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[Steve] So this project
is a collaborative project

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between the Vermont Center for
Eco Studies, Audubon Vermont,

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and the Rubenstein School here at UVM.

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And I'm gonna be presenting
on two years of data,

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looking at sort of the
bird community response

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to structure and composition

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of the vegetation in sugarbushes,

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active sugarbushes in Vermont,

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which is a fairly small
part of the broader project

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being carried out by the UVM team.

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So I think we can all agree

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that the best-tasting maple syrup

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is made right here in Vermont,

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(audience member cheering)

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and Vermont sugarmakers
also make the most.

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And in addition,

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the sugarmaking has really
experienced a rapid growth,

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both in terms of number of taps deployed

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and the gallons produced,

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yet relatively little is known

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about how sugarbush
management and practices

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affect biodiversity
and ecosystem services,

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as well as the resilience of the sugarbush

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to ecological stressors.

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And what happened there?

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Okay.

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Traditional sugarbush management

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occasionally or sometimes
involves understory removal,

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which eliminates forest regeneration

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and often results in a
closed canopy monoculture

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of sugar maple with very
little structural diversity,

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which can have a variety of
implications for biodiversity,

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ranging from declines in
understory species richness,

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as well as presumably reduced
abundance and diversity

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of forest birds

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as well as their primary
prey, the arthropods.

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So to address this issue,

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Audubon Vermont initiated the
Bird-Friendly Maple Project,

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which recommends forest
management techniques

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that would strive to
improve forest habitat value

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as well as the diversity of native plants

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and long-term productivity of the forest.

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And specifically,
Audubon's recommendations

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manage for the diversity of tree species

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with no more than 75% sugar maple,

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structural diversity of the forest,

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so there's a range of
age classes and retention

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of snags and cavity trees,

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as well as of coarse woody
material on the forest floor.

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And in exchange, cooperating sugarmakers

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who participate and follow
Audubon's guidelines

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and market their product
with signage and labels

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stating that they're bird-friendly

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allows them to sort of stand out

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in a pretty crowded marketplace.

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And with the sort of the popularity

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of the Bird-Friendly Maple Program

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expanding into other states,

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Steve Hagenbuch was interested in

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some sort of empirical data

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to look at whether the
guidelines that he's recommending

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really provide better habitat for birds.

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And so in some discussions that we had,

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this project was the result of that.

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So some of our main project objectives

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were first to quantify the
forest breeding bird community

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across the gradient of
sugarbush production

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and management intensities,

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and look at how the differences
in vegetation structure

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and arthropod biomass influence
breeding bird communities,

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and finally use those results

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to update Audubon's
Bird-Friendly Maple guidelines

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and provide some management policies

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that would be relevant

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across the entire Northern Forest region.

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So in 2020 and 2021, we studied
14 different sugarbushes

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across the northern part of
Vermont, seven in each year,

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and they ranged in size from
just 37 acres to 1,400 acres.

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Nine of those were enrolled

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in Audubon's Bird-Friendly Maple Project.

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And just being enrolled in the project

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doesn't mean that the
conditions on the ground

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meet the Bird-Friendly Maple guidelines,

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just means they have a forest
management plan in place

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that will over time result
in those conditions.

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So we established survey
points on a 200-meter grid,

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which resulted in 353 survey points.

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161 of those were surveyed
in 2020, 192 two in 2021.

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So our bird surveys, we just
did fixed radius point counts,

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one visit at each point,

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and during that one visit,

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we did three independent
four-minute point counts

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for a total of 12 minutes at each point.

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And again, those three four-minute
counts were independent.

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So you did one four-minute
count followed by another one,

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and then a a third, all independent.

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We also assessed arthropod biomass

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at just over a thousand surveyed plots.

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At each of those 353 plots,

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we had three subplots surrounding those

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where we did our arthropod surveys.

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We had two different techniques
for surveying arthropods.

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For litter-dwelling arthropods,

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we used these small cardboard cover boards

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that were placed on the ground,

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visited twice a year,

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and any organisms found on
top or below were measured

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and placed into taxonomic groups.

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And then for foliage-dwelling arthropods,

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we used a cordless shop vac

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and literally cleaned the forest,

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(audience laughing)

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vacuumed the vegetation
as high as we could reach,

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which was maybe seven or eight feet,

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so really just the understory.

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And those samples were frozen
and then analyzed in the lab,

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sorted and analyzed and measured,

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placed in the taxonomic groups,

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and then biomass was estimated
using parametric equations.

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We did highly detailed vegetation surveys

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at just over 1,400 plots.

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We had a really detailed protocol

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that Tony provided at
the 353 center plots,

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and then we had a more
rapid assessment protocol

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at the three surrounding
subplots at each point.

