LogecoSpring 2004

The Ecolog is the publication ofthe Ecological Planning curricu-lum in The Rubenstein School ofEnvironment and NaturalResources Graduate Program. TheEcolog is published once per yearin the spring.

The interdisciplinary study ofhow to apply ecology to planningprocesses directed at the conser-vation of nature finds one of its

homes in the Ecological Planningcurriculum in the NaturalResources Masters Program atUVM. Closely connected toEcological Design, EcologicalEconomics, and other more recentinterdisciplinary endeavors, eco-logical planning shares the desireto use knowledge to build a moresustainable world balancing peo-ple and nature.

The Ecological Planning cur-riculum at the University of

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Welcome!

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Vermont’s Rubenstein School of Environment and NaturalResources is a concentration within the Natural ResourcePlanning program. Ecological Planning is an intense two-year learning experience that emphasizes teamwork, inter-disciplinary thinking, and personal growth.

With most of its roots in hard field science, the EcologicalPlanning curriculum prepares students to assess landscapesthrough an ecologically-colored “pieces-patterns-process-es” handlens – developing vegetation, soils, and naturalcommunity assessment skills. Students concurrently devel-op speaking, writing, and problem solving skills.

The curriculum’s roots also reach into the social sci-ences. Students take courses in land conservation, integra-tion, and natural resource planning, allowing students tocreate conservation solutions that address the complicatedhuman side of many environmental problems.

To learn more, visit http://www.uvm.edu/envnr/ep.

Alumni Notes

EPs Join the Army

Observing Marsh Life

Ecological Monitoring

in Maine

Natural Community

Assessment

Saving Wilderness

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Inside this issue3

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EditorsBrooke WilkersonKendra Schmeideskamp

ContributorsBrooke Wilkerson Kendra Schmeideskamp Jane Moscowitch Jim Eikenberry Deane Wang

ArtworkCharlotte ClewsClaire Dacey

Layout Design Becky Wang

Elissa Arnheim (EP1) is now working for the North OlympicLand Trust, which operates throughout Clallam County,Washington and includes a wild range of natural communi-ties and demographics (from bona fide temperate rainforestto a native prickly pear cactus Opuntia fragilis).

Brian Carlson (EP1) moved to Marquette, Michigan with hiswife, Rima, on the shores of Lake Superior last May. Afterspending the summer remodeling their new home, he hasbegun working on a multi-year project for the TheNature Conservancy. This first season he will prepare thebaseline documentation for a 150,000 acre conservationeasement and is looking forward to the challenges thatwill arise because of the shear scale of this easement.

Jon Kart (EP3) is coordinating Vermont's ComprehensiveWildlife Conservation Strategy (CWCS) for the VermontFish & Wildlife Dept. The CWCS is an effort to identify andconserve Vermont's species of greatest conservation need.

Kerstin Lange (EP3) is having fun promoting her new pro-fessional (ad)venture, Landscape Analysis, which helpslandowners understand their land from a natural historyperspective. See www.LandscapeAnalysis.com

Tom Lautzenheiser (EP2) is the Ecological Extension ServiceNaturalist and GIS Analyst for the Massachusetts AudubonSociety. Fortuitously, Tom's station at the Arcadia WildlifeSanctuary, nestled at the bend of the Oxbow on theConnecticut River, not only is on the route of many thou-sands of migrating birds, but also satisfies his penchant forliving and working near places called Mt. Tom.

Jillian Liner (EP1) continues to work for Audubon New Yorkas their Important Bird Areas Program Coordinator. Thispast year, the Audubon New York science staff movedinto the new Cornell Lab of Ornithology building. If youever find yourself passing through upstate New York, besure to look Jillian up and she'll give you the grand tour.

Tess O’Sullivan (EP2) continues as the Science andConservation Program Manager for Lava Lake Land &Livestock based in Hailey, Idaho. She is working on therestoration and conservation of native ecosystems at alandscape scale in Central Idaho while at the same timemaintaining a sustainable business. Working towardsachieving all of the lofty goals of the Conservation Plan isher greatest challenge. She loves having the mountains out-side her door and feels like Idaho is becoming her home.

Josh Rapp (EP3) is currently in India researching epiphytediversity along with the occasional hawk, hornbill, orviper he finds high in the canopy of Karnataka. After thisadventure, Josh is off to a Ph.D. Program where he willhone his skills as a scholar, probably studying a tropicalcanopy in some exotic location.

