1 00:00:06,840 --> 00:00:09,450 - This is with Hanusia Higgins. 2 00:00:09,450 --> 00:00:11,290 She is with the University of Vermont 3 00:00:11,290 --> 00:00:12,680 and will be presenting today 4 00:00:12,680 --> 00:00:17,040 about the Impacts of Emerald Ash Borer Management 5 00:00:20,851 --> 00:00:22,763 on Northern Hardwood Forest Dynamics. 6 00:00:24,470 --> 00:00:26,110 - Hi, my name is Hanusia Higgins 7 00:00:26,110 --> 00:00:28,520 and I'm a masters student here at UVM. 8 00:00:28,520 --> 00:00:30,810 Today, I'll be talking about my progress so far 9 00:00:30,810 --> 00:00:34,010 in studying the Impact of Emerald Ash Borer Management 10 00:00:34,010 --> 00:00:36,963 on the Northern Hardwood Forest Dynamics in New England. 11 00:00:39,280 --> 00:00:42,410 So invasive pests are a major issue in U.S. forests, 12 00:00:42,410 --> 00:00:44,210 I'm sure all of you already know. 13 00:00:44,210 --> 00:00:45,690 And as you can see from this map, 14 00:00:45,690 --> 00:00:48,480 they're especially concentrated here in the Northeast 15 00:00:48,480 --> 00:00:50,600 and because our North American tree species 16 00:00:50,600 --> 00:00:53,300 aren't as well adapted to deal with these pests, 17 00:00:53,300 --> 00:00:56,150 they can be much more destructive than native ones. 18 00:00:56,150 --> 00:00:57,860 This map uses data from 2012 19 00:00:57,860 --> 00:01:00,130 so they're even more invasive pests these days 20 00:01:00,130 --> 00:01:02,650 such as the spotted lantern fly, which was first discovered 21 00:01:02,650 --> 00:01:04,463 in Pennsylvania in 2014. 22 00:01:06,740 --> 00:01:09,150 But one of the most devastating insect pests 23 00:01:09,150 --> 00:01:11,690 is the emerald ash borer or EAB. 24 00:01:11,690 --> 00:01:14,450 And I'm sure many of you are very familiar with this pest 25 00:01:14,450 --> 00:01:15,370 but for those who aren't, 26 00:01:15,370 --> 00:01:17,280 I'm going to provide a brief overview 27 00:01:17,280 --> 00:01:19,760 before I get into talking about my project. 28 00:01:19,760 --> 00:01:21,670 So EAB is a metallic green beetle 29 00:01:21,670 --> 00:01:23,250 that's originally from Eastern Asia 30 00:01:23,250 --> 00:01:25,760 and it was first discovered here in the U.S. 31 00:01:25,760 --> 00:01:28,370 in Michigan in 2002, although we now believe 32 00:01:28,370 --> 00:01:30,820 that it's been here since the 1990s. 33 00:01:30,820 --> 00:01:32,410 EAB attacks ash trees 34 00:01:32,410 --> 00:01:35,320 and all of the North American ash species are susceptible 35 00:01:35,320 --> 00:01:36,633 to varying degrees. 36 00:01:38,730 --> 00:01:41,390 EAB kills trees by feeding on their phloem layer 37 00:01:41,390 --> 00:01:43,800 which transports nutrients throughout the tree 38 00:01:43,800 --> 00:01:45,780 and this feeding basically cuts off the tree's 39 00:01:45,780 --> 00:01:47,620 nutrient transport system 40 00:01:47,620 --> 00:01:50,790 and it can die within a few years once infested. 41 00:01:50,790 --> 00:01:52,720 So on the left, you can see an example 42 00:01:52,720 --> 00:01:55,120 of the feeding tunnels that EAB creates 43 00:01:55,120 --> 00:01:58,240 and on the right, you can see how this pest 44 00:01:58,240 --> 00:02:00,440 not only affects ash trees in forests, 45 00:02:00,440 --> 00:02:03,210 but also those in urban and suburban environments. 46 00:02:03,210 --> 00:02:05,530 So for example, this street in Toledo, Ohio 47 00:02:05,530 --> 00:02:08,713 was decimated by EAB in only a few years. 48 00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:12,580 And as you may have guessed from the title of my talk, 49 00:02:12,580 --> 00:02:14,000 EAB isn't just in the Midwest. 50 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:16,380 Of course, it's spread to over 35 U.S. states 51 00:02:16,380 --> 00:02:18,370 and five Canadian provinces. 52 00:02:18,370 --> 00:02:19,430 These states are represented 53 00:02:19,430 --> 00:02:22,060 on this map by the green or blue overlay. 54 00:02:22,060 --> 00:02:24,690 And I do have to mention in case anyone isn't aware, 55 00:02:24,690 --> 00:02:26,680 one reason that it's been able to spread so quickly 56 00:02:26,680 --> 00:02:28,990 is that humans disperse it by moving firewood 57 00:02:28,990 --> 00:02:32,740 that's infested with EAB and as my advisor likes to say, 58 00:02:32,740 --> 00:02:35,900 EAB can travel as fast as 65 miles per hour 59 00:02:35,900 --> 00:02:37,430 down the highway in the back of a truck. 