1 00:00:04,350 --> 00:00:07,287 Welcome. Thanks, everyone, for coming. 2 00:00:07,287 --> 00:00:10,110 I'm a second year Master's student here at the university, 3 00:00:10,110 --> 00:00:10,943 and I've been looking 4 00:00:10,943 --> 00:00:13,196 at how different silvicultural treatments 5 00:00:13,196 --> 00:00:15,870 impact regeneration, 6 00:00:15,870 --> 00:00:18,180 as well as understory plant community diversity 7 00:00:18,180 --> 00:00:22,440 and abundance in pitch pine systems across the Northeast. 8 00:00:22,440 --> 00:00:23,760 And so you may be asking yourself, 9 00:00:23,760 --> 00:00:25,203 what is a pitch pine system? 10 00:00:27,244 --> 00:00:31,560 They are globally rare endemic communities found mainly here 11 00:00:31,560 --> 00:00:33,660 in the coterminous Northeastern United States. 12 00:00:33,660 --> 00:00:36,259 They're home to multiple rare threatened endangered species, 13 00:00:36,259 --> 00:00:40,263 and they're found on xeric, sandy glacial outwash. 14 00:00:41,160 --> 00:00:44,340 Importantly, these are fire adapted communities 15 00:00:44,340 --> 00:00:45,780 with fire dependent species 16 00:00:45,780 --> 00:00:49,590 like pitch pine, shrub oaks, and ericaceous shrubs, 17 00:00:49,590 --> 00:00:52,263 as luckily, Ryan has laid some the groundwork. 18 00:00:52,263 --> 00:00:56,910 And so that leads me to my next slide, 19 00:00:56,910 --> 00:00:58,590 as hopefully we're all well aware 20 00:00:58,590 --> 00:01:00,690 that dry lightning strikes 21 00:01:00,690 --> 00:01:02,840 in this region of the world are quite rare. 22 00:01:03,930 --> 00:01:06,570 So the research undertaken in this study takes place 23 00:01:06,570 --> 00:01:09,240 on the traditional and ancestral and current homelands 24 00:01:09,240 --> 00:01:10,890 of multiple Tribal Nations, 25 00:01:10,890 --> 00:01:13,680 including the Shinnecock, Unkechaug, Setalcott, 26 00:01:13,680 --> 00:01:16,530 Stockbridge-Munsee Community, Mashpee Wampanoag, 27 00:01:16,530 --> 00:01:19,710 Wampanoag of Gay Head (Aquinnah), Nauset, Pokanoket, 28 00:01:19,710 --> 00:01:22,770 Pequawket, and Quawket Nations, 29 00:01:22,770 --> 00:01:26,190 as well as the Haudenosaunee and Wabanaki Confederacies. 30 00:01:26,190 --> 00:01:29,040 Pitch pine barrens have important historic, current, 31 00:01:29,040 --> 00:01:30,480 and cultural value, 32 00:01:30,480 --> 00:01:32,130 and the relationships Tribal Nations had 33 00:01:32,130 --> 00:01:33,630 and continue to have with pitch pine barrens 34 00:01:33,630 --> 00:01:36,270 are essential to their character and restoration. 35 00:01:36,270 --> 00:01:37,920 Furthermore, this research is undertaken 36 00:01:37,920 --> 00:01:39,192 into the University of Vermont, 37 00:01:39,192 --> 00:01:41,606 which resides on the traditional ancestral and current lands 38 00:01:41,606 --> 00:01:43,350 of the Abenaki Nation. 39 00:01:43,350 --> 00:01:45,690 The colonization of these lands is an ongoing process, 40 00:01:45,690 --> 00:01:47,145 and as a settler, I'm the beneficiary 41 00:01:47,145 --> 00:01:49,110 of the colonization, occupation, 42 00:01:49,110 --> 00:01:50,970 and study of Indigenous homelands. 43 00:01:50,970 --> 00:01:52,313 In this research, we have a responsibility 44 00:01:52,313 --> 00:01:54,939 to advocate for the sovereignty of Tribal Nations 45 00:01:54,939 --> 00:01:57,690 and the return of land and financial resources 46 00:01:57,690 --> 00:01:58,833 to Indigenous people. 47 00:02:00,060 --> 00:02:04,867 So the colonization in the Northeast 48 00:02:04,867 --> 00:02:07,544 really created some substantial changes 49 00:02:07,544 --> 00:02:11,520 to fire and disturbance regimes in pitch pine communities. 50 00:02:11,520 --> 00:02:13,020 They both increased and decreased 51 00:02:13,020 --> 00:02:15,360 in spatial and temporal scale. 