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Notes from Afield

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From the Sahel of Northern Cameroon to the lush temperateforests of the Southern Appalachian mountains, JimEikenberry has been exploring, learning, and searching for alandscape to call home. He grew up in an upstate New Yorkrural setting, and proudly shares with others that he took hisfirst solo hike at the ripe age of three, much to his mother’sdismay. Since wandering away from the sandbox and intothe woods, those many years ago, Jim has been in love withthe natural world and seeking to explore and understand itsmysteries. While working last winter as a Biological Science Technician,with the National Park Service Lake Mead Exotic PlantManagement Team, Jim experienced the beauty of theAmerican Southwest for the first time. He also saw the manyalterations that humans have imposed on the desert.Working in desert wetlands, degraded by the development ofLas Vegas, awoke Jim to the critical need for wetland andriparian areas conservation.After Jim left the Las Vegas Valley, he returned to hisfavorite landscape, the mountains of Western NorthCarolina, in search of a way to fulfill his environmentalmission. Being hired as the Newfound Creek WatershedResource Coordinator, for the Buncombe County Soil andWater Conservation District, provided Jim with theopportunity he was looking for. In just six months, Jimturned around a struggling watershed protection pro-gram. By working closely with key local landowners andsharing the importance of wetland and riparian areasconservation he initiated twenty-five new water qualityprotection projects, preventing over 1,800 tons of soilloss, per year. Compelled to find new and healthier ways for humans to livewithin the natural world and fueled by his wetland and ripar-ian areas conservation mission, Jim’s search for guidance ledhim to the Ecological Planning Program at UVM. This chal-lenging and exiting interdisciplinary masters degree programis allowing Jim to increase his scientific, sociopolitical, andcommunication skills, challenge his assumptions, andembrace the realization that he can change the world.

JIM EIKENBERRYPhoto © Jen Cramer

hat happens when you mix Ecological Planners, FieldNaturalists, Historic Preservationists, and the ArmyReserve? The result is an exciting integrative project

in interdisciplinary thinking, applied to the management ofan Army Reserve training installation. As a first yearEcological Planner, Jim Eikenberry, is coordinating a three-year project directed by Dr. Jeffrey Hughes, Director of theField Naturalist Program, which is with the 94th RegionalSupply Command (RSC) of the Army Reserve. The 94th RSChas contracted UVM to conduct ecological, cultural, andhistorical assessments, and create a management plan forFort Greene in Narragansett, Rhode Island. The inventoryand assessment will be the foundation for Fort Greene’scomprehensive natural resource management plan.

Fort Greene is an inactive and unoccupied Army Reservetraining facility that is being reactivated for training andadministrative purposes. It occupies 104-acres of minimallydeveloped land near the Narragansett Bay of the AtlanticOcean, an area increasingly surrounded by the commercialand residential development of Narragansett. The land-scape of the installation is composed predominantly offorested wetlands, wet meadows, and upland sites.Common plants include red maple (Acer rubrum), swampwhite oak (Quercus bicolor), and sensitive fern (Onoclea sen-sibilis), while common animals include white-eyed vireos(Vireo griseus), white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), andgray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus). In addition, the potentialexists for finding threatened and endangered species. FortGreene is an island of protected habitat, harboring speciesfleeing the increasing development of Narragansett. Thissituation is not unique to Fort Greene; encroachment bydevelopment is happening around most of the 425 installa-tions managed by the Department of Defense.

Currently, most military installations are required to havean Integrated Natural Resource Management Plan (INRMP).An INRMP requires provisions for the conservation andrestoration of natural resources, while ensuring militarypreparedness.

While the INRMP format mentions comprehensivenessand integration, these plans lack a section that actuallyillustrates and explains what this means. Instead, INRMPsare more likely to be a collection of topics and lists aboutthe same place but disconnected from each other.

The 94th RSC could have contracted with any number of

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Wetlands,Woodlands,WeekendWarriors BY JIM EIKENBERRY

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environmental consultants for this project, but they chosethe Ecological Planning and Field Naturalist programsbecause they were looking for more than a standard inven-tory and INRMP. Along with providing the Army Reservewith a comprehensive and integrated ecological inventory,assessment, and management plan, we will also providethem with a natural history of the Fort Greene landscape.The natural history format will explain the interconnectionsbetween the layers of the installation’s landscape and serveas a medium through which the inventory, assessment, andmanagement plan, can be accessed and better understood.