60 00:02:37,430 --> 00:02:40,130 So if you take away nothing else from my talk today, 61 00:02:40,130 --> 00:02:41,740 please just remember to not 62 00:02:41,740 --> 00:02:43,783 move your firewood long distances. 63 00:02:45,470 --> 00:02:48,220 So why do we care about EAB? 64 00:02:48,220 --> 00:02:50,340 There are actually a lot of reasons to care about it. 65 00:02:50,340 --> 00:02:53,210 So ecologically, we're not just losing ash trees. 66 00:02:53,210 --> 00:02:55,780 There are ripple effects throughout the ecosystem 67 00:02:55,780 --> 00:02:57,850 when we do lose those ash trees. 68 00:02:57,850 --> 00:02:59,840 For example, one study in Michigan found 69 00:02:59,840 --> 00:03:03,180 that forest hit hard by EAB had more invasive plants 70 00:03:03,180 --> 00:03:05,660 colonizing the areas where ash trees had been. 71 00:03:05,660 --> 00:03:08,580 So it can trigger this kind of invasion pathway 72 00:03:08,580 --> 00:03:10,840 for other invasive species to come in 73 00:03:10,840 --> 00:03:13,170 and further impact these forests. 74 00:03:13,170 --> 00:03:15,400 And economically it's pretty expensive 75 00:03:15,400 --> 00:03:18,250 to treat and or remove so many trees. 76 00:03:18,250 --> 00:03:21,350 One study in 2010 estimated those costs would exceed 77 00:03:21,350 --> 00:03:24,890 at $10 billion and the area that EAB has invaded 78 00:03:24,890 --> 00:03:28,000 is now larger than that study projected 10 years ago. 79 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:31,830 So it's been very expensive and black ash in particular 80 00:03:31,830 --> 00:03:33,580 is a very important cultural resource 81 00:03:33,580 --> 00:03:35,050 to several indigenous tribes, 82 00:03:35,050 --> 00:03:37,220 including the Abenaki here in Vermont 83 00:03:37,220 --> 00:03:40,820 who use black ashwood for their traditional basket making. 84 00:03:40,820 --> 00:03:43,110 And unfortunately, black ash is one of the species 85 00:03:43,110 --> 00:03:44,720 that's hit the hardest by EAB. 86 00:03:44,720 --> 00:03:46,070 So there's a lot motivating people. 87 00:03:46,070 --> 00:03:48,980 We actually doing to try to save our ashes. 88 00:03:48,980 --> 00:03:51,230 There have been several approaches. 89 00:03:51,230 --> 00:03:53,760 So chemical treatment involves injecting ash trees 90 00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:56,930 with an insecticide that kills the EAB feeding on it. 91 00:03:56,930 --> 00:03:59,040 This is effective, but it's also costly. 92 00:03:59,040 --> 00:04:00,930 It's temporary because insecticide 93 00:04:00,930 --> 00:04:02,940 has to be reapplied every few years 94 00:04:02,940 --> 00:04:04,520 and it's a tree by tree solution, 95 00:04:04,520 --> 00:04:07,200 it's not a landscape level solution. 96 00:04:07,200 --> 00:04:10,700 Biological control involves introducing EAB parasitoids 97 00:04:10,700 --> 00:04:13,470 from its native range to control its population here 98 00:04:13,470 --> 00:04:16,570 since it's lacking in natural enemies in the U.S. 99 00:04:16,570 --> 00:04:18,410 Several parasitoid species have been 100 00:04:18,410 --> 00:04:20,000 successfully released in the U.S, 101 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:23,130 but at this point they haven't been able to get EAB in check 102 00:04:23,130 --> 00:04:24,500 to the point where it's a tolerable 103 00:04:24,500 --> 00:04:27,750 and non-fatal pest to most ash trees. 104 00:04:27,750 --> 00:04:31,560 Genetic programs are breeding EAB resistance in ash trees 105 00:04:31,560 --> 00:04:33,150 and they're making some progress, 106 00:04:33,150 --> 00:04:35,040 but that is more of a long-term solution 107 00:04:35,040 --> 00:04:36,950 and it's not going to save the ash 108 00:04:36,950 --> 00:04:39,910 that are in our forest and towns and cities right now. 109 00:04:39,910 --> 00:04:41,160 However, I do want to highlight 110 00:04:41,160 --> 00:04:43,170 that there is some level of natural resistance 111 00:04:43,170 --> 00:04:46,590 to EAB among them North American ash species. 112 00:04:46,590 --> 00:04:48,650 Most of them die, but not all of them do 113 00:04:48,650 --> 00:04:51,553 and that's important and it does vary between species. 114 00:04:53,200 --> 00:04:56,060 And I will be focusing on forest management techniques 115 00:04:56,060 --> 00:05:00,100 which encompass a wide range of strategies for a while. 