52 00:02:15,360 --> 00:02:18,090 Other changes came from clearing for agriculture 53 00:02:18,090 --> 00:02:21,820 and subsequent abandonment, as well as government policies 54 00:02:22,740 --> 00:02:25,950 which prevented the use of fire as a management tool. 55 00:02:25,950 --> 00:02:28,230 Furthermore, these systems are underlain 56 00:02:28,230 --> 00:02:30,562 by very developable soils, 57 00:02:30,562 --> 00:02:32,700 and so there are some very real threats 58 00:02:32,700 --> 00:02:34,710 from fragmentation and development, 59 00:02:34,710 --> 00:02:36,750 along with management issues 60 00:02:36,750 --> 00:02:39,570 along the wild and urban interface. 61 00:02:39,570 --> 00:02:42,330 Add to that novel threats from climate change, 62 00:02:42,330 --> 00:02:45,060 first on our list being the more recent expansion 63 00:02:45,060 --> 00:02:45,930 of southern pine beetle, 64 00:02:45,930 --> 00:02:49,140 which was touched on this morning at the meeting. 65 00:02:49,140 --> 00:02:52,113 So southern pine beetle is a bark boring beetle. 66 00:02:55,273 --> 00:02:56,106 It's native. 67 00:02:56,106 --> 00:02:59,354 It's long been in relation with hard pines in the Southeast, 68 00:02:59,354 --> 00:03:02,049 and it releases pheromones 69 00:03:02,049 --> 00:03:04,170 which create these aggregation conditions, 70 00:03:04,170 --> 00:03:07,953 which can lead to outbreaks and rapid overstory mortality. 71 00:03:09,090 --> 00:03:11,550 And so a management strategy in the Southeast 72 00:03:11,550 --> 00:03:14,610 has long been the reduction of basal area 73 00:03:14,610 --> 00:03:16,800 and the increase of inter-tree distance 74 00:03:16,800 --> 00:03:20,193 to impact stand microclimate and tree vigor. 75 00:03:21,150 --> 00:03:24,420 The northern range of the outbreaks 76 00:03:24,420 --> 00:03:25,710 used to be southern New Jersey, 77 00:03:25,710 --> 00:03:27,940 but in the past 10 to 15 years 78 00:03:28,920 --> 00:03:31,380 with warming winters, this range has grown. 79 00:03:31,380 --> 00:03:36,262 So in 2014 there were the first outbreaks in Long Island, 80 00:03:36,262 --> 00:03:39,510 and as of last summer in Martha's Vineyard 81 00:03:39,510 --> 00:03:41,610 off of the coast of Massachusetts. 82 00:03:41,610 --> 00:03:43,031 Southern pine beetle has also been found 83 00:03:43,031 --> 00:03:47,613 in traps up in Maine, so it's certainly moving. 84 00:03:48,450 --> 00:03:50,453 And so this is one of my research sites. 85 00:03:50,453 --> 00:03:52,220 Hopefully you can see it well. 86 00:03:52,220 --> 00:03:57,170 We've got a lot of conifer crowns here 87 00:03:57,170 --> 00:03:58,980 in this winter photo in March of 2012. 88 00:03:58,980 --> 00:04:01,680 This is Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge 89 00:04:01,680 --> 00:04:03,660 in Shirley, New York on Long Island. 90 00:04:03,660 --> 00:04:06,540 The stand is outlined in white, 91 00:04:06,540 --> 00:04:10,680 and so this is a barrens community, 92 00:04:10,680 --> 00:04:13,590 but there hasn't been any disturbance or management. 93 00:04:13,590 --> 00:04:17,040 And so, you know, the stand has really densified 94 00:04:17,040 --> 00:04:18,810 into more of a closed forest condition 95 00:04:18,810 --> 00:04:20,910 than it would be in a traditional barrens. 96 00:04:22,080 --> 00:04:24,470 Here we are in September of 2013. 97 00:04:24,470 --> 00:04:27,150 I don't know how good the visual is here. 98 00:04:27,150 --> 00:04:29,640 You can start to see these light brown patches, 99 00:04:29,640 --> 00:04:34,350 and so those are almost certainly the first outbreaks sites 100 00:04:34,350 --> 00:04:35,921 of the southern pine beetle. 101 00:04:35,921 --> 00:04:38,940 Here we are in June of 2014, 102 00:04:38,940 --> 00:04:42,273 and we can see that brown has spread throughout the stand. 103 00:04:43,650 --> 00:04:46,560 And so southern pine beetle wasn't recorded 104 00:04:46,560 --> 00:04:50,223 as present on Long Island until the fall of 2014. 105 00:04:51,360 --> 00:04:53,670 Here we are in March of 2015. 