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Our analytical modeling,
we used community models

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to look at both occupancy, abundance,

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as well as detection probabilities
of the bird community,

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and then we related those
to the 17 covariates

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on the right here,

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which I've sort of broken up
into five major groupings,

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ground cover, canopy cover,
understory diversity,

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deadwood, and arthropods.

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And then some of our results.

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I really don't have time to
go into all of our results.

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I'm just gonna highlight a few.

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At our point count surveys,

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we had 10,332 observations of 72 species.

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The vertical axis is
the proportion of points

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with at least one detection
of one of those species,

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one of those 72 species

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which are listed on the horizontal axis.

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So for example,

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we had 57 species detected at
less than 20% of our sites.

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Or another way to look at it would be

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we had 15 species detected at
more than 20% of our sites.

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By far, the two most common
species, not unusually,

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are were ovenbird and red-eyed vireo,

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which were detected at
95% of our study plots,

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followed by black-throated
blue warbler at about 75%,

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and black-throated green warbler
at about 65% of our points.

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We also detected six species
of greatest conservation need

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as listed in the Vermont
Wildlife Action Plan.

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So some of the community
results for the occupancy,

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the proportion, the
probability of occupancy

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for the bird community

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increased as these three
covariates increased,

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the volume of coarse woody material,

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the percent cover of
the herbaceous plants,

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and the litter depth, surprisingly.

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And in the community N-mixture model,

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similarly, these three covariates,

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the percent cover of the high canopy,

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and then again, herbaceous
cover and litter depth

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were significant positive relationships.

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We also looked at just
responsive individual species,

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and these four species,

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veery, black-throated blue
warbler, mourning warbler,

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and chestnut-sided warbler

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had a significant response

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to the richness of the small saplings

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in both occupancy and the abundance model.

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And then black-throated blue
warbler and mourning warbler

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also had a significant
response to the percent cover

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of the mid-story layer in both models.

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So suggesting that not
only is the mid-story cover

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important for these species,

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but the richness of that
cover is also important.

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And then in the occupancy,
the probability of occupancy

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for black-throated green warbler

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and the abundance of chestnut-sided
warbler both increased

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as the cover of the
mid-story layer increased.

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So a few of the take-homes
from these results.

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We had four habitat covariates

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that were important to the
overall bird community,

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the herbaceous cover, litter
depth, coarse woody material,

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and high canopy cover.

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And at this point, only
coarse woody material

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is being addressed by the
Bird-Friendly Maple guidelines.

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And then we just came up

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with some sort of straightforward
management recommendations

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to address these four different covariates

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that can be implemented.

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In addition to providing habitat

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for forest interior species,

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sugarbush management
can also provide habitat

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for early successional species,

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particularly mourning
warbler and chestnut-sided,

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and as well as some forest species

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that prefer a well-developed shrub layer,

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like veery and
black-throated blue warbler.

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And again, we came up with some
management recommendations.

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Creating small canopy gaps

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that will provide that
habitat for these species

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while retaining interior species.

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Some of the future directions,

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the UVM team, particularly
Liza Morse, the PhD candidate

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who will be looking at the bird community

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and building on the work
that that we've done

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these two years.

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She'll be adding additional
years of data collection

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as well as looking at the
impacts of ecosystem services,

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particularly carbon
storage and sequestration

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and the resilience of the forest

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to disturbance under climate change.

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And then another PhD
candidate, Daniel Pratson,

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will be looking at the
human dimension side

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of maple sugar production,

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specifically sort of asking the question

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whether incentivizing forest management

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for a variety of ecosystem services

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aligns with sugarbush landowner values.

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And then Steve Hagenbuch
at Audubon Vermont

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is planning to update
some of their guidelines

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for the Bird-Friendly Maple programs

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specifically to address
some of our results

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in promoting both understory

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and the mid-story layer
diversity of that vegetation,

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and also developing some
best management practices

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to try to reduce the
introduction of earthworms,

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which can deplete the leaf litter layer.

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And a few acknowledgements,

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particularly to our
participating sugarmakers

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who provided us access to their lands,

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as well as our small army of
field staff and volunteers

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who collected all the data,

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and our funders.

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So I have time, I can
take a few questions.

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[Audience Member 1] Do
you have a guess for why

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that leaf flitter is so important?

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[Steve] Yeah, I don't.

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I mean, it would certainly
make sense for ovenbird

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and other ground-foraging
species, thrushes,

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but that didn't seem to be the case

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when we looked at individuals.

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For some it did, but not all of them,

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so I don't really have
a good answer for that.

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Daniel.

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[Daniel] Curious if you were able to,

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like if some of the
mid-story and understory,

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if you're able to parse out

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whether it was non-native or invasive,

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like if the presence of mid-story
understory is important,

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is there a difference
between the non-native versus

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like that, right?

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[Steve] We didn't have much non-native

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really in these sugarbushes.

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Yeah, I don't remember any.

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Liza, do you remember any
you have any invasive?