116 00:05:00,100 --> 00:05:01,610 The phloem reduction technique 117 00:05:01,610 --> 00:05:03,630 of cutting down the largest ash trees 118 00:05:03,630 --> 00:05:07,500 because they have the most real estate for EAB was promoted, 119 00:05:07,500 --> 00:05:10,100 but that didn't end up reducing EAB populations, 120 00:05:10,100 --> 00:05:12,533 it just reduced ash populations. 121 00:05:15,260 --> 00:05:17,380 And one important point to keep in mind 122 00:05:17,380 --> 00:05:20,010 is that the management of a forest pest 123 00:05:20,010 --> 00:05:23,680 can have a larger impact on the forest than the pest itself 124 00:05:23,680 --> 00:05:25,903 or even just a different kind of impact. 125 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:31,010 So what do we know about this issue right now? 126 00:05:31,010 --> 00:05:34,080 We know about the direct impacts of EAB on ash trees 127 00:05:34,080 --> 00:05:36,150 and the communities they're in. 128 00:05:36,150 --> 00:05:37,960 We know about the impact of management 129 00:05:37,960 --> 00:05:39,270 for other invasive pests, 130 00:05:39,270 --> 00:05:41,010 such as the hemlock woolly adelgid, 131 00:05:41,010 --> 00:05:43,520 which has similarities to EAB. 132 00:05:43,520 --> 00:05:46,170 And several studies have predicted the effect of management 133 00:05:46,170 --> 00:05:49,540 for EAB on our forest using surveys and models. 134 00:05:49,540 --> 00:05:51,740 But what we haven't had yet is information 135 00:05:51,740 --> 00:05:54,370 about the management strategies that are actually happening 136 00:05:54,370 --> 00:05:57,520 that are already in place and what impact those practices 137 00:05:57,520 --> 00:05:59,020 are having on our forest. 138 00:05:59,020 --> 00:06:01,520 And that's the question that I'm trying to answer. 139 00:06:03,430 --> 00:06:05,740 So the overarching goals of my study 140 00:06:05,740 --> 00:06:09,720 are first to quantify the effect of management practices 141 00:06:09,720 --> 00:06:12,160 intended to mitigate impacts of EAB 142 00:06:12,160 --> 00:06:14,150 on the force of New England. 143 00:06:14,150 --> 00:06:16,860 And then I'll use those data to create ecosystem models 144 00:06:16,860 --> 00:06:19,360 of forest development, following EAB invasion 145 00:06:19,360 --> 00:06:22,130 and the associated management practices. 146 00:06:22,130 --> 00:06:23,590 And finally, I'll use these models 147 00:06:23,590 --> 00:06:25,710 to develop a decision support tool, 148 00:06:25,710 --> 00:06:27,910 assisting stakeholders in managing their forest 149 00:06:27,910 --> 00:06:29,180 for the future of ash trees 150 00:06:29,180 --> 00:06:30,660 and more broadly for the communities 151 00:06:30,660 --> 00:06:31,803 in which they grow. 152 00:06:33,260 --> 00:06:36,480 So right now, I'm right in the middle of the first goal 153 00:06:36,480 --> 00:06:40,390 in analyzing my data and I'm still in the beginning stages 154 00:06:40,390 --> 00:06:41,360 of the second goal. 155 00:06:41,360 --> 00:06:42,940 And once those are completed next year, 156 00:06:42,940 --> 00:06:44,610 I'll use them to inform that third goal 157 00:06:44,610 --> 00:06:46,513 of creating the decision support tool. 158 00:06:48,120 --> 00:06:50,050 This summer, I sampled northern hardwood 159 00:06:50,050 --> 00:06:52,740 and rich northern hardwood forest throughout New England 160 00:06:52,740 --> 00:06:54,350 and they contain a relatively small 161 00:06:54,350 --> 00:06:57,730 but significant component of ash, primarily white ash. 162 00:06:57,730 --> 00:07:00,430 Some of those forests had been harvested in response to 163 00:07:00,430 --> 00:07:02,560 or in anticipation of EAB 164 00:07:02,560 --> 00:07:05,140 and others had not recently been harvested. 165 00:07:05,140 --> 00:07:08,610 EAB was confirmed to be in some of those forests or nearby 166 00:07:08,610 --> 00:07:10,450 and other than them, it hadn't reached yet 167 00:07:10,450 --> 00:07:12,883 so those are the factors that I was considering. 168 00:07:15,900 --> 00:07:19,110 And within those forests, me and my field technicians 169 00:07:19,110 --> 00:07:22,450 used 10th acre sampling plots to capture multiple levels 170 00:07:22,450 --> 00:07:24,520 of forest structure and composition 171 00:07:24,520 --> 00:07:26,770 from the overstory to the understory, 172 00:07:26,770 --> 00:07:30,490 stumps, snags, saplings, deadwood 173 00:07:30,490 --> 00:07:33,800 and of course, what was cut in harvested areas. 