from more ecologically significant climate trends, which makes this information critical to scientists and planners of all kinds. The FEMC operates multiple stations taking continuous measurements for the assessment of climate trends and patterns across the landscape.

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