We're gonna jump right into a panel discussion
that Heather's going to moderate.
We're fortunate to have three experts with us today
who are gonna speak to each of the things called out
in the theme of the conference:
biodiversity, climate change, and well-being,
and can talk about those things in the context
of the sort of promise of forests
as providing solutions to those in more detail.
So I'd like to welcome those three panelists
up to the stage.
This morning, we have Dr. Ali Kosiba
who's an Extension Assistant Professor of Forestry
and an Extension Forester right here
at the University of Vermont based in South Burlington.
We have Dr. Michelle Kondo, a research social scientist
with the USDA Forest Service, Urban Forest,
Human Health and Environmental Quality Unit in Philadelphia,
and Tim Duclos, who's the Healthy Forest Program
Senior Associate with Audubon Vermont,
based in Dorset, Vermont.
Awesome, thank you.
(attendees clapping)
Good morning.
You guys hear me okay?
All right, good.
Awesome.
Well, welcome to our panelists.
We're gonna take a few minutes to let each
of our panelists introduce themselves.
And we have a couple of questions to get us started,
but I encourage you to be, as you're listening
to our panelists, to think about questions that you have
'cause we'll be taking questions from the audience.
So why don't we start with you, Allie?
Okay.
Is this, you can hear me through the microphone?
All right, so I'm assuming my slides will come up here.
All right, here we go.
Good, up on the big screen.
So I am Alexandra Kosiba, I go by Allie.
You, she, her pronouns.
I am the Extension Assistant Professor of Forestry here
at the University of Vermont,
and I serve as a state extension forester.
I've been in this position for a little bit over a year,
but in Vermont for a lot longer than that.
Previous to my position, I came from the state of Vermont,
where I was a climate forester and had other hats,
including, I used to work for the FEMC
a number of years ago.
My expertise is in tree physiology, forest ecology.
And specifically, I work on climate change impacts
and carbon and forest health
to help inform decision-making on the landscape.
So to talk about a couple of those buckets,
the carbon topic has been really of interest lately.
So I do a lot of work educating folks
on the science of forest carbon.
How does it move through forests?
What are the dynamics?
What are the pools?
How can we influence some of those different dynamics
with some of the decisions we make?
And so thing levels from educating foresters
on forest management.
We just hosted a Northeast Silvicultural Workshop
in Massachusetts for New England and New York Foresters
to really delve into this topic deeper.
It's a topic that most folks did not get education on
in their forestry education.
So really, you know, lifting us all up
as a community and learning together.
But I also do a lot of work to educate the general public.
And one of those resources is
the "Northern Woodlands" Magazine.
And so I've been doing an article series
this whole year on forest carbon.
These were supported by a grant,
so they are not under a paywall.
So you can go to Northern Woodlands, access the PDFs
of the articles for free.
I also have them on my website.
So please, you know, access those, distribute those.
And if you want physical copies,
I can get those to you, as well.
And in this role, too, I also help the state
with landscape level carbon accounting on our forest.
How much carbon is in our forest?
How much does it sequester each year?
What are the dynamics with harvested wood products
and other perturbations like forest loss?
How does that affect our carbon benefits from our forests?
The other big bucket I work on is climate change.
So understanding the impacts of climate change on forests,
and then what can we do to have a climate change lens
in our decision-making in the woods
and across our Vermont forest landscape.
So things, again, different levels.
I created this sort of 12-steps to climate resilience
for landowners to really introduce some of these topics
of things and tweaks they could make in their woods
to incorporate climate change impacts
and promote resilience in their forests.
And I do a lot of work like with sugar bush managers
and thinking about resilience in sugar bushes.
So across different types of forests
doing some vulnerability assessments.
And a well plug here, afternoon work session led
by Tony D'Amato, we're doing forest level
vulnerability guides and management guides
that we're starting with Northern hardwoods Spruce Fir.
So if you would like to provide input on that,
we would really welcome some feedback
in that afternoon session.
I also have a survey that I released this summer.
And if you didn't have a chance
to input on that, I welcome more input.
But really, trying to understand what are folks doing
on the landscape, and really create a community of practice.
I know that there is a lot of good work happening.
People are being creative, trying different types of things
to incorporate resilience in their management.
And so I really wanna showcase that
and tell our story better.
And it helps folks that maybe are
a little bit more reluctant to try some of these things
to see what other folks are doing,
seeing what landowners, foresters,
conservation groups are doing on the landscape.
And the last bucket that I work on is
a little bit more forest health related
landscape level planning
with a lot of state of Vermont partners.
So Heather mentioned our Hemlock Conservation Guide
that we released this summer.
This is the first species level state guide
on a species of concern.
And so we hope this will be something we continue updating
and working on as we have more information.
But this idea of thinking a little bit more holistically
across the state on how do we think about work
and managing and conserving a species
that we're worried about its potential loss,
not only from Hemlock woolly adelgid
but also the impacts of climate change.
And I'll plug Vermont Conservation Design as well, working
on finished a version two,
and that will be presented later this afternoon, as well.