174 00:07:33,800 --> 00:07:35,870 We also assess the health of any ash tree 175 00:07:35,870 --> 00:07:37,170 over an inch in diameter 176 00:07:37,170 --> 00:07:39,430 to monitor the actual EAB component 177 00:07:39,430 --> 00:07:42,410 and we did that using an ash health assessment protocol 178 00:07:42,410 --> 00:07:45,260 developed by Tiffany Knight from the U.S. Forest Service. 179 00:07:47,480 --> 00:07:50,270 With a lot of assistance from various people and agencies, 180 00:07:50,270 --> 00:07:53,510 we were able to sample forest across new England in Vermont, 181 00:07:53,510 --> 00:07:55,730 New Hampshire, in Western Massachusetts 182 00:07:55,730 --> 00:07:57,250 and Western Connecticut. 183 00:07:57,250 --> 00:07:59,540 There was a range of land ownership represented 184 00:07:59,540 --> 00:08:02,390 including state, federal and private lands. 185 00:08:02,390 --> 00:08:04,440 About half of those sites had been harvested 186 00:08:04,440 --> 00:08:06,450 with EAB in mind prior to sampling 187 00:08:06,450 --> 00:08:07,903 and the other half had not. 188 00:08:09,910 --> 00:08:11,410 While we were out in the field this summer, 189 00:08:11,410 --> 00:08:13,340 we found a variety of conditions 190 00:08:13,340 --> 00:08:16,610 from some not so healthy ash, such as on the left 191 00:08:16,610 --> 00:08:17,970 where you can see a lot of the bark 192 00:08:17,970 --> 00:08:21,040 is flaking off the trunk that ash doesn't look so great 193 00:08:21,040 --> 00:08:24,040 and then we did see some pretty healthy ash as well 194 00:08:24,040 --> 00:08:25,640 which is always nice. 195 00:08:25,640 --> 00:08:27,020 And within the harvested sites, 196 00:08:27,020 --> 00:08:28,700 we saw a large variety in the treatments 197 00:08:28,700 --> 00:08:31,113 that had been applied for EAB management. 198 00:08:32,590 --> 00:08:35,270 So these treatments range in intensity 199 00:08:35,270 --> 00:08:37,610 from removing just a few trees 200 00:08:37,610 --> 00:08:40,210 to removing virtually all the ash trees 201 00:08:40,210 --> 00:08:43,400 plus other species as well since EAB management 202 00:08:43,400 --> 00:08:47,350 was usually not the only factor motivating these harvests. 203 00:08:47,350 --> 00:08:49,130 And the type of harvest seem to correlate 204 00:08:49,130 --> 00:08:51,340 with the motivation for that harvest. 205 00:08:51,340 --> 00:08:53,920 So for example, ecological reasons, 206 00:08:53,920 --> 00:08:55,730 if they were the primary motivation 207 00:08:55,730 --> 00:08:58,840 potentially promoting future ash regeneration, 208 00:08:58,840 --> 00:09:01,880 there would be certain civil cultural techniques 209 00:09:01,880 --> 00:09:05,700 geared towards that or on the flip side, 210 00:09:05,700 --> 00:09:08,313 managing the forest to transition away from ash. 211 00:09:09,340 --> 00:09:11,130 For economic reasons, of course, 212 00:09:11,130 --> 00:09:12,910 white ash is a highly valuable wood 213 00:09:12,910 --> 00:09:14,650 and it's much more challenging to harvest 214 00:09:14,650 --> 00:09:16,460 after it's been killed by EAB 215 00:09:16,460 --> 00:09:18,550 so a lot of these were preemptive harvest 216 00:09:18,550 --> 00:09:20,780 and at least part of the motivation was 217 00:09:20,780 --> 00:09:23,640 to get that valuable ashwood out of the forest 218 00:09:23,640 --> 00:09:27,423 before EAB was going to kill most of it, if not all of it. 219 00:09:28,410 --> 00:09:31,130 And then safety reasons were also a consideration. 220 00:09:31,130 --> 00:09:35,800 So dead ash trees falling into roads and falling on cars. 221 00:09:35,800 --> 00:09:37,103 We don't really want that. 222 00:09:38,520 --> 00:09:41,520 So in the stands where there were roadside areas, 223 00:09:41,520 --> 00:09:42,850 we saw some of that as well. 224 00:09:42,850 --> 00:09:45,010 And I only sampled in forest, 225 00:09:45,010 --> 00:09:46,760 not any urban or suburban areas, 226 00:09:46,760 --> 00:09:50,370 so we didn't get any of those reasons or interactions, 227 00:09:50,370 --> 00:09:54,950 but within the forest and within those private and public, 228 00:09:54,950 --> 00:09:56,310 federal, and state lands, 229 00:09:56,310 --> 00:09:59,070 there was a lot of variation in the strategies. 230 00:09:59,070 --> 00:10:02,060 With that being said, there was kind of a trend 231 00:10:02,060 --> 00:10:04,330 and the most common treatment that we saw 232 00:10:04,330 --> 00:10:06,560 was creating roughly third acre gaps 233 00:10:06,560 --> 00:10:09,493 combined with thinning throughout the stand. 