106 00:04:53,670 --> 00:04:56,370 This is complete overstory mortality for pitch pine. 107 00:04:56,370 --> 00:04:58,410 This took less than two years. 108 00:04:58,410 --> 00:05:00,150 And because of underlying issues 109 00:05:00,150 --> 00:05:02,160 with mesophication and densification, 110 00:05:02,160 --> 00:05:05,100 and the lack of the right cultural fire, 111 00:05:05,100 --> 00:05:08,970 prescribed fire, disturbance regimes, 112 00:05:08,970 --> 00:05:13,970 there's no understory advanced regeneration of pitch pine. 113 00:05:14,010 --> 00:05:16,800 So this loss of the overstory 114 00:05:16,800 --> 00:05:18,240 represents a loss of seed source, 115 00:05:18,240 --> 00:05:20,280 a loss of genetic diversity, 116 00:05:20,280 --> 00:05:23,580 and it can really be the domino that tips the scales 117 00:05:23,580 --> 00:05:25,860 into transitions to new stable states. 118 00:05:25,860 --> 00:05:28,157 And so we're losing, we have a real potential 119 00:05:28,157 --> 00:05:31,593 to lose these rare natural communities. 120 00:05:33,120 --> 00:05:36,870 So we can see there's hopefully a real reason 121 00:05:36,870 --> 00:05:37,920 why we wanna understand 122 00:05:37,920 --> 00:05:39,960 how different silvicultural treatments 123 00:05:39,960 --> 00:05:41,910 impact regeneration success 124 00:05:41,910 --> 00:05:43,770 as we think about managing for resilience 125 00:05:43,770 --> 00:05:46,020 and getting ahead of southern pine beetle. 126 00:05:46,020 --> 00:05:48,420 And so that brings us, finally, to my study. 127 00:05:48,420 --> 00:05:49,620 This is an observational study, 128 00:05:49,620 --> 00:05:53,670 and I started by contacting a lot of land managers 129 00:05:53,670 --> 00:05:56,130 across the Northeast who were very kind to talk to me 130 00:05:56,130 --> 00:05:57,690 and send me information. 131 00:05:57,690 --> 00:06:01,292 And I put together a list of sort of who, what, when, where. 132 00:06:01,292 --> 00:06:04,740 And so I identified four different types of treatments, 133 00:06:04,740 --> 00:06:06,390 which are fall prescribed fire, 134 00:06:06,390 --> 00:06:08,880 spring prescribed fire, harvest and mowing, 135 00:06:08,880 --> 00:06:10,550 followed by prescribed fire, 136 00:06:10,550 --> 00:06:14,070 that were available across the Northeast. 137 00:06:14,070 --> 00:06:17,070 And I looked at, I chose five different regions 138 00:06:17,070 --> 00:06:18,670 in which to conduct my sampling. 139 00:06:19,680 --> 00:06:24,360 I tried to find these treatments in at least three regions. 140 00:06:24,360 --> 00:06:26,062 Only two is available for harvest. 141 00:06:26,062 --> 00:06:29,700 And in each region, in each treatment type, 142 00:06:29,700 --> 00:06:34,560 I had to have three replicates of that treatment 143 00:06:34,560 --> 00:06:37,510 so we could get a good idea of what those treatments meant, 144 00:06:39,270 --> 00:06:41,820 and only two for control. 145 00:06:41,820 --> 00:06:45,480 Sampling areas were treated between 2015 and 2022, 146 00:06:45,480 --> 00:06:49,200 and they had to be at least 1.2 hectares, 3 acres, 147 00:06:49,200 --> 00:06:50,879 to manage for edge effects, 148 00:06:50,879 --> 00:06:54,870 and also to fit the amount of plots in there 149 00:06:54,870 --> 00:06:56,070 that we were hoping for. 150 00:06:57,510 --> 00:07:00,270 Here is a map of my study sites, 151 00:07:00,270 --> 00:07:03,900 and we took a range of different data. 152 00:07:03,900 --> 00:07:06,060 Today I'm really talking about regeneration. 153 00:07:06,060 --> 00:07:09,159 And so regeneration was taken at every plot. 154 00:07:09,159 --> 00:07:13,187 We looked at regeneration in three different size classes 155 00:07:13,187 --> 00:07:16,020 and plot sizes. 