Increased public scrutiny of military lands managementis causing the military to re-evaluate their planning andmanagement efforts and how they share these efforts withthe public. The limitations of the INRMP format deter acomprehensive and integrated understanding of installationlandscapes, for both military land managers and the public.The recipe for successfully conserving threatened, endan-gered, and common species, and effectively communicatingthis conservation, includes both an INRMP and a naturalhistory analysis. We hope that this new approach will bothinspire greater implementation and understanding of FortGreene’s INRMP, and create a new standard for INRMPs atall 65 installations of the 94th Regional Supply Commandand beyond.d

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iling on my fifth layer to keep warm on a blusteryFriday in October, I waddled over to the canoes wherethe Field Naturalist and Ecological Planning students

were finishing loading up hot chocolate, trash bags, binoc-ulars, 5-gallon buckets and other essentials. Our leader,Regan Brooks, a second-year Field Naturalist student,asked us to launch our canoes and paddle towards a beaverlodge. We would reconvene there to discuss whether or notwe thought the lodge was active and to finalize a plan forexploring Little Otter Creek Marsh.

We hadn’t been in the canoes for more than a minutewhen a great blue heron with a wingspan of almost six feettook off from alongside the creek. This bird is easily recog-nized by its white head, yellow eyes, and the black stripesthat run from each eye to its slender black plumes. It is notuncommon to see great blue herons in riparian habitatwhere they feed on small fish, amphibians and shellfish.

Approaching the beaver lodge, made of mud, stones andtree branches, our four canoes surrounded the lodge as if tokeep the beavers from escaping. From the multiple mudslides down the lodge into the water, we were able to deter-mine immediately that beavers were still it. We continuedto look around the lodge for other signs of activity, observ-ing freshly cut twigs in the backwaters behind the lodgeand a mud slide heading up into the riparian zone. After afew minutes, Regan pulled us together again and asked thatfor the next half an hour we make as many observations aswe could about the marsh as we continued to paddle quiet-ly upstream.

Paddling up a creek with the wind blowing on your faceand the Adirondacks a stone’s throw away, you are imme-diately struck by the life in the marsh. Charles Johnson inThe Nature of Vermont describes a marsh as a special placewhere the river becomes sluggish, the water is shallow andshows the rich, muddy bottom, and the plants reach outinto the channel. These sensitive places, constantly chang-ing because of seasonal fluctuations of the water table, arealways battling between terrestrial and aquatic. The inhabi-tants, both plants and animals, of these dynamic ecosys-tems depend on these very tensions for their reproductionand survival.

As I scanned the shoreline, my attention shifted towardsa number of lodges back from the open water in the cat-tails. These lodges, smaller than those built by beavers

Learning How toObserve Life in aMarsh BY JANE MOSCOWITCH

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Growing up outside of New York City, Jane used to makeevery excuse in the book to prove she wasn’t like every othersuburban kid. She struggled to fit in and failed, but unlike somany others who never find what makes them happy, Jane didwhen she came to the University of Vermont eight years ago.Majoring in Environmental Studies while at UVM, she spentall of her free time exploring Vermont. As a junior, she left forsix months and traveled in an old rusty red van with noshocks from Anchorage to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park &Preserve in McCarthy, Alaska. It was there, studying the natu-ral and cultural history of the Park, where she first began tothink about the implications of large-scale land conservation.

Back in Vermont for her senior year, Jane worked closelywith The Nature Conservancy on her undergraduate thesis onthe Williams Woods Natural Area in Charlotte, Vermont. Aftergraduation, Jane was hired by The Nature Conservancy, whereshe worked for 3 years. She has been involved in projects asvaried as on-the-ground preserve management to writing con-servation plans. Towards the end of her time with TNC, shebegan to work on large-scale planning efforts such as theVermont Biodiversity Project, the St. Lawrence/ChamplainValley Ecoregional Plan, and reserve design for the GreenMountain National Forest and the Camel’s Hump landscape.“These projects,” according to Jane, “were exciting not onlybecause of the impact they were having on biodiversity conser-vation, but because they gave me a chance to work with part-ners and educate the general public.” Jane’s interest in largeplanning initiatives and her desire to learn more about thenatural world led her to Ecological Planning.

Now, working with the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC)on her master’s project, she has the opportunity to thinkabout a landscape in New England that has remained wildover the last two centuries, while still providing an economicbase for the communities that live there. Working in northernMaine, Jane will conduct an ecological assessment of the37,000-acre parcel owned by the AMC in order to write amanagement plan that addresses issues ranging from biod-veristy to sustainable forestry.

