EASTHAMPTON — Invasive species, rare habitats and wildlife management were a few of the topics addressed at Saturday’s ecology symposium at Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary.
Roughly 45 people gathered to hear local environmental professionals share important research and ecological projects underway in western Massachusetts.
“This is a great way to connect people with all of the conservation work that is going on right here in the Valley,” Jonah Keane said.
This is the second year that Arcadia has hosted the event, and topics included issues such as the management of whitetail deer, invasive plant species and the conservation of floodplain forests.
Featured speakers were Christian Marks from the Nature Conservancy, Brian Hawthorne from the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, Josh Knox from the Trustees of Reservations, Gaby Immerman of the Mill River Greenway Initiative, and Tom Lautzenheiser and Dave McLain of Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary.
Knox, the superintendent of the west management unit with the Trustees of Reservations, gave a presentation titled “Deer Me: Monitoring Whitetails on Mount Warner.”
The 500-foot-high Mount Warner in north Hadley overlooks the Connecticut River Valley.
Knox discussed a project that began last spring in which an exclusion fence enclosed a quarter-acre of woodland. This would allow Knox and his team to compare and contrast areas that were accessible for deer to browse and areas that are protected from deer.
“Deer are important and we want to manage them for population balance,” Knox said “One tool to determine whether or not we have the right amount of deer is to use exclusion fences.”
Though the study is in its early stages, the data coming in suggest that deer are having an impact, reducing vegetation in the area, as the enclosure shows a larger growth rate of several species than in the areas in which deer can freely browse.
“If we can show the impact the deer are having on the landscape and we can document that effect, that helps us decide what the next step would be for appropriate management,” Knox said noting that the Trustees value hunting as a management tool in certain situations.
In his presentation, “Ecology and Conservation of Connecticut River Floodplain Forests,” Marks, an ecologist with the Nature Conservancy, talked about the importance of floodplain forests and his work to restore these areas in the Connecticut River Watershed.
“The watershed is 77.1 percent forested. Only one half of a percent is floodplain and of that, only a tiny piece is floodplain forest, arguably making this the rarest forest in New England,” Marks said.
Marks has recorded data at over 100 sites across Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire in an effort to help document and restore these ecologically important areas.
He noted that healthy floodplain forests not only function as a sponge to contain floodwaters, but also provide habitat to support a diversity of species, some of which are rare or endangered.
At present, Marks is working on re-establishing the American elm in floodplains by propagating and planting trees resistant to Dutch Elm disease, a fungal pathogen that has decimated the American elm population.
Hawthorne, a habitat biologist with Massachusetts Fish and Wildlife, presented “Habitat and Species Results After 17 Years of Ecological Management in Inland Pitch Pine-Oak Sandplain Communities.”
Working in the Montague Plains, Hawthorne described the use of prescribed burning to encourage the re-growth of a scrub oak habitat.
This pitch-pine/scrub oak habitat is important for over 40 species of conservation concern.
“In Massachusetts, most of these pitch pine barrens tend to be concentrated in coastal areas long the Cape,” Hawthorne said. The area in Montague is the largest inland pitch pine barren in Massachusetts.
Hawthorne said that scrub oak habitat is naturally fire dependent, and through controlled burning, biologists have been able to re-establish the habitat for a variety of species.
“Overall, our efforts seem to be paying off well,” Hawthorn said. “We see higher amounts of scrub-shrub birds in treated areas like the prairie warbler and significant numbers of whippoorwill readily using the treated areas.”
Hawthorne said the area now sports game species such as woodcock, wild turkey and grouse.
Lautzenheiser, a regional scientist with Audubon, and McLain, a conservation caretaker at Arcadia, gave their talk on “Managing Shrubland Habitat for Bird Species in Decline”
“There are many more shrubland birds that are in decline than there are those that are secure. That is the general trend for shrubland birds and that is why we feel it is important to manage for them,” Lautzenheiser said.
In doing so, Arcadia has 32 acres of shrubland, managed through the cutting of certain parcels of mature forest.
“Shrublands on Mass Audubon are less than 1,000 acres in total and most are coastal areas on Cape Cod,” Lautzenheiser said. “Right here at Arcadia we have largest inland shrubland in the state.”
According to McLain, maintaining the shrubland area has successfully encouraged several bird species birds to utilize the habitat including common yellowthroats, song sparrows, blue-winged warblers, chestnut-sided warblers, willow flycatchers, Eastern towhees and the rapidly declining brown thrasher, which is now established at Arcadia.
“By and large without human intervention, these areas would not exist on the landscape, at least today, since human activity has curtailed natural disturbance processes,” Lautzenheiser said.
Immerman, a horticulture teacher at Smith College and co-founder of the Mill River Greenway Initiative, discussed invasive plant species management along the Mill River.
She said the 15-mile-long Mill River, flowing from Goshen to Easthampton, is “in decent shape ecologically,” but noted that several invasive plant species like Japanese knotweed and bittersweet have taken hold along its banks.
To bring attention to the Mill River watershed and help eradicate as many invasive species as possible, Immerman announced that the Mill River Greenway Initiative, Smith College and the New England Wildflower Society have collaboratively created a new guide called “Making Room For Native Plants and Wildlife: Guide to Invasive Species in the Mill River Watershed.”
Just hot off the presses, Immerman said the guide will soon be available to the public through the Mill River Greenway.
Amanda Smith of Granby and a graduate student at UMass, attended the symposium.
“I think this is great. I came last year, too, because it is a great way to hear about the different things that are happening in the community and how you can get involved.”
Keane said he hopes to expand the annual event.
“There are a lot of different organizations and agencies doing this kind of work — this is only one little snapshot. Over the course of the years, as we do more of these, we hope to invite more speakers,” Keane said.