So that's a great tool for thinking
about strategically how we have continuity, connectivity,
protecting our biodiversity in our state.
And if you want any more information
on any of these things, building a website,
if there are things on this website
you think should be there, let me know.
I really want this to be a repository for information.
So you can use that QR code
or just Google UVM Extension Forestry and it'll pop up.
Thanks.
Awesome, thank you.
(attendees clapping)
I think we're going to Tim.
Tim's slides might be next?
Sweet.
How's it going, everybody?
My name's Tim Duclos and I am the Healthy Forest Program
Senior Associate at Audubon, Vermont.
I grew up in Vermont, born and raised here in rural Vermont.
And I went to my undergrad here at UVM
in the Rubenstein School.
I've been in conservation since I was more or less
about 16 years old, I'd say.
I got involved through the Green Mountain
Conservation Camps, run through the state of Vermont,
fantastic Camps, and was inspired
by our state wildlife biologists to do what I do now.
After my undergrad years, I bounced around
and did a lot of the seasonal jobs
that we do after undergrad.
And I've been privileged to work
with many of you in this room, either through stints
in AmeriCorps, with the Nature Conservancy,
or with Vermont Fish and Wildlife,
Vermont Center for Eco Studies.
In my graduate education, I was able to really dive
into my interest in Montane Ecology, hiking,
and spending time in our mountains.
I was able to study birds
and how our bird communities are structured
along elevation gradients in the White Mountains
and looking at forest structure,
how the forest structure forms bird habitats
and how climate kind of also forms
population structure along mountains.
So very much thinking about how climate change
in our forests define bird communities,
and especially along elevation
where we can really see changes in climate.
I was with the Northeast Climate Adaptation
Science Center and US Forest Service when I was doing that.
After that, I came back to Vermont
where I worked at Merck Forest and Farmland Center
as their conservation manager.
And I really, there, dove into the world
of Silvicultural and Forestry.
And it was there that I really saw the opportunity
to start thinking about forest management
through the lens of birds.
And I really dove into Audubon Vermont's
Foresters for the Birds Program
and all the amazing guides and work
that Steve Hagenbuch has done in his time
to incorporate thinking about bird habitat
in the context of silviculture.
And then beyond Merck Forest, I'm fortunate now
to be with Audubon Vermont,
where I am advancing our flight plan.
We are full of bird puns here at Audubon.
Audubon Vermont is a state chapter
of the Greater National Audubon Society.
Our mission is to protect birds
in the places they need today and tomorrow.
And in our flight plan, we have identified
four major focal areas.
We have habitat conservation and working
to maintain connectivity across our forested landscape.
We have climate where we're thinking
about carbon sequestration and storage in our forests,
and generally, how our forests are
natural climate solutions to climate change.
We're also thinking about renewable energy.
We also are thinking about policy
and how we can influence these things
through government and working in our communities.
And then lastly, it's about community building
and educating and working with our communities
to advance this from the bottom up.
Here in Vermont, I lead the Healthy Forest Program work,
or at least a component of it.
I work with private landowners
through our Woods Wildlife and Warblers Program.
I essentially go out with landowners
on their properties and talk about bird habitat.
I mix in all kinds of other habitat components, as well,
but we talk about how they can manage their forests
for birds and overall ecosystem health and function.
And so a lot of technical assistance work there
for our part, excuse me, our private landowners.
I also am in developing and leading our
Forestry Training and Endorsement Program
whereby we are working with our foresters
to continue to advance the Bird Friendly Forest Program
our Forest Is For the Birds Program.
And it's in this way that we're hoping to continue to work
with private landowners through the consulting foresters
that they engage with
in devising their land management plans.
I work with youth to engage them in this work, as well.
Our training and preparing our young folks
for coming into the career
and working in this field is extremely important.
And beyond that, I think about monitoring
and demonstrating these practices
and maintaining our strong networks
of partners across the state of Vermont.
And lastly, to make a really strong case for why birds,
well, I mean, birds are amazing indicators
of ecosystem health.
In Vermont, we have roughly about 80 species
that associate with some type of forest habitat.
40 of those species really depend
upon our forest intact core, interior forests.
And they all have different unique habitat needs.
And so when you go out into the forest,
you can tell a lot about what habitat exists
and the health of that forest,
just by the bird community that exists there.
And so in terms of being able to assess, monitor,
and prescribe kind of what conditions exist in the forest,
what we need to do to improve those conditions
birds are an incredible means
to measure that and think about that.
And then also, birds are very charismatic
and, you know, they're compelling as a species for people,
and they really are a hook
that gets a lot of landowners engaged in thinking
about how to steward their woods once they start
to think about the needs of birds in those forests.
It's also, you know, birding is
a multi-billion dollar industry here in the US
so there's a tremendous economic component to birds.
And then also there's a lot of co-benefits
to thinking about bird habitat and bird needs, really.
I'm gonna talk a bit later about ecological forestry.
And truly, when you manage forests for birds
and bird diversity, you manage
for carbon sequestration and storage,
climate resiliency, and greater biodiversity.
So it's truly an honor and privilege
to be here on this panel and I'm excited for this.