156 00:07:16,020 --> 00:07:17,340 That was taken at every plot, 157 00:07:17,340 --> 00:07:19,860 and then every other plot we looked at understory, 158 00:07:19,860 --> 00:07:22,140 vegetation diversity, and abundance, 159 00:07:22,140 --> 00:07:24,556 as well as classifying ground cover, 160 00:07:24,556 --> 00:07:26,749 and looking at percent cover there, 161 00:07:26,749 --> 00:07:29,640 things like mineral soil, exposed mineral soil, 162 00:07:29,640 --> 00:07:30,990 leaf litter, rot, 163 00:07:30,990 --> 00:07:35,190 and then taking two measurements of litter depth. 164 00:07:35,190 --> 00:07:37,560 And so this speaks to the need 165 00:07:37,560 --> 00:07:42,360 for, I suppose, mineral soil and reduced leaf litter depth 166 00:07:42,360 --> 00:07:44,410 for successful germination in pitch pine. 167 00:07:45,750 --> 00:07:47,880 And so this is hot off the press. 168 00:07:47,880 --> 00:07:51,480 I finished this sampling at the end of August, 169 00:07:51,480 --> 00:07:53,940 and I've been working to bring you these results. 170 00:07:53,940 --> 00:07:55,999 So they're very new. 171 00:07:55,999 --> 00:07:58,049 And so what we're looking at here first 172 00:07:58,049 --> 00:08:00,836 are the small seedling categories. 173 00:08:00,836 --> 00:08:03,090 So that's less than 50 centimeters, 174 00:08:03,090 --> 00:08:04,830 only looking at pitch pine. 175 00:08:04,830 --> 00:08:06,617 I used generalized linear mix model 176 00:08:06,617 --> 00:08:08,763 with the Poisson distribution, 177 00:08:09,990 --> 00:08:12,330 looking at treatment as a fixed effect 178 00:08:12,330 --> 00:08:14,040 and site as a random effect. 179 00:08:14,040 --> 00:08:16,680 And in these models we found for small seedlings, 180 00:08:16,680 --> 00:08:20,730 sort of two other variables of interest. 181 00:08:20,730 --> 00:08:22,560 And so the first one on the left here, 182 00:08:22,560 --> 00:08:26,160 this is we're looking at the average leaf litter depth. 183 00:08:26,160 --> 00:08:30,030 And so we can see as leaf litter death increases, 184 00:08:30,030 --> 00:08:33,159 the, you know, predicted counts of pitch pine decreases, 185 00:08:33,159 --> 00:08:36,033 again, speaking to that need for exposed mineral soil. 186 00:08:36,896 --> 00:08:39,557 And on the right here we're looking, 187 00:08:39,557 --> 00:08:43,530 and so leaf litter depth sort of ranges 188 00:08:43,530 --> 00:08:47,974 from 0 up to like about 13 centimeters. 189 00:08:47,974 --> 00:08:51,480 On the right here we're looking at the influence 190 00:08:51,480 --> 00:08:53,640 of basal area per hectare, 191 00:08:53,640 --> 00:08:58,640 which can range from about 0 to 100 square feet. 192 00:09:00,960 --> 00:09:02,490 I'm just more comfortable with square feet. 193 00:09:02,490 --> 00:09:04,710 Hopefully (chuckling) it's not a problem. 194 00:09:04,710 --> 00:09:09,710 It can be up to 220 square feet in control sites, 195 00:09:09,840 --> 00:09:11,130 which is really quite dense. 196 00:09:11,130 --> 00:09:13,463 But we see that there is an increase 197 00:09:13,463 --> 00:09:17,490 in predicted pitch pine seedling counts 198 00:09:17,490 --> 00:09:18,930 as basal area increases. 199 00:09:18,930 --> 00:09:20,259 It's a much smaller effect 200 00:09:20,259 --> 00:09:22,640 than the leaf litter depth over here, 201 00:09:22,640 --> 00:09:25,650 and so that speaks to sort of some of these sites. 202 00:09:25,650 --> 00:09:29,190 These barrens communities have no overstory. 203 00:09:29,190 --> 00:09:31,500 They have 0 or 10 square feet or 20 square feet, 204 00:09:31,500 --> 00:09:33,477 and so that can be a limiting factor 205 00:09:33,477 --> 00:09:36,742 in terms of germination. 206 00:09:36,742 --> 00:09:38,970 So of course we wanna be able to find a sweet spot 207 00:09:38,970 --> 00:09:41,910 where we have enough pitch pine trees that we're getting, 208 00:09:41,910 --> 00:09:43,803 we're not inhibiting regeneration, 209 00:09:43,803 --> 00:09:47,629 but we're also still resilient to southern pine beetle 210 00:09:47,629 --> 00:09:50,883 and reducing basal areas in really dense stands. 211 00:09:51,780 --> 00:09:56,130 And so of significance are the treatments, 212 00:09:56,130 --> 00:09:59,190 harvest, fall fire, and spring fire. 213 00:09:59,190 --> 00:10:02,400 They are significantly different than control in this model. 