- Well thank you everybody.
I am Jen Pontius, the principal investigator for the FEMC
and I was just hoping to share a few closing
thoughts to send us all off after
our first fully virtual annual conference this year.
And I really have to start
with a big thank you to everybody.
We honestly weren't sure how this meeting was going to go.
I think it's all organizations that are struggling
with the new normal of a pandemic.
It really does take a village to make all this work.
So first and foremost,
I really have to thank all of our presenters.
It is kind of daunting to think about presenting online.
It's a lot different than maybe the Zoom meetings
that we've all kind of grown accustomed to in our work
especially thinking about WiFi connection issues.
So really, again, thanks to all of our presenters
for really making this still
an incredibly informative conference.
I also have to thank our staff
especially considering this is the first time
we've done anything virtually like this.
I can't even imagine what was happening
behind the scenes to keep all of this working
and running smoothly.
I don't know about the rest of you
but I never thought of myself as tech challenged
until I tried to get into the Wonder Room.
So the fact that our staff has really been working
to make this work for all of us is something I really have
to just give them a big shout out
for all of their efforts in this.
I also wanna thank all of the committee members,
FEMC steering committee, our advisory committees,
the State committees.
It really is so much more than just the staff
that guides the work of the FEMC.
And it is a time commitment
that is often unrecognized and unrewarded.
So I just wanna really make sure
that all of our committee members know how much
we appreciate their investment particularly in a time
when we really are hoping to expand this model
farther across the region.
We have to also thank our funding sources
and our administrative partners
for making this all possible and keeping this work going.
Monitoring is not necessarily one of those, you know,
I tend to think of it as what are sort of the exciting
or hot topic things to fund, right?
We're not developing COVID vaccines
but it's so important to keep this long-term work going.
Especially considering that most research grants,
you know run on a three to five-year cycle.
So the fact that we've been able to maintain funding
for this work is something that we're really appreciative of
and also for Senator Leahy and Tom Berry
for really advocating for this at the federal level.
And finally, I have to thank all of you for showing up.
Again, as I mentioned we weren't really sure what to expect
when we realized that we were gonna have
to go fully online for this meeting.
I have to say I was a little worried
that everybody would have Zoom burnout
from their work lives
and wouldn't be interested in sitting in front
of the computer for another set of meetings,
especially for longer talks.
But I have to say, even though it didn't look like this,
we weren't able to do this sort of in-person networking
that we normally do.
We really did figure out how to make it work.
So it looked a little bit more, a little bit more like this.
And, you know, I would like to point out that I think
that there were drawbacks to not being able
to meet in person,
but I think that there were also some benefits
and that maybe this could be some sort
of a hybrid model moving forward.
So just really quickly,
I was just gonna point out some of the lows and highs
of remote conferencing and let you all know
that we will be getting a survey as always
at the end of these conferences
to give us feedback on how we can improvement so,
improve the conference, so keep this in mind.
When I think of, you know
some of the downsides to having a remote conference
we don't get to bring everybody
to this fabulous location at a magical time of year.
So we really do miss seeing people's faces
and having them here, but the upside of that
and I think this was particularly helpful this year.
We were able to make sure
that everybody could still actually get here.
We did have one other conference
that coincided with a snow storm,
and we were really concerned that some of our participants
wouldn't be able to get their flights in or drive up.
So it was really nice
not to have to worry about that this year.
Again, the downside is
that we aren't able to do what I think
really does make this conference special is our ability
to connect with each other across organizations,
across disciplines to be able
to forge new collaborative efforts
and really hear each other
and be able to share different perspectives.
So while that is something that I think a lot
of us really do miss the upside is that we're actually
I think getting to know each other a little bit better
in different ways.
So as an example, I know it's blurry here
but I hadn't realized that my Zoom profile defaulted
to a picture of me sipping a glass of wine
in a field with our Cal Lucy.
So, you know, maybe there are ways
that we can find connections in this remote atmosphere
that we couldn't do if we were actually I- person.
And Jim's gonna love that.
So like for example
I need to ask Jim who made that fabulous quilt behind him.
I got to see people's children.
I got to hear people's dogs.
And you can think of that as a downside.
But honestly I think
that having a social fabric that pulls us together
is just as important as our professional fabric.
The other piece that I recognize has been potentially
challenging are just the technical issues.
So as an example, we did have some connection hiccups
but the upside is
that I really enjoyed being able to connect right
to different web links
for more information that people could place in the chat.
And I also think that the chat function allowed us
to ask a lot more questions
than we might've had time for if we were all in-person.
So pros and cons
and maybe the best takeaway I'm getting from this is
that this could be a hybrid model for the future.
So as I mentioned, the Wonder Room
when you may find that your first experience
with new technology may look something like this, I'm glad
that the Wonder Room thought I was looking good today
but I feel more like a deer caught in the headlights.
I think that Peter Church, our chair
of our steering committee summed it
up best yesterday in our steering committee meeting
when he said, "There's nothing like a pandemic
to upgrade our IT capabilities."
So I do recognize how many people were able to participate
from farther away who may not have been able
to if we were fully in-person.
So do keep an eye out for maybe some sort of a hybrid model
moving forward where you might have both options.
So FEMC staff, sorry, here's a heads up right now.