234 00:10:10,460 --> 00:10:11,530 And a lot of these treatments, 235 00:10:11,530 --> 00:10:16,440 which had been cut ranging from 2013 to this past winter, 236 00:10:16,440 --> 00:10:18,960 we're still using that flow and reduction strategy 237 00:10:18,960 --> 00:10:21,510 of removing the largest trees preferentially, 238 00:10:21,510 --> 00:10:23,800 which has since been proven to not be effective 239 00:10:23,800 --> 00:10:25,053 as I mentioned earlier. 240 00:10:27,020 --> 00:10:28,310 So, as you might imagine, 241 00:10:28,310 --> 00:10:30,360 there's a lot of data to sort through from this summer, 242 00:10:30,360 --> 00:10:32,220 and I'm still working on analyzing it 243 00:10:32,220 --> 00:10:34,070 to find those larger patterns, 244 00:10:34,070 --> 00:10:35,460 but for now I'm taking a first look 245 00:10:35,460 --> 00:10:38,230 at what is happening in terms of harvesting. 246 00:10:38,230 --> 00:10:41,150 So up top, you can see the basal area of cut ash trees 247 00:10:41,150 --> 00:10:44,170 within harvested plots and below the proportion 248 00:10:44,170 --> 00:10:46,590 of basal area harvested in each plot. 249 00:10:46,590 --> 00:10:48,960 So you can see the spread from just some of the ash 250 00:10:48,960 --> 00:10:51,233 in a plot harvested to all of it. 251 00:10:55,500 --> 00:10:57,840 Now, this is something that you'd probably expect 252 00:10:57,840 --> 00:10:59,500 and the data does confirm 253 00:10:59,500 --> 00:11:02,660 that the basal area of ash left standing and alive 254 00:11:02,660 --> 00:11:05,900 in the harvested plots was significantly lower 255 00:11:05,900 --> 00:11:07,670 than in the unharvested plots. 256 00:11:07,670 --> 00:11:09,240 So these management practices 257 00:11:09,240 --> 00:11:10,960 are significantly reducing the amount 258 00:11:10,960 --> 00:11:13,810 of mature ash in these forests and right now, 259 00:11:13,810 --> 00:11:15,510 I'm also extending this analysis 260 00:11:15,510 --> 00:11:18,143 to look at other overstory species as well. 261 00:11:20,420 --> 00:11:22,470 And looking at one more variable for now, 262 00:11:22,470 --> 00:11:25,670 which is the number of seedlings per square meter 263 00:11:25,670 --> 00:11:27,560 because that regeneration 264 00:11:27,560 --> 00:11:30,140 represents the future of these forests. 265 00:11:30,140 --> 00:11:33,100 I plotted out here against the proportion of ash harvested 266 00:11:33,100 --> 00:11:36,000 which I use as a proxy for overall harvest intensity. 267 00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:38,420 And again, this is a very preliminary result, 268 00:11:38,420 --> 00:11:40,240 but a couple of trends that you can see here 269 00:11:40,240 --> 00:11:42,680 are sugar maple seedlings decreasing 270 00:11:42,680 --> 00:11:45,930 and red maple and American beech seedlings increasing 271 00:11:45,930 --> 00:11:48,470 with increased harvest intensity. 272 00:11:48,470 --> 00:11:49,303 And like I said, 273 00:11:49,303 --> 00:11:51,460 this is just the start of analyzing these data 274 00:11:51,460 --> 00:11:53,810 and I'll continue to do so in the coming month. 275 00:11:55,500 --> 00:11:57,360 So what is next for this project 276 00:11:57,360 --> 00:12:00,230 besides continuing to dig into that data? 277 00:12:00,230 --> 00:12:01,180 As I briefly mentioned 278 00:12:01,180 --> 00:12:03,440 when I talked about my goals for this study, 279 00:12:03,440 --> 00:12:04,850 I'll be using the data 280 00:12:04,850 --> 00:12:08,020 with the forest landscape model LANDIS-II 281 00:12:08,020 --> 00:12:10,710 to simulate these various ash management regimes 282 00:12:10,710 --> 00:12:12,320 that I encountered this summer 283 00:12:12,320 --> 00:12:15,900 and also to see how they might interact with climate regimes 284 00:12:15,900 --> 00:12:18,920 in these four counties, which I highlighted here. 285 00:12:18,920 --> 00:12:21,150 So it's Orleans and Caledonia counties 286 00:12:21,150 --> 00:12:24,180 in Northeastern Vermont and Bennington County, Vermont 287 00:12:24,180 --> 00:12:27,140 and Berkshire County, Massachusetts to the South. 288 00:12:27,140 --> 00:12:30,230 And I picked those because they had the most data points 289 00:12:30,230 --> 00:12:32,370 for my study in those counties, 290 00:12:32,370 --> 00:12:34,540 but there's the benefit of kind of looking 291 00:12:34,540 --> 00:12:37,250 at these two different areas with different 292 00:12:37,250 --> 00:12:39,130 economic sectors around forestry, 293 00:12:39,130 --> 00:12:40,800 different forest types a little bit, 294 00:12:40,800 --> 00:12:42,640 even though they're all northern hardwoods definitely, 295 00:12:42,640 --> 00:12:45,120 getting more of that little bit of the oak component 296 00:12:45,120 --> 00:12:45,953 in the South 297 00:12:45,953 --> 00:12:49,450 as opposed to that really rich northern hardwood 298 00:12:49,450 --> 00:12:50,430 in the North. 299 00:12:50,430 --> 00:12:53,570 So it'll be an interesting kind of microcosm 300 00:12:53,570 --> 00:12:56,070 to look at these two areas. 301 00:12:56,070 --> 00:12:58,670 And then I'll be translating these results, as I mentioned, 302 00:12:58,670 --> 00:13:02,170 into an accessible decision support tool to help foresters 303 00:13:02,170 --> 00:13:05,550 and land owners and land managers understand the impacts 304 00:13:05,550 --> 00:13:07,940 of their management decisions on ash 305 00:13:07,940 --> 00:13:10,720 and on the larger forest landscape that ash exist in 306 00:13:10,720 --> 00:13:13,263 and to help inform their decisions going forward. 307 00:13:15,030 --> 00:13:17,333 So these are my references. 308 00:13:18,780 --> 00:13:21,870 And finally, I would just like to thank everybody 309 00:13:21,870 --> 00:13:23,920 who helped me with this project 310 00:13:23,920 --> 00:13:26,110 and is continuing to help me with this project. 311 00:13:26,110 --> 00:13:28,610 So my advisor, Tony D'Amato and Nate Seger 312 00:13:28,610 --> 00:13:32,070 with the U.S. Forest Service who originated this project, 313 00:13:32,070 --> 00:13:34,160 my committee members, Jen Pontius 314 00:13:34,160 --> 00:13:35,963 and Yolanda Chen here at UVM. 315 00:13:37,060 --> 00:13:38,440 My field technicians 316 00:13:38,440 --> 00:13:40,450 who I worked with kind of a rotating crew 317 00:13:40,450 --> 00:13:43,470 of undergrads and recent graduates from UVM 318 00:13:43,470 --> 00:13:46,810 who were all excellent and really helped me out 319 00:13:46,810 --> 00:13:49,230 in collecting all this data this summer 320 00:13:49,230 --> 00:13:51,590 amid COVID logistics. 321 00:13:51,590 --> 00:13:54,240 And speaking of COVID logistics, as you might imagine, 322 00:13:54,240 --> 00:13:56,620 it was not the easiest to coordinate 323 00:13:56,620 --> 00:13:58,140 doing field work this summer, 324 00:13:58,140 --> 00:14:00,510 especially across a bunch of different properties 325 00:14:00,510 --> 00:14:02,670 in different states with different management. 326 00:14:02,670 --> 00:14:04,650 So I have a lot of people to thank for 327 00:14:04,650 --> 00:14:05,830 helping me out with that 328 00:14:05,830 --> 00:14:08,190 and their willingness to help and their interest 329 00:14:08,190 --> 00:14:10,770 in this project has really made it possible. 330 00:14:10,770 --> 00:14:13,270 And finally, I'd also like to thank my lab, 331 00:14:13,270 --> 00:14:16,270 the civil culture and applied to forest ecology lab 332 00:14:16,270 --> 00:14:17,910 for always being a good sounding board 333 00:14:17,910 --> 00:14:22,030 and helping out with any questions anybody has. 334 00:14:22,030 --> 00:14:23,903 And thank you all for listening. 335 00:14:26,460 --> 00:14:28,343 - One question from MSS. 336 00:14:29,620 --> 00:14:31,700 Thanks, Hanusia, did you notice any difference 337 00:14:31,700 --> 00:14:35,650 in the harvest intensity type based on region 338 00:14:35,650 --> 00:14:39,013 or was it more dependent on local conditions and motivation? 339 00:14:43,218 --> 00:14:45,480 - Yeah, that's a great question. 340 00:14:45,480 --> 00:14:47,120 There definitely were some differences. 341 00:14:47,120 --> 00:14:50,733 I didn't like formally analyze this, but just anecdotally, 342 00:14:52,330 --> 00:14:54,370 there was definitely more... 343 00:14:55,650 --> 00:14:58,150 There were kind of differences between 344 00:14:58,150 --> 00:15:01,870 I would say more so between private and public ownership 345 00:15:01,870 --> 00:15:06,320 so a lot of the state forests were doing things preemptively 346 00:15:06,320 --> 00:15:10,120 and doing kind of a more holistic management approach 347 00:15:10,120 --> 00:15:12,620 whereas some of the private properties 348 00:15:12,620 --> 00:15:15,830 that I sampled on were a little bit more focused 349 00:15:15,830 --> 00:15:18,900 on like the economics and removing ash. 350 00:15:18,900 --> 00:15:23,600 And then definitely there were more harvested areas 351 00:15:23,600 --> 00:15:25,270 down South which makes sense 352 00:15:25,270 --> 00:15:27,080 because EAB has only been in Vermont 353 00:15:27,080 --> 00:15:29,780 for a couple of years, but it's been in Massachusetts 354 00:15:29,780 --> 00:15:31,900 and Connecticut and New Hampshire for longer. 355 00:15:31,900 --> 00:15:34,810 So further South, there was definitely more harvesting 356 00:15:34,810 --> 00:15:37,310 that had occurred further in the past 357 00:15:37,310 --> 00:15:40,810 and then up North, it was happening more recently 358 00:15:40,810 --> 00:15:43,873 and maybe it was a little bit more new information. 359 00:15:55,660 --> 00:15:59,360 And it looks like Jen has a question as well in the chat 360 00:15:59,360 --> 00:16:02,160 about how common it is for landowners 361 00:16:02,160 --> 00:16:03,920 to actively manage for EAB 362 00:16:03,920 --> 00:16:06,620 and how widespread it is as a management strategy 363 00:16:06,620 --> 00:16:08,900 across public and private ownerships. 364 00:16:08,900 --> 00:16:11,170 So I don't know if I can speak to like the overall trends 365 00:16:11,170 --> 00:16:13,470 because I really just know about the sites 366 00:16:13,470 --> 00:16:17,810 that I sampled in or was considering sampling in, 367 00:16:17,810 --> 00:16:19,710 but it definitely seemed to play a role 368 00:16:19,710 --> 00:16:24,370 in a lot of the harvest on public lands 369 00:16:24,370 --> 00:16:29,240 and I only sampled a couple of places 370 00:16:29,240 --> 00:16:31,650 that were privately owned by individual landowners, 371 00:16:31,650 --> 00:16:33,850 some of them were also owned by land trusts, 372 00:16:34,740 --> 00:16:37,630 but within the private ownership, 373 00:16:37,630 --> 00:16:40,750 I think it probably depends a lot on 374 00:16:40,750 --> 00:16:42,860 the landowner's relationship with their forester 375 00:16:42,860 --> 00:16:44,370 or with a local land trust 376 00:16:44,370 --> 00:16:49,370 or other informants or kind of knowledge brokers 377 00:16:49,750 --> 00:16:52,423 that are advising them on what to do. 378 00:16:53,460 --> 00:16:58,073 And then within the public state parks and forests, 379 00:16:59,970 --> 00:17:02,930 it was pretty similar across the board, I would say, 380 00:17:02,930 --> 00:17:05,733 within each state they kind of had a similar approach. 381 00:17:09,871 --> 00:17:10,800 - Thank you, we have time 382 00:17:10,800 --> 00:17:13,120 for maybe one or two more questions. 383 00:17:13,120 --> 00:17:15,210 We have a question from Rick Dyre. 384 00:17:15,210 --> 00:17:17,580 Were you able to determine what percent of the harvesting 385 00:17:17,580 --> 00:17:19,240 was recommended and implemented 386 00:17:19,240 --> 00:17:21,040 as part of a forest management plan? 387 00:17:24,380 --> 00:17:26,210 - Yeah, so I would say, 388 00:17:26,210 --> 00:17:29,240 if I'm understanding the question correctly, 389 00:17:29,240 --> 00:17:31,090 pretty much all the harvests 390 00:17:31,090 --> 00:17:34,023 were part of a forest management plan. 391 00:17:35,010 --> 00:17:36,000 I'm not sure if you're asking 392 00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:37,410 whether it was like a part of a plan 393 00:17:37,410 --> 00:17:39,910 versus not part of the plan or like what percentage 394 00:17:39,910 --> 00:17:41,890 of basal area was harvested, 395 00:17:41,890 --> 00:17:45,640 but the way I'm reading this it was all of them pretty much 396 00:17:45,640 --> 00:17:47,500 had a forest management plan in place 397 00:17:47,500 --> 00:17:48,900 and we're working from that. 398 00:17:50,710 --> 00:17:53,630 Or I guess I should say they had like a harvest plan. 399 00:17:53,630 --> 00:17:54,670 I don't know if that was part 400 00:17:54,670 --> 00:17:57,190 of a larger forest management plan 401 00:17:57,190 --> 00:17:58,430 that's kind of overarching, 402 00:17:58,430 --> 00:18:02,223 but I mostly had access to the harvest plans. 403 00:18:04,930 --> 00:18:06,680 - And I don't know if this is somebody 404 00:18:06,680 --> 00:18:10,100 you can tell from your work, but from Dave Wilcox, 405 00:18:10,100 --> 00:18:12,300 what is the tendency for white ash 406 00:18:12,300 --> 00:18:14,893 to be more resistant to emerald ash borer? 407 00:18:16,460 --> 00:18:18,740 - So that's not something that I personally am studying, 408 00:18:18,740 --> 00:18:23,140 but based on my research and what I've read about it, 409 00:18:23,140 --> 00:18:26,750 it seems like every ash species has at least some level 410 00:18:26,750 --> 00:18:29,020 of resistance within the population 411 00:18:29,020 --> 00:18:30,640 and it's just pretty rare 412 00:18:30,640 --> 00:18:32,110 in most of the North American species, 413 00:18:32,110 --> 00:18:34,660 but there have been some recent studies 414 00:18:34,660 --> 00:18:36,740 showing that white ash does seem to be more resistant 415 00:18:36,740 --> 00:18:39,030 than for example, green ash and black ash 416 00:18:39,030 --> 00:18:42,550 so it seems like there's a higher level of resistance 417 00:18:42,550 --> 00:18:43,903 within that species. 418 00:18:44,760 --> 00:18:46,610 And in terms of what's causing that, 419 00:18:46,610 --> 00:18:47,770 I know that's still a subject 420 00:18:47,770 --> 00:18:50,370 that's very much under investigation, 421 00:18:50,370 --> 00:18:51,770 but it seems like there may be a role 422 00:18:51,770 --> 00:18:54,050 in the chemical ecology 423 00:18:54,050 --> 00:18:57,000 of attracting versus repelling EAB, 424 00:18:57,000 --> 00:19:01,120 and also kind of responding to EAB 425 00:19:01,120 --> 00:19:02,843 once it infests those trees. 426 00:19:06,270 --> 00:19:08,670 - From Norman Junior, 427 00:19:08,670 --> 00:19:11,130 I apologize if I'm pronouncing that wrong, 428 00:19:11,130 --> 00:19:12,680 the St. Regis Mohawk Trail 429 00:19:12,680 --> 00:19:15,800 will be doing some crop tree releases 430 00:19:15,800 --> 00:19:19,780 of black ash seed trees this winter. 431 00:19:19,780 --> 00:19:21,690 Do you have any recommendations 432 00:19:21,690 --> 00:19:23,500 and then also how often 433 00:19:23,500 --> 00:19:28,130 was a consulting licensed forester involved from Rick Dyer? 434 00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:30,893 - So for the first question, 435 00:19:33,420 --> 00:19:34,280 I personally don't feel comfortable 436 00:19:34,280 --> 00:19:35,530 making my own recommendations 437 00:19:35,530 --> 00:19:36,720 based on this research so far 438 00:19:36,720 --> 00:19:38,190 cause like I said I'm still in the early stages, 439 00:19:38,190 --> 00:19:40,280 but I will share... 440 00:19:40,280 --> 00:19:42,440 Let me just try to find it. 441 00:19:42,440 --> 00:19:43,990 If not, I can pop it in the chat later, 442 00:19:43,990 --> 00:19:47,150 but there is a document that my advisor Tony D'Amato 443 00:19:47,150 --> 00:19:49,760 as well as several collaborators 444 00:19:49,760 --> 00:19:51,000 from the Forest Stewards Guild 445 00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:53,280 and the Vermont Forest, Parks and Rec Department 446 00:19:53,280 --> 00:19:54,740 and Vermont Land Trust put together, 447 00:19:54,740 --> 00:19:57,060 that's 10 recommendations for managing ash 448 00:19:57,060 --> 00:19:58,830 in the face of emerald ash borer and climate change 449 00:19:58,830 --> 00:20:00,960 and I think that has a lot of really great information 450 00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:04,570 so I'm gonna try to put that in the chat, but if not, 451 00:20:04,570 --> 00:20:07,170 you can also look it up and it's a great concise document 452 00:20:07,170 --> 00:20:09,460 with management recommendations. 453 00:20:09,460 --> 00:20:11,530 And in terms of how often a consulting 454 00:20:11,530 --> 00:20:13,480 or licensed forester was involved, 455 00:20:13,480 --> 00:20:16,050 I think pretty much in every case, 456 00:20:16,050 --> 00:20:18,270 I don't think I sampled any areas 457 00:20:18,270 --> 00:20:22,380 that didn't have a licensed forester involved. 458 00:20:22,380 --> 00:20:24,330 That's not to say that they're not out there, 459 00:20:24,330 --> 00:20:27,070 but just in terms of the kind of network 460 00:20:27,070 --> 00:20:30,670 that I was working through to sample these sites. 461 00:20:30,670 --> 00:20:32,040 And I also should mention, 462 00:20:32,040 --> 00:20:33,510 I don't know if I mentioned this in the talk, 463 00:20:33,510 --> 00:20:35,100 but all the sites that I sampled 464 00:20:35,100 --> 00:20:39,160 had at least about 15 to 20% ash by basal area 465 00:20:39,160 --> 00:20:40,650 so that definitely influenced things 466 00:20:40,650 --> 00:20:43,710 so areas with just a little bit of ash 467 00:20:43,710 --> 00:20:45,060 weren't really represented.