214 00:10:02,400 --> 00:10:04,800 And we can see control is really a flat line, 215 00:10:04,800 --> 00:10:07,747 and that has to do with how little germination, 216 00:10:07,747 --> 00:10:12,270 advanced regeneration are present in control plots. 217 00:10:12,270 --> 00:10:15,960 Secondly, we're looking at large pitch pine seedlings. 218 00:10:15,960 --> 00:10:20,486 And so you can see one here on the left, or on the right. 219 00:10:20,486 --> 00:10:23,790 Here on the left, again, in this model we found that, 220 00:10:23,790 --> 00:10:27,390 I found that leaf litter depth is again of interest. 221 00:10:27,390 --> 00:10:29,460 As leaf litter depth increases, 222 00:10:29,460 --> 00:10:32,700 so do predicted counts of pitch pine fall. 223 00:10:32,700 --> 00:10:35,760 And as you might be able to guess, harvest was the only 224 00:10:35,760 --> 00:10:38,640 sort of significantly different treatment here. 225 00:10:38,640 --> 00:10:41,820 And this speaks to how, I think, 226 00:10:41,820 --> 00:10:44,070 really how successful some of these harvests were 227 00:10:44,070 --> 00:10:47,370 in Massachusetts at getting soil scarification 228 00:10:47,370 --> 00:10:50,493 and really exposing mineral soil. 229 00:10:51,450 --> 00:10:54,600 Finally, I looked at saplings. 230 00:10:54,600 --> 00:10:57,420 Saplings are, there's not a lot of them, 231 00:10:57,420 --> 00:10:59,463 so this is a zero inflated model. 232 00:11:00,750 --> 00:11:04,860 And what was of interest here, 233 00:11:04,860 --> 00:11:06,810 which really makes sense when we think about it, 234 00:11:06,810 --> 00:11:08,580 as the time from last treatment 235 00:11:08,580 --> 00:11:11,010 that was used as an offset in this model, 236 00:11:11,010 --> 00:11:13,740 and so the longer it's been since the last treatment, 237 00:11:13,740 --> 00:11:18,338 the more likely there is to be saplings, 238 00:11:18,338 --> 00:11:21,000 'cause they take some time to grow. 239 00:11:21,000 --> 00:11:24,420 And we can see the mowing followed by prescribed fire 240 00:11:24,420 --> 00:11:25,680 doesn't even show up on this graph, 241 00:11:25,680 --> 00:11:27,510 and that's because that mechanical treatment 242 00:11:27,510 --> 00:11:29,730 really prevents pitch pine 243 00:11:29,730 --> 00:11:31,890 from getting into the sapling stage. 244 00:11:31,890 --> 00:11:35,550 And also, you know, control here is not flatlining. 245 00:11:35,550 --> 00:11:36,720 It's actually going up, 246 00:11:36,720 --> 00:11:40,440 and so we did find quite a few saplings 247 00:11:40,440 --> 00:11:43,080 inside control sites, but of course sapling is a size class. 248 00:11:43,080 --> 00:11:46,110 It doesn't necessarily refer to the age of the tree. 249 00:11:46,110 --> 00:11:48,750 And so the saplings that we're seeing in control sites 250 00:11:48,750 --> 00:11:50,850 are much older than the saplings 251 00:11:50,850 --> 00:11:54,483 that we are seeing in managed sites. 252 00:11:56,100 --> 00:11:59,640 So, some conclusions. 253 00:11:59,640 --> 00:12:03,180 We're seeing harvest and fall fire 254 00:12:03,180 --> 00:12:06,840 as showing early signs of success as management strategies. 255 00:12:06,840 --> 00:12:11,315 And that reduced leaf litter depth is really very important. 256 00:12:11,315 --> 00:12:14,746 And so that can come from scarification. 257 00:12:14,746 --> 00:12:16,680 That can also come from fire. 258 00:12:16,680 --> 00:12:18,360 You know, no two fires are the same, 259 00:12:18,360 --> 00:12:19,878 and so fires that smolder 260 00:12:19,878 --> 00:12:22,647 and really reduce leaf litter depth 261 00:12:22,647 --> 00:12:26,013 can be really successful in terms of germination. 