So to get onto the topic
I did wanna just sort of offer some
of the takeaways that I am walking away from this meeting.
And our focus was to look
at the changing forested landscape.
And as always, we are a monitoring cooperative.
How does monitoring inform the research
and inform what we know about this changing landscape?
And I'm not gonna recap any of the talks.
They were fabulous.
Honestly, I'm always impressed with how much work
is going on across the region, but these are all recorded
and available for you to access at any time.
So please continue to share them.
What I wanna focus on a little bit more
is what we have learned
and maybe where we should be going.
And the first takeaway I have is,
again there is so much great work
that is being done across the region.
And this, I think really is important
for us at a time of great change, right?
We really need this information
both in terms of the monitoring and the research
and how do we use this to actually inform what we do
on the ground and how we put these plans into action.
So, especially at a meeting like this
where we do have people from different disciplines
and different organizations and using different approaches
and methodologies, I think there really is value.
And it's always nice to see
that presented at a conference like this.
But my second takeaway is that
I think what makes a lot of that work that was presented
so valuable is the incorporation
of what I'm calling intentional monitoring.
So intentional, it's both vague
and also I realized a loaded term.
So I wanted to spend a little bit
of time talking about what, I mean,
what were the characteristics of these efforts
that really I think, make them successful and so important.
So I'll break it down as sort of a best practices, right?
What are the best practices that we've seen in a lot
of the work that people are already doing across the region
and that we could strive to do more of moving forward?
And the first thing is this idea
of crossing borders and scales.
And I think that that Kate Miller demonstrated quite nicely
in her plenary, how working
not just across different States
but actually across different agencies as well
and different ownership types to be able to understand
not just what's happening at your location or in your State
but to actually think about the broader landscape
and what's representative of that larger landscape
and what's happening
but then also the importance of working across scales.
So then in our, and in this morning's plenary,
Charlie Driscoll talked about all the amazing work
that's been happening at Hubbard Brook
and how this ability to dive deeper
and really understand what's happening at one location
provides much needed insight to some of the drivers
of the changes that we're seeing.
So we really have to be thinking about how
to move sort of outside of our silos
be that disciplinary political boundaries
or organizational boundaries.
And a lot of the presenters here are doing that really well.
The other thing that I saw as a hallmark of really good work
is that it's built upon these collaborative networks.
So it's a lot of sharing either of data,
ideas or even lessons learned, you know, what has worked
for one State and what has failed for one State.
How can we learn from that
as we try to expand efforts in other locations?
So this sort of active networking from the beginning
not just sharing information,
you know after the work is completed,
I think is really valuable.
The other thing that this work highlights
or this body of sort of collaborative work highlights
is the importance of looking at trends over time,
rather than just at a single snapshot or even,
you know more incremental measurements.
The ecosystems are incredibly variable
and there's so much that drives this.
There's so much sort of random noise that's happening.
How can we really tease out the signals
that we're interested in?
How is climate impact in as far as how our different pests
and pathogens impact the impacting the ecosystems.
So having this sort of long-term regular interval
monitoring data is so important for us to really understand
and sort of isolate that signal,
which is what we ultimately have to do
to be able to inform management.
The other piece that I saw,
and so many of the collaborators in the FEMC network
do this so well, is this working across
what I'm gonna call a gradient.
And you can think of this gradient
as science to stakeholders.
The way that I think of it is we have people
who work in different capacities
and we need to both have the science
that's happening at the research level,
trickle across down through land managers, policy makers,
decision makers but also to the actual practitioners
on the ground and the concerned citizens.
And then the thing that I think we could do much better
is also having that information flow go the opposite way.
So what are the people who are actually
on the ground across the region?
What are they seeing and how can that information come
through so that we can focus our research
on some of the gaps that those people can highlight for us.
So that I think is an area
where we could work a little bit better.
The other thing that is really important
is this ability to address emerging or evolving issues.
And again, I think Charlie Driscoll's data
on what they were able to do after the '98 ice storm
is really indicative of that.
We're seeing these sort of disturbance regimes
at intensities or frequencies that we haven't seen before.
How do we make sure that the work that we're doing can pivot
to be able to address that and ask questions
about those sort of new or emerging threats
and all of that does hinge upon stability, right?
It's hard to be nimble
if you don't have sort of a stable base
either of funding or a collaborative network
to be able to move into action and to address those things.
So all of these different sort of best practices
or all things that the FEMC works hard to facilitate
across the collaborative network
but there is always sort of this question
of how can we do it better, right?
We are always looking to see
if there are better ways that we can serve the region.
And I wanted to give you all a heads up
that we are moving into our strategic planning
in January and February.
And you will likely be getting a survey from us,
asking you about the types of activities
we should be supporting, what things we'd been doing well,
what things we could do better.
And we really do need input from you.
This is your collaborative, right?
We as a staff really work at the will of the committees
that guide us who are ultimately informed
by the larger stakeholder base.
So please do provide some feedback to us
and help us become even better.
So with that, I am going to wish you all amazing holidays
and let's see, I'll stop my share
so you can actually see a face
and thank you again for participating
and really making this much better than we had anticipated.
So thank you all, be well, take care of yourselves,
take care of each other
and keep doing the good work that you're doing.
Thanks everybody.