Thank you.
Thanks, Tim.
(panelists and attendees clapping)
Michelle.
Hi everyone.
I'm so glad to be here.
I'm Michelle Kondo and I am a Research Social Scientist
with the US Forest Service.
And I'm stationed in Philadelphia.
I think many are not familiar with the fact
that we have urban field stations
and in the northern research station in my unit is,
has an urban focus.
We're the only ones, really, in the country,
so we're a bit unique in that way.
But I do work thinking about, and doing research
on the benefits of forests, urban forests
and forests in general for public health.
And so, you know, I'm not gonna go over all
of the evidence here.
I just wanna give you a little bit of information
about, you know, what I do in the area
in which I'm doing my research.
There is a growing body of research
on the effects of living in greener places,
of traveling through, of going to and visiting,
of having better access to nature.
And I think, likely, I'm in this crowd, we know.
We already, it's like, duh, we already know this.
But, you know, in sort of valuing nature for what it is
and the services that it provides
as a public health amenity
and something that we, our medical systems
and medical insurance and healthcare systems
and plans can and should be investing in,
we have to have that, those numbers and that evidence.
So there is really a growing amount of research
being published these days.
My slide here isn't showing up, but I just wanted
to hear say that I do research
on what I call nature-based interventions for health.
And I take a couple of different approaches.
I take a place-based approach.
So I'm always interested in doing
intervention-based research,
so like randomized controlled trials
and kind of the level of evidence that is needed
to influence public health and medical, healthcare
and health plan investments.
So place-based types of interventions can be tree planting
and, or in cities like Philadelphia
where we have all this vacant space,
we've done a randomized controlled trial
of vacant lot cleaning and greening.
I've done other studies of tree planting programs,
park-based improvements, and I'm always looking
to partner with folks who monitor,
who have monitoring records.
You know, we can look back in time
and measure the social and public health benefits
that might be associated with forest improvements over time.
My text is not showing up.
Oh, no.
Go one more.
So this is, I also do person-based, you know,
nature-based interventions
that involve people and individuals.
So nature prescriptions, perhaps some of you have heard
of park prescriptions, the Park RX, Nature RX.
These are partnerships between medical providers,
healthcare institutions, hospitals,
and land managers, forest managers,
parks and recreation managers
to try to value and use nature and nature exposure
as a therapeutic, a preventative,
and a therapeutic treatment.
And so I have a program right now
that I have helped to build a called Prescribe Outside
and it's a partnership
with the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia or CHOP.
And, let's see, we have an arboretum,
Aubrey Arboretum in Philadelphia, Let's Go Outdoors,
a recreation specialist.
And so often the focus in cities and urban areas is
bringing, you know, improving nature access,
bringing nature work to where people are.
So we're not always gonna be able to bring people out
to our national forests.
I think the closest in Philadelphia
to Philadelphia is somewhere in West Virginia,
our closest national forest.
So I'm working with, we have an Urban Connections Program
out of our state and private forestry division
that is working on and interested
in supporting, you know, bringing nature
to where people are helping act,
people access local nature with the goal
of eventually, you know, getting them out into the forests.
But we have, so I'm working with this program
and I want to, let's see,
we also, in my agency are working on,
you know, building toolkits for national forest managers
and other forest managers for, you know,
supporting building partnerships
with, you know, for public health
to bring people to forests for public health benefits.
I also want to say that I am involved in estimating.
I do work to estimate the public health value of forests.
So ecosystems, you know, public health is
an ecosystem service of forests.
And it can be of existing forests,
it can be also of planned forests.
So, for example, Philadelphia is one of many cities,
especially in a region such as this
that has a tree canopy goal of 30%,
sort of that sort of magic number here
that we're trying to reach.
And so Philadelphia set, I think, back in 2015,
set this standard, you know, wanting to meet 30%
throughout the city.
What would that look like?
I mean, it's very ambitious, right?
And so unfortunately, lots of my images
are not showing up.
So I have helped to estimate using existing
epidemiological research showing
at different various levels of greenness
in residential spaces, your risk of premature mortality.
So applying that to using
this health impact assessment approach
to a 30% canopy goal, what if we were to meet that goal.
What impact would it have?
And we estimated of preventing nearly 400 premature deaths.
So this is like, a policy goal for 2025.
And, you know, we had other estimates
for more less ambitious goals.
Some would call them more realistic,
So I'm also involved and there's a natural capital
a project estimating the worth of
in terms of public health value of our existing forests.
So there are other studies that are beginning
to focus on, you know, what are the other dimensions
or ways or values of public, of forests.
So we're starting to see analyses
of using healthcare records and costs.
So we now have studies using, for example,
Medicare records across the country.
This is an analysis of patients from Kaiser Permanente
in Northern California showing that holding
all other things equal, demographics,
socio demographics, income,
and on all of this, that living in areas
that are more green, you know, comes
with lower costs, healthcare costs.
So providing that evidence there
that hopefully will help to change policy,
to provide more support for getting people outdoors.
Awesome.
Thank you, Michelle.
It's terrific, terrific.
(attendees clapping)