262 00:12:26,850 --> 00:12:29,310 Also, there's this sweet spot for basal area. 263 00:12:29,310 --> 00:12:30,625 We don't wanna have too little, 264 00:12:30,625 --> 00:12:32,460 but we also wanna make sure 265 00:12:32,460 --> 00:12:35,610 that we're managing for resilience to southern pine beetle 266 00:12:35,610 --> 00:12:38,880 as it moves into the Northeast here. 267 00:12:38,880 --> 00:12:43,257 And next steps for me are to investigate relationships 268 00:12:43,257 --> 00:12:45,566 between silvicultural treatments 269 00:12:45,566 --> 00:12:48,360 and other characteristic plants 270 00:12:48,360 --> 00:12:50,070 like scrub oak and blueberry, 271 00:12:50,070 --> 00:12:53,013 things that have cultural and ecological value. 272 00:12:54,480 --> 00:12:58,380 I'd like to thank all of my incredible field help, 273 00:12:58,380 --> 00:13:00,870 as well as my advisors and committee, 274 00:13:00,870 --> 00:13:03,063 and the lovely people from my lab. 275 00:13:04,770 --> 00:13:08,370 And I talked so much faster, (chuckles) 276 00:13:08,370 --> 00:13:12,300 so I am ready for questions if anyone has any. 277 00:13:12,300 --> 00:13:13,133 Yes. 278 00:13:13,133 --> 00:13:15,870 [Attendee] What's the (indistinct) basal area 279 00:13:15,870 --> 00:13:17,787 that works (indistinct)? 280 00:13:19,200 --> 00:13:21,630 I don't think that, like from this model, 281 00:13:21,630 --> 00:13:23,580 I haven't identified a number. 282 00:13:23,580 --> 00:13:27,060 I would say, also thinking about managing 283 00:13:27,060 --> 00:13:31,500 for what they found in research for managing for resilience 284 00:13:31,500 --> 00:13:36,017 against southern pine beetle is like 60 to 80 square feet, 285 00:13:36,017 --> 00:13:40,620 you know, so I think we want it to be above 20, 286 00:13:40,620 --> 00:13:45,620 but like 60 to 80 square feet could be really good 287 00:13:46,140 --> 00:13:49,216 for supporting both regeneration prospects 288 00:13:49,216 --> 00:13:54,216 and managing against that sort of vulnerability 289 00:13:55,860 --> 00:13:57,630 to southern pine beetle. 290 00:13:57,630 --> 00:13:58,463 Yes. 291 00:13:58,463 --> 00:14:02,175 -I have a question. -Someone online? 292 00:14:02,175 --> 00:14:07,175 [Moderator] Patch it in. 293 00:14:08,394 --> 00:14:13,394 [Brennan] Hi, Brennan Baltier from the New York State DEC. 294 00:14:14,799 --> 00:14:16,466 Go ahead, Brennan. 295 00:14:20,130 --> 00:14:21,630 [Brennan] Did your site assessments, 296 00:14:21,630 --> 00:14:25,680 were there any variables 297 00:14:25,680 --> 00:14:28,380 that needed to be accounted for and their differences? 298 00:14:32,340 --> 00:14:35,310 So using, I think this is what you're speaking to, 299 00:14:35,310 --> 00:14:37,200 you cut out a little bit, 300 00:14:37,200 --> 00:14:38,400 but I think you're sort of speaking 301 00:14:38,400 --> 00:14:40,530 to how it's a regional study, 302 00:14:40,530 --> 00:14:45,530 and so that really gets caught up in using a random effect. 303 00:14:46,530 --> 00:14:49,065 So both the sites are random 304 00:14:49,065 --> 00:14:53,280 and the plots within the sites are random effects. 305 00:14:53,280 --> 00:14:55,996 So that's kind of the way that we're controlling 306 00:14:55,996 --> 00:15:00,996 for how many different regions that this study spans. 307 00:15:03,210 --> 00:15:04,860 But if that's not what you were talking about, 308 00:15:04,860 --> 00:15:06,003 please let me know. 309 00:15:07,800 --> 00:15:08,633 Yes. 310 00:15:08,633 --> 00:15:11,100 [Brennan] That getting to the point. Yeah. 311 00:15:11,100 --> 00:15:12,660 I was just wondering if you'd noticed 312 00:15:12,660 --> 00:15:15,930 any explicit differences from site to site 313 00:15:15,930 --> 00:15:20,260 that might cause difficulty in these comparisons 314 00:15:20,260 --> 00:15:22,080 when you pulled 'em together 315 00:15:22,080 --> 00:15:24,570 that needed to be kind of accounted for. 316 00:15:24,570 --> 00:15:25,403 Sure. 317 00:15:26,280 --> 00:15:30,270 I think that a lot of what is true about these communities 318 00:15:30,270 --> 00:15:31,960 is true throughout the region, 319 00:15:31,960 --> 00:15:35,624 and so there's certainly some change, you know, 320 00:15:35,624 --> 00:15:40,110 as we move north with plant species, 321 00:15:40,110 --> 00:15:44,250 some differences between inland and coastal barrens. 322 00:15:44,250 --> 00:15:47,670 But overall, I think, in terms of the management 323 00:15:47,670 --> 00:15:51,000 of these systems to create regeneration, 324 00:15:51,000 --> 00:15:52,800 they really are quite comparable. 325 00:15:52,800 --> 00:15:55,440 It's similar soils, it's really similar species, 326 00:15:55,440 --> 00:15:57,434 it's similar structure. 327 00:15:57,434 --> 00:16:00,750 And so I don't really see that as a limiting effect. 328 00:16:00,750 --> 00:16:03,525 Hopefully doing this regional assessment 329 00:16:03,525 --> 00:16:05,867 makes something that's more valuable 330 00:16:05,867 --> 00:16:10,500 to the many land managers that are out there. 331 00:16:10,500 --> 00:16:12,090 And that's really the focus of this project 332 00:16:12,090 --> 00:16:16,953 is to give land managers actionable tools. 333 00:16:18,120 --> 00:16:19,710 -Awesome. -Yes, in the back. 334 00:16:19,710 --> 00:16:20,543 -So- -Thank you. 335 00:16:20,543 --> 00:16:23,610 [Attendee 2] I don't think you mentioned serotiny 336 00:16:23,610 --> 00:16:28,500 and how that might affect the regeneration of pitch pine 337 00:16:28,500 --> 00:16:31,260 and whether a spring burn versus a fall burn 338 00:16:31,260 --> 00:16:32,613 would factor into that. 339 00:16:33,630 --> 00:16:38,280 Yes, one of the sort of site level things that I looked at 340 00:16:38,280 --> 00:16:41,550 was serotiny, using binoculars. 341 00:16:41,550 --> 00:16:43,807 Of course it was a very wet summer, 342 00:16:43,807 --> 00:16:46,832 and so the pine, if you don't know, pines, 343 00:16:46,832 --> 00:16:49,800 pine cones close when it's wet. 344 00:16:49,800 --> 00:16:54,800 And so we did, I did find serotiny in every forest 345 00:16:55,530 --> 00:16:57,330 except for Waterboro, Maine, 346 00:16:57,330 --> 00:16:59,070 and I could have just missed it. 347 00:16:59,070 --> 00:17:02,111 And so serotiny, for those who don't know, 348 00:17:02,111 --> 00:17:04,920 closed cones that are held, 349 00:17:04,920 --> 00:17:07,260 and then there's another element called pyriscence, 350 00:17:07,260 --> 00:17:12,000 which is when they release their seeds after fire. 351 00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:16,420 And so pitch pines can be both serotinous and nonserotinous. 352 00:17:16,420 --> 00:17:18,630 Communities that experience a lot of fire, 353 00:17:18,630 --> 00:17:22,559 like the North Pine Plains, are highly serotinous, 354 00:17:22,559 --> 00:17:23,850 and other communities 355 00:17:23,850 --> 00:17:28,110 that don't experience as much fire are less so. 356 00:17:28,110 --> 00:17:31,590 So I did find serotiny throughout this area. 357 00:17:31,590 --> 00:17:34,500 It's certainly not the majority of trees, 358 00:17:34,500 --> 00:17:38,673 and so that sort of limits its effect, I think. 359 00:17:39,960 --> 00:17:43,260 I think that maybe the fall fire was more successful 360 00:17:43,260 --> 00:17:48,163 in, you know, removing leaf litter, potentially. 361 00:17:48,163 --> 00:17:52,830 And so I didn't see serotiny really as a limiting effect, 362 00:17:52,830 --> 00:17:55,860 but that's something definitely to think about. 363 00:17:55,860 --> 00:17:56,693 Someone else, yes. 364 00:17:56,693 --> 00:17:57,690 [Attendee 3] I was just wondering, 365 00:17:57,690 --> 00:17:59,460 in, well, Northern New York, 366 00:17:59,460 --> 00:18:00,780 and then moving into the Upper Midwest, 367 00:18:00,780 --> 00:18:01,830 there are jack pine barrens 368 00:18:01,830 --> 00:18:03,120 as opposed to pitch pine barrens. 369 00:18:03,120 --> 00:18:06,570 And are you aware of any, like, research in those systems 370 00:18:06,570 --> 00:18:07,740 that might inform your study 371 00:18:07,740 --> 00:18:10,431 or how might findings from your study 372 00:18:10,431 --> 00:18:13,143 inform those systems off of that interchange? 