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JANE MOSCOWITCHPhoto © Jen Cramer

and made mostly of mud and cattails, are home tomuskrats. Muskrats, no doubt, play a large role in shapingLittle Otter Creek Marsh. This time of year they are build-ing and reinforcing lodges for winter occupancy and col-lecting food for winter use, which they store in feedinghuts built near the main lodge. The number of huts atLittle Otter Creek seemed to be in unusually high concen-tration; we often saw 10 or more lodges clustered togeth-er. With this many lodges, the muskrat population isprobably quite high, which has a noticeable impact on thevegetation they favor by keeping it in a state of constantflux. By looking at aerial photography from the past 50years, we were able to see a shifting mosaic in aquaticplant colonies such as cattails, lilies, sedges, and grasses.The largest shift over time was in the cattail populations,the muskrat’s favorite food. Large areas would be overeat-en by muskrats, and as a result, cattails would dieback fora number of years. I speculate that this is a cyclical rela-tionship where high muskrat populations lead to low cat-tail populations, which in turn lowers the population ofmuskrats, resulting in an increase in cattails.

Paddling over to observe the muskrat lodges, I noticedSally looking up at the sky through her binoculars. A red-tailed hawk soared above us, dancing in the wind. This wasan unusual sighting since hawks and owls are not commonaround marshes. Hawks and owls typically do not likedense, low vegetation or water. Later on in the day, we sawanother raptor that is most at home near the water, theosprey. Ospreys are fish-eaters and inhabitants of rivers,marshes, and lakes. Their powerful long, narrow, slightlycrooked wings can lift them out of the water after theyplunge in after a fish. Like the red-tailed hawk, the ospreyis able to hover motionless in the air, only moving his tailfeathers slightly. This osprey seemed to stay still above usforever, as if to make sure we were not stealing his food.

Our last exciting observation of the day was a kingfisher.The kingfisher’s black and white chubby body, large head,short neck and tail, erect crest, and long strong beak helpto identify it. Kingfishers perch above the banks of freshwa-ter streams and dive for small fish, crustaceans, amphib-ians, reptiles, and aquatic insects, then return to theirperches to eat. We watched the kingfisher in flight for aminute and hoped it would dive for a fish, but instead itflew off down the creek.

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Spending the day at Little Otter Creek allowed me to viewthe life within a marsh first hand, from the busy work ofbeavers to the patient stalking of a falcon. This dynamiccommunity is rich in animal life, with the vegetation provid-ing ample food and habitat for many species. Vermont isfortunate in possessing some of the finest marshes in NewEngland, where birders, hunters, and other observers ofnature can make new discoveries all the time.d

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Paddling Little Otter Creek

Photo © Jen Cramer

e drove deep into the woods of Rocky Lake, anEcological Reserve near Machias, Maine. The over-grown, rutted logging road narrowed until tree

branches scraped both sides of our truck, finally dead-end-ing in a large mud puddle. It was pouring rain, so Andy andI took our time perusing maps, aerial photos, and descrip-tions of the area from ecologists and foresters. Soon, itbecame apparent that the rain had no intention of slacking,so we pulled on our rain gear, slathered ourselves in bugdope, and left the warm, dry cab for the wet and buggywoods of Maine.

It didn’t sound like a particularly promising start to thefield season, but for me, the first day of field work broughtwith it not just the complexity of planning for practical fieldwork (how do we get to that site two miles from any road?),but also the complexity of what these woods represent andhow they can be used scientifically. Maine’s EcologicalReserves are not being researched because they are beauti-ful, rare, or otherwise auspicious. Quite the contrary, thesewoods are like most of the rest of Maine. At Rocky Lake,one of seventeen Reserves spread throughout the state,dense stands of spruce and fir grade into relatively sparseareas of paper birch and aspen. Occasional granite knollsare covered in blueberry and sheep laurel. All of Maine’sEcological Reserves have been cut at least once, but these78,000 acres have now been set aside by an act of legisla-tion to serve as “ecological baselines” for the state.

In this case, the idea of an ecological baseline – “snap-shots” of data taken through time – is powerful. With abaseline, Maine can finally have a scientific understandingof how its forests are changing over time. And with a base-line, Ecological Reserves (“unmanaged” forests) can becompared with industrial timberlands to understand howintensively managing a forest affects its ecological function,structure, and diversity. But in order to be an effective base-line for the state, Ecological Reserves need be monitored asaccurately and efficiently as possible. This includes honingresearch questions to address specific concerns aboutMaine’s forests and collecting data that can produce statis-tically significant results. That’s where I come in.

I spent the summer working with the Maine Natural AreasProgram (MNAP), the organization responsible for develop-ing and implementing the monitoring protocol, sloggingthrough the sometimes wet and always buggy woods setting

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EcologicalMonitoring in MaineBY BROOKE WILKERSON

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Brooke’s path through life has always meandered.Beginning with a childhood in suburban Alabama, she alsosampled life in Connecticut, Ohio, Virginia, Colorado, and,most recently, Maine. In the midst of this meandering, shecompleted a degree in English and geology from OberlinCollege, worked on organic farms and with Amish populations,studied acid mine drainage, wrote educational publications foran environmental education foundation, worked as an EMT onan ambulance service, researched international energy policy,and, briefly, drove a bulldozer for a small logging operation.Her abiding interest in the outdoors, in how the many parts ofthe world interact, led her to the Ecological Planning program.

The Ecological Planning program has finally given Brookean opportunity to sink her teeth into natural history as well asgain insights into the human relationship (political, economic,personal, spiritual) between self and wildness. Along the way,she’s discovered a passion for keying out sedges, a predilectionfor rich northern hardwood forests, and a penchant for attract-ing black flies and biting insects of all sorts. After graduating,she plans on returning to Maine to work as an ecologist.

BROOKE WILKERSONPhoto © Jen Cramer

up permanent plots for collecting ecological data. In eachplot, information on all plant species, soils, deadwood,lichens and just about everything in between was collected.If all goes as planned, these plots will be revisited onceevery ten years, and this information will be collected again.

Back at UVM, I statistically analyzed the data over thefall and winter and, based on my analysis, made recom-mendations to MNAP for ways they could improve theirEcological Reserve monitoring plan. What makes a goodmonitoring plan is not easy to discern. Most ecologicalresearch takes place over one to five field seasons, not thetens to hundreds (and beyond!) years over which ecologicalchange takes place. Through a strong monitoring program,MNAP has the chance to guide the future management ofMaine’s forests and contribute to our understanding oflong-term change.d

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Measuring tree height in a permanentplot in the Deboulli Ecological Reserve.

Land abandonment in Westford.

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ou afraid of moose? There are moose up there.” No, Iwasn’t afraid of moose, I assured the older gentlemanon the other end of the phone, a farmer in Westford,

VT. I had to strain to understand his high, slightly wheezyyet staccato voice, with its thick Vermont accent. The mancontinued, “You afraid of bears? Because they’re up there,too. Kenny B. shot a bear up there a few years ago.” Okay,I’m a bit afraid of bears, but I didn’t admit that to the farmer.I thanked him for giving me permission to go on his land todo field work, then, because I was so happy, thanked himagain before hanging up. Being allowed access to thefarmer’s land was important to me: my study area, 18,647acres in Westford, Essex, Underhill, and Jericho, Vermont,was all privately owned. The farmer with whom I had justspoken owned the largest parcel in the study area, 644 acres,which supposedly had some interesting natural communities.

The goal for my field season was to map the naturalcommunities in the study area, as part of a NaturalCommunity Assessment I was putting together for TheNature Conservancy. Each day, I would cover as much landas I could, visiting areas that looked unique on aerial andinfrared maps and recording the natural communities Ifound there. Other Ecological Planners and Field Naturalistshave done similar types of assessments as part of theirMaster’s Projects. Like Marijke Hecht (Field Naturalist, ’02)and Brian Carlson (Ecological Planner, ’02), my study areahad been delineated by the Nature Conservancy as part oftheir ecoregional planning initiative. If I did my job well, mynatural community assessment, coupled with an assess-ment of development trends that I was also preparing,would help the Conservancy decide where within the studyarea to concentrate their conservation effort.

Knowing the natural communities present on the farmer’sland was important because it would fill in a piece of thesnapshot I was creating of the study area. But it was alsofascinating because the farmer’s land was a place toglimpse what the area might have looked like 100 yearsago. The first time I visited the property, a herd of cowswas filing across the narrow dirt road that separated pas-tures from the old clapboard farmhouse and diary barn.Upland from the pastures, forest stretched to the top of JackLot Hill. Sugarbushes, both active and abandoned, werenestled in areas where the soil was rich. Judging from thenumber of blinds and deer stands I stumbled across in the

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EcologicalAssessment in VermontBY KENDRA SCHMEIDESKAMP

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As a child, Kendra spent a lot of time roaming a piece ofvacant land overlooking the Huron River in Michigan. In this“wildland” behind a cemetery, she and her friends built fortsand collected the bounty of the land, from the un-natural(ghastly bouquets of plastic flowers), to the natural (grassthatch, to line the floor of the fort). Ten years later, as anundergraduate at the University of Michigan, Kendra wentback into the woods of her childhood, this time to study theirecology. She was also interested in environmental policy. “Itwas like detective work, taking an issue and figuring out whatwas happening and why. I was torn between ecology and pol-icy while I was at Michigan. I ultimately decided to focusmore on policