UVM professor Bill Keeton (center) leads students through forest sampling protocol
Every year brings changes to the Lydia Spitzer Demonstration Demonstration Forest at NorthWoods, but 2015 marked some especially exciting progress! With the field season winding down, fall is a great time to reflect on our accomplishments over the past year.
Our Forest Stewardship program launched into summer with the completion of our updated forest management plan, and acceptance of the Spitzer Forest into the Forest Guild Model Forest program.
The mission of the Model Forest program is to “recognize places, people, and relationships that foster sustainable forest management and demonstrate successful silviculture,” falling in perfect alignment with our own goals for the Spitzer Forest. Becoming part of the Model Forest program involved a written application, submission of management and certification documents, and a late-winter site visit with a review committee of Vermont Guild foresters. Check out our updated webpage to read more about these accomplishments (and to see a new slideshow of photos from the Spitzer Forest!).
And even with a rainy start, summer was a fantastic time to get boots on the ground in the forest. In early July, UVM professor Bill Keeton visited NorthWoods with his graduate and undergraduate research team to continue data collection in our Silviculture for the Birds timber harvest area. This research project will look at Silviculture for the Birds harvests
Norway spruce with balsam fir regeneration, prior to timber harvesting
around the state, evaluating post-harvest habitat structural elements and looking at implications at a landscape level. We’re excited to have the Spitzer Forest included in this research and look forward to seeing what they find out! NorthWoods staff also continued annual monitoring of bird species in these harvest areas, following protocol from Audubon Vermont. Being just two years out from the harvest, we haven’t seen a major shift in species, but did observe 28 species including scarlet tanager, one of our focal species for habitat enhancement.
On the other side of Tripp Hill, our Forest Stewardship staff (with planning/preparation help from Dan Kilborn from the Vermont Land Trust) are currently working on a low-impact ecological timber harvest in a Norway spruce plantation. Softwood plantations are productive for growing timber and are a quick way to convert fields back to forest (as this area was around 1970), but typically lack diversity of species and structure. Our silvicultural plan for crown thinning and small group selections will diversify structure, promote regeneration of native hardwood/softwood species, and give remaining trees space to thrive.
Harvesting Norway spruce while carefully protecting the next generation of saplings
We’re also giving special attention to the long-term resilience of this stand in a changing climate (NorthWoods now includes climate change considerations in our forest management plans) by using durable trails that won’t erode in heavy storms, encouraging growth of a structurally strong forest that holds up to wind/ice damage, and promoting tree species that will fare better in the predicted “new” climate. In late August, a group of visitors saw all of this in action at an Ecological Timber Harvesting Demonstration where we demonstrated low-impact logging techniques while discussing the rhyme and reason for this harvest. With several Forest Guild members in attendance, we followed the harvest tour with a brief celebration of NorthWoods’ recognition as a Guild Model Forest.
And for those of you who enjoy our many miles of recreational trails through the Spitzer Forest, we made great strides in maintaining and adding trails with help from an AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps) crew! The crew worked hard this summer to clear trails from our Echo Lake Road and central campus trailheads. Check out the article in this newsletter to learn more about the NCCC crew, or come for a walk on the trails to enjoy their work!