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00:15:00,242 --> 00:15:03,659
(Liza speaking quietly)

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[Steve] Yeah.

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Yeah, Kate.

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[Kate] I just had a question

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regarding sort of the long-term plan.

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Like since it seems like
just sort of a snapshot

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of the various sugarbushes now,

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is there any plan to revisit
this, say, in 20 years,

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if they're still maple certified

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00:15:26,269 --> 00:15:28,920
to look at the change from current

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00:15:28,920 --> 00:15:31,290
to what it looks like in 20 years

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and how birds might have
changed over that time?

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[Steve] Well, I won't be revisiting it.

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(audience laughing)

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[Liza] Someone can pay me to.

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(audience speaking quietly)

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[Steve] Yeah, but it's a good question,

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and hopefully someone will.

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[Kate] And I just had a thought

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about the leaf litter thing.

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I don't know if that would
impact the arthropods,

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which then impact the birds potentially?

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[Steve] Yeah, well, I will mention

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that the leaf litter arthropods

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were not included in the model

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because after we did the modeling,

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we realized there was a problem

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00:16:04,650 --> 00:16:07,860
with one elementary
equation that was incorrect.

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00:16:07,860 --> 00:16:11,430
So we didn't include that, so that would,

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00:16:11,430 --> 00:16:13,380
yeah, when Liza's done.

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00:16:13,380 --> 00:16:15,300
Come back next year.

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00:16:15,300 --> 00:16:16,900
Liza will have that information.

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00:16:19,350 --> 00:16:20,417
Yeah.

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00:16:20,417 --> 00:16:21,540
[Audience Member 2] So
for your desired condition

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for the certification, it was
not more than 75% sugar maple

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00:16:25,170 --> 00:16:26,310
and then one of the take-homes

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was related to downwood material?

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00:16:29,876 --> 00:16:32,700
Do you see whether that's best

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00:16:32,700 --> 00:16:35,130
if it's sort of equally
dispersed throughout the plot,

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00:16:35,130 --> 00:16:36,990
or is it best in clusters?

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00:16:36,990 --> 00:16:38,220
You know, if you were trying to target

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00:16:38,220 --> 00:16:39,053
those sorts of things,

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00:16:39,053 --> 00:16:40,080
would you wanna make little islands

303
00:16:40,080 --> 00:16:41,490
or just make sure it's available

304
00:16:41,490 --> 00:16:43,023
throughout the entire parcel?

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00:16:44,880 --> 00:16:46,740
[Steve] Yeah, I don't have

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00:16:46,740 --> 00:16:48,210
a good recommendation for that.

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00:16:48,210 --> 00:16:51,120
I don't know if it matters
whether it's clustered

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00:16:51,120 --> 00:16:53,403
or dispersed throughout, yeah.

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00:16:55,680 --> 00:16:58,500
And yeah, even though
only nine of these sites

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were participating in the
Bird-Friendly Maple Program,

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00:17:02,640 --> 00:17:07,640
all of our sites had
less than 75% sugar maple

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00:17:09,420 --> 00:17:10,253
as an average,

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00:17:11,660 --> 00:17:13,173
as a mean for the sites.

314
00:17:16,800 --> 00:17:17,633
Great.

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00:17:17,633 --> 00:17:18,570
Additional questions?

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00:17:19,770 --> 00:17:20,603
Alright.

317
00:17:20,603 --> 00:17:21,436
Alright, well, Dan.

318
00:17:21,436 --> 00:17:22,440
Alright.

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00:17:22,440 --> 00:17:26,070
[Dan] I'm curious about
herbaceous variable

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00:17:26,070 --> 00:17:29,850
and the mid and overstory canopy cover.

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00:17:29,850 --> 00:17:32,310
So I'm not quite sure if
it's a positive or negative

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00:17:32,310 --> 00:17:34,650
relationship to the birds,

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00:17:34,650 --> 00:17:37,890
but you know, I would think
with increasing canopy cover,

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00:17:37,890 --> 00:17:42,120
you have less light that might
reduce the herbaceous layer.

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00:17:42,120 --> 00:17:44,550
So is, I mean, can you...

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00:17:44,550 --> 00:17:48,600
[Steve] Yeah, presumably
the herbaceous layer

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00:17:49,590 --> 00:17:52,100
was coming into some of
those small canopy gaps

328
00:17:52,100 --> 00:17:57,100
where those early successional
species were responding to.

329
00:17:59,476 --> 00:18:04,170
But yeah, it's a kind
of a dichotomy to have,

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00:18:04,170 --> 00:18:06,873
closed canopy and herbaceous
layer being important.

331
00:18:09,750 --> 00:18:10,583
Great.

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00:18:10,583 --> 00:18:12,210
I don't want to keep
everybody from the break,

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00:18:12,210 --> 00:18:13,323
but thank you, Steve.