Managing for the Birds at the Catamount Community Forest
Winter 2020 - 2021
The Catamount Community Forest (CCF) is a 393-acre parcel in the Town of Williston, Vermont.
This parcel was acquired by the Town of Williston in 2019 with assistance from the Trust for Public Land, the US Forest Service, the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board and others.
The parcel is a beautiful and diverse block of conserved forestland on the edge of the increasing fragmented and developed Champlain Valley.
A diverse group of community members and partners helped draft a "Management Plan" (MP) for the parcel in 2018.
This document details broad goals, objectives and rules for the parcel.
The Chittenden County Forester and the Catamount Community Forest Committee created a "Forest Management Plan" (FMP) for the parcel, which was adopted by the Town in 2020.
This FMP added data and management "prescriptions" to the MP, including some exciting partnerships and projects.
The first project planned in the CCF's FMP is some wildlife habitat management.
This project is a partnership between the Chittenden County Forester ( VT Dept. of Forests, Parks and Recreation ), US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Audubon Vermont and the VT Dept. of Fish and Wildlife .
The project will be funded by USFWS.
The main goal of the work that's planned is to create " early successional " or " young forest " habitat. This is the habitat type created as forests recover from a large-scale disturbance, like a wind storm.
Large disturbances in the woods create opportunities for an incredible diversity of tree and plant species to grow, especially our light-loving "intolerant" tree species like aspens/poplars, white birch and pin cherry.
While a big disturbance, whether natural or human-created, may seem devastating, scary, or sad, the diverse and abundant regeneration that ensues provides unique habitat opportunities for many different species of wildlife.
While this project at the CCF is focused on providing habitat for birds, early successional habitat is used by everything from black bears, who visit these areas to eat raspberries and blackberries, to rabbits and hares who use the dense regeneration as protective cover.
At the same time that we're creating early successional habitat, we will also be looking for opportunities to enhance "shrubland" habitat. Shrublands support the golden-winged warbler, a bird species of concern in Vermont and a particular focus of Audubon Vermont's conservation efforts.
Learn more about Audubon Vermont's efforts to protect and create habitat for the golden-winged warbler here .
Katie Kain, of USFWS, Mark LaBarr of Audubon Vermont, Andrea Shortsleeve of Vermont Fish and Wildlife and Ethan Tapper, the Chittenden County Forester, did an educational webinar about this project in Spring 2020. You can watch the recording of that webinar here .
How will we do this?
We will use a machine called a "brontosaurus", which has a heavy-duty grinder head mounted on an excavator body. This machine will grind trees and shrubs, with all material staying on site in the form of chips, tree tops and branches and "snags" (dead standing trees).
Play the attached video to see a time-lapse of a brontosaurus (a smaller one than we'll be using at the CCF) working away on a similar project at Champlain Valley Union High School in Hinesburg.
Where will the project be?
The work will be done in two areas of the portion of the CCF mapped as "Stand 5" in the FMP; a 5-acre patch and a 1-acre patch, shown as the bright green areas on the attached map.
The whole project will take place over about a week. Within this week, several sections of trails near these areas will need to be closed for a few days. A section of Woods Trace (show here in pink) will be closed for 1-2 days, and another side trail (shown here in yellow) will need to be closed for 1-3 days.
We are working with the Catamount Family Outdoor Center, who have been extremely gracious and accommodating, to avoid disrupting trails and trail usage as much as possible during this project. Stay tuned to COFC's website for details on trail closures.
What will it look like?
In the short term, it will probably look really "messy". Trees, tree tops and wood will be lying on the ground. Scattered live trees and shrubs, and small pockets of trees and shrubs, will be left standing and 15-foot-tall stubs of trees will be scattered throughout the area.
This "messiness" is intentional. Dead wood, dead standing trees, scattered living trees and general irregularity and "weirdness" are actually things that we want to encourage and that will enhance the usefulness of the site for wildlife, and the range of different wildlife species it can support.
These are also features that will make the site more like a natural disturbance, which is what we want to emulate.
For a couple of years the project area might look strange, but soon our native tree and plant communities will start to regenerate and thrive.
To illustrate this, check out this picture of a 40-acre blowdown in the Hinesburg Town Forest. This picture was taken just after the blowdown in 2010...
... And this was taken from the same place in 2017.
One of the most amazing things about forests is their ability to respond to disturbances with resilience and richness.
Forests are dynamic systems, always changing, and within these systems death, change and regeneration are a celebration; helping make the forest more diverse, complex, and resilient, and providing a greater abundance of habitat opportunities for wildlife.
What's next?
Another major goal of this work is to address major infestations of invasive exotic plants at the CCF, and specifically in the areas where we'll be working. This will require us to re-visit these areas and control invasives in coming years.
There may also be opportunities to do some more wildlife habitat management of this type, funding permitting, in other areas of the CCF in coming years.
The next project planned for the CCF is some forest management in the northwest of the CCF, scheduled for autumn 2021. This will be a collaboration with UVM to improve understanding of how to manage forests in a changing climate, part of a project called Adaptive Silviculture for Climate Change .
Dr. Tony D'Amato and Ethan Tapper led a webinar focused on this project in spring 2020. You can watch a recording of this webinar here .
To learn more and to keep abreast of this and other projects in Chittenden County, sign up for the Chittenden County Forester's email list, here .
You can also check out the Chittenden County Forester's library of webinars and videos on related topics on YouTube .
If you have any questions about this project, email:
ethan.tapper@vermont.gov