373 00:18:14,640 --> 00:18:19,163 Yeah, I think, you know, jack pine is also, you know, 374 00:18:21,570 --> 00:18:23,740 vulnerable to southern pine beetle. 375 00:18:23,740 --> 00:18:27,630 You know, like hard pine, and as the climate warms, 376 00:18:27,630 --> 00:18:29,490 you know, it's predicted southern pine beetle, 377 00:18:29,490 --> 00:18:31,680 I think, you know, to be way up into Canada, 378 00:18:31,680 --> 00:18:33,330 not in the far too distant future. 379 00:18:33,330 --> 00:18:35,940 So I'm sure that this is something that people, 380 00:18:35,940 --> 00:18:39,303 managers in those systems are also thinking about, 381 00:18:40,380 --> 00:18:42,138 and that there is certainly a lot of, 382 00:18:42,138 --> 00:18:44,520 I think there's a lot of potential overlap, 383 00:18:44,520 --> 00:18:48,150 but I haven't worked specifically with people in jack pine. 384 00:18:48,150 --> 00:18:50,100 [Instructor] We have time for one more question. 385 00:18:50,100 --> 00:18:50,933 Yes. 386 00:18:50,933 --> 00:18:53,100 [Attendee 4] I'm curious your thoughts on, 387 00:18:53,100 --> 00:18:54,600 or your conclusions about mowing, 388 00:18:54,600 --> 00:18:58,620 because it seems like here a lot of our pitch pine systems 389 00:18:58,620 --> 00:19:01,650 are so fragmented that fire is just not an option, 390 00:19:01,650 --> 00:19:05,670 so we try to emulate disturbance by mowing a lot of times, 391 00:19:05,670 --> 00:19:08,488 but I always wonder about scarification 392 00:19:08,488 --> 00:19:12,000 and if we're getting enough exposed mineral soil. 393 00:19:12,000 --> 00:19:14,160 So it seems like looking at your graphs, 394 00:19:14,160 --> 00:19:16,380 like there were, you know, responses from mowing, 395 00:19:16,380 --> 00:19:18,990 but I'm wondering if you saw scarification 396 00:19:18,990 --> 00:19:22,230 just from the process of having the mowers in there, 397 00:19:22,230 --> 00:19:24,600 or if you had to do specific things. 398 00:19:24,600 --> 00:19:27,570 So, while I have seen mowing, 399 00:19:27,570 --> 00:19:31,110 these sites were at least a year from their last treatment, 400 00:19:31,110 --> 00:19:33,840 so they would've been multiple years from mowing. 401 00:19:33,840 --> 00:19:36,960 So I wouldn't say that I saw signs 402 00:19:36,960 --> 00:19:38,820 of scarification from mowing. 403 00:19:38,820 --> 00:19:41,187 I think mowing doesn't really have that same effect, 404 00:19:41,187 --> 00:19:42,540 and it's not really possible 405 00:19:42,540 --> 00:19:46,230 to reduce the leaf litter depth with mowing. 406 00:19:46,230 --> 00:19:50,730 And so in my models, mowing is not significantly different 407 00:19:50,730 --> 00:19:51,738 than control sites. 408 00:19:51,738 --> 00:19:54,240 And so it's really not having 409 00:19:54,240 --> 00:19:56,040 that same effect on pitch pine. 410 00:19:56,040 --> 00:19:57,660 It's great for scrub oak. 411 00:19:57,660 --> 00:19:59,730 You know, if we're really managing for scrub oak 412 00:19:59,730 --> 00:20:03,690 and, you know, the rare lepidoptera associated with it, 413 00:20:03,690 --> 00:20:05,223 or dwarf chinkapin oak, 414 00:20:06,450 --> 00:20:08,460 you know, it definitely has potential in those things, 415 00:20:08,460 --> 00:20:10,479 and these landscapes are matrices 416 00:20:10,479 --> 00:20:12,750 of different types of environments, 417 00:20:12,750 --> 00:20:13,680 and so mowing, I think, 418 00:20:13,680 --> 00:20:15,497 can be really effective in some places, 419 00:20:15,497 --> 00:20:17,640 and it can be effective probably 420 00:20:17,640 --> 00:20:19,560 in sustaining these communities, 421 00:20:19,560 --> 00:20:20,970 but not really so much so far 422 00:20:20,970 --> 00:20:23,763 in generating pitch pine regeneration. 423 00:20:25,410 --> 00:20:26,963 [Instructor] Thanks, everybody.