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- [Peter] Welcome everybody

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to the FEMC Monitoring
Cooperative Conference...

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Virtually.

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Hope everyone's hanging in
there on this a snowy day,

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at least in the new England area.

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For those of you that don't
know me, my name's Peter Church.

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I'm the Director of
Forest Stewardship for the

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Massachusetts Department of
Conservation and Recreation.

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And I'm currently the chair of
the FEMC Steering Committee.

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I'm happy to welcome you to
the 2020 FEMC conference.

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And although I'm sad, I'm not up at UVM,

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I am happy that I can present this year

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our conference titled

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Revealing a Changing Forested Landscape,

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where we have come, from
what we have learned,

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and what's next in longterm
ecosystem monitoring.

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Despite these difficult times,

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the past year for FEMC has
been another year of growth

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with more cooperators getting involved

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and the resources and tools
growing in scale and scope.

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I'm pleased to welcome Connecticut

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and Rhode Island to the program.

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And I want to acknowledge
Maine's expanded role

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in the Cooperative.

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These expanded partnerships will further

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strengthen this focused regional effort

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As Jim Duncan will share in a moment,

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there are some exciting new developments

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and initiatives that
come with this growth.

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The evolution of the FEMC
brings new opportunities

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for sharing information
on forest conditions

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across our region and
increasing regional connections.

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That makes this a timely
moment to take and step back

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and think broadly about what we've learned

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from long-term monitoring over time,

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where we are going next,

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and what's the focus
of today's conference.

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Today, we're fortunate to have
two great plenary sessions

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where Dr. Miller and Dr. Driscoll

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can present some of the stories of change

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in our regions for us and
what is on the horizon.

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I hope this can in turn,
challenge us to think

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about what our monitoring
needs look like in the future

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as we continue to track change.

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What has surprised us...

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in our monitoring work
and how did we respond?

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What can we do differently next time?

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What future opportunities
are there for monitoring

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and exploring the data we have?

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How do we use new and innovative
methods for monitoring?

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I encourage you to keep
these questions in mind

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and engage in the many
aspects of the next two days

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to make these new connections.

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Thank you for being here and again,

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sorry we all can't be
together live in person.

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And with that, I'm
going to turn it over to

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Jim Duncan, the director of FEMC.

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Jim.

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- [Jim] Thank you, Pete.

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And thank you for your
leadership and guidance

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over the past two years.

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We are extremely grateful for the service

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that you've given to FEMC

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and look forward to continuing to work

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with you in the future.

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And thank you to all of
you for participating.

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This has been a difficult year

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and this is a challenging
conference to participate in

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but we're also able to think

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about opportunities to
engage during this conference

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in ways that we may
not have otherwise had.

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And so there's some silver linings:

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our networking breaks,

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being able to engage with speakers

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during the contributed talks,

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and making connections

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that we might not
physically be able to do.

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We know from past feedback
how important networking

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and connections and
physically being together is.

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And so we appreciate you all
being here in spite of that.

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I hope we can take advantage

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of some of these opportunities
that we've given you today.

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And thank you to all the invited speakers

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for all the work that you're doing

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to make this conference happen.

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I'd also like to
recognize the awesome work

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of our Conference Planning Committee

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in helping us pull all this together.

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Laura Kenefick, Leslie and
Depiki Sheru, Brittany Mosher,

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and Alexei Saran were invaluable supports

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for us as we developed
the theme in plenary.

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So thank you to each of you
for your time and energy.

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Before we get into the plenary session

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I'm going to use organizer's
privilege to share a little bit

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about FEMCs activities over the past year

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and what's coming up in the year ahead.

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As we close out this strange year,

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FEMC has continued to grow.

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As Pete mentioned, we're
excited to be welcoming

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Connecticut, Maine, and
Rhode Island into the FEMC.

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And this rounds out a really
strong and cohesive unit

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for thinking about forests
in our region as a system

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unto themselves, and
also as a part of what

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knits us together as a human community.

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I'm excited that we'll be
starting a new type of engagement

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at the state level as
well with the development

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of state coordinator positions.

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These professionals will be
based in each participating

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state forestry agency

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and they're going to
coordinate with FEMC staff

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on state and regional project work.

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This opens up a wealth of
new opportunity for the depth

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and breadth of work that we can
accomplish as a cooperative.

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So, please keep up with our newsletter.

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We're going to be
introducing them in batches

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over the coming months and
many of them are on today.

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So thank you for joining
up and for joining in.

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Our team continues to grow as well.

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I would normally get to ask
all these great folks to

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stand up and maybe ask
John to stop running around

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for a second to be acknowledged,

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but I just want to be
able to show our staff,

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the faces here form the
core of who we work with,

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but we're also lucky to have

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even more folks involved
throughout the year.

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Right now, Clark Cooper,
Azana Wolf, Joe Robertson,

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are all bringing their expertise
and insight to the work,

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as well as the people you see here.

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And as we've had the bid
goodbye to Allie Casibez

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as our Project Manager this year,

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as she moved to Forest
Parks and Recreation,

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we're fortunate to be able to bring on

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a couple of new staff as well.

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We have Pia Ruisi-Besares on
as our new Project Manager,

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Elissa Schuett has joined up
as our Outreach Professional,

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and we're proud to have
Emma Gwyn here as part

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of the Vermont ECO AmeriCorps program.

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Each of them has done a great
job jumping into the program

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in fully remote.

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So please take the time
to connect with them

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during the conference if you can.

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Several new tools are available

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since the last time we got together.

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We've collated dozens of key
forest regeneration studies

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and methods to support assessments of

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how forests are regenerating.

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We've brought together
urban tree inventory data to

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help explain the economic
costs of invasive insects.

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And we're providing easy,
ready to use spatial data

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and trend analysis to
support those investigating

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the connections between forest
cover and water quality.

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If you haven't already,

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take some time to explore these tools,

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and if you have any suggestions

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on how we can make them stronger,

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please let us know.

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We're in the midst of some
exciting efforts as well.

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We have some work going on to

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integrate inventory program
data from across the region.

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There's a talk later in
the conference about this

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I encourage you to check out.

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FEMC is excited to have
been involved envisioning

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what a coordinated monitoring
of restoration efforts

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could look like and we're
really excited to announce

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a release at the fully redone
Forest Indicator dashboard

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for Vermont and similar
dashboards for New Hampshire

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and New York are about to be launched.

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And our regional project work continues.

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As we speak we're in the middle
of several great projects

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I wanted to give an update on.

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One of these is focused on
identifying and reporting

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changes in disturbance regimes.

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We're trying to make
information about disturbance

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in our region easier
to access and work with

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and taught people to say
something about what is changing

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and what is not yet changing
in those disturbance regimes.

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This involves not only looking back

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at key disturbances of today,

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but also digging further
back into historical data

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from reports, old files, and
other sources of at-risk data

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to understand what the longer picture

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of disturbance and
change is in our region.

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Another large undertaking for our staff

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and our larger Cooperative

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is to provide a summary
of where and how we are

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monitoring forests for
signs of climate change,

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maybe starting to have an impact

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on the systems that we depend on.

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Working with a great team in the region,

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we're identifying the indicators,

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where these indicators
are being monitored now,

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and where there are gaps in our monitoring

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that may need to be filled.

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And finally, we're bringing
together information

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on the ways that we monitor,
the methods, and the systems

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so that as new monitoring comes online

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we can try and get the most comparability

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and interoperability in
that data as possible.

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As we step into 2021,

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there's a couple of exciting
things to look forward to.

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We have a couple of regional
projects that we'll be starting

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up as the other regional
projects wind down.

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The first is A regional
assessment of browse

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and how browse is impacting
forest vegetation.

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This'll be a combination of compilation

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of existing knowledge,
development of model methods,

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and potentially collection of new data

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to understand what the full
picture browse impacts are

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at a regional scale.

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A second more focused
project is to make a proposal

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about how we might monitor the impacts

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of recreation on forest ecosystems.

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Again, looking at what
is being done already

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and what we might need to do

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as a region to better
understand this issue.

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And finally, this summer
we'll begin expanding

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our forest health
monitoring program further.

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It currently covers
Vermont and Massachusetts,

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we'll be bringing that forest
monitoring annual network

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out to the region starting in the summer,

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working with our state coordinators.

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And many other great activities
underneath all of these,

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but these are going to be
some really significant

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efforts that we'll be jumping into here

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in the coming month or two.

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And finally, something entirely new.

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We are going to be launching

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the Forest Ecosystem
Monitoring Cooperatives

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Monitoring and Assessment Fund.

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This is a new effort proposed
by our steering committee

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to support maintaining critical monitoring

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in the region with the potential
for supporting a variety

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of activities from upgrading
old data log equipment,

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to piloting a monitoring program,

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increasing the comparability
of a monitoring program,

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supporting monitoring that
may not happen every year.

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So be on the lookout
for that in the spring.

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And finally

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It's been 30 years,
2021 marks the 30th year

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since the inception of the
Vermont Monitoring Cooperative.

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And it's been five years

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since we launched the
FEMC at our conference.

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And so we are in the process of going

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through strategic planning,

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and I'm hoping that as
many of you as possible

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can join us today at 12:35
for listening session

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to help us make this cooperative stronger

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and something that will
last another 30 years.

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Finally I would be remiss
if I didn't acknowledge

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the funding and support that
keeps the core of FEMC going

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from the Forest Service,
Massachusetts DCR,

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Rubenstein School of Environment
and Natural Resources,

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and the Vermont Agency
of Natural Resources,

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as well as a lot of in kind
support and increasing support

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from each of our state
partners beginning in 2021.

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And we're also fortunate to have a number

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of other organizations funding
monitoring in the region

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through the work that we do here at FEMC.

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I also want to extend a
sincere thanks to Senator Leahy

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for his continued support
for the Cooperative

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as well as his larger commitments

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to helping us preserve and
understand forest ecosystems

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in the larger natural
world and our region.

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And finally, I do want to thank

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John Chung and Elissa
Schuett and Emma Gwyn

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for their fantastic work
organizing this conference

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and pulling all the pieces together.

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They are an amazing team

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and we couldn't be here without them.

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So thank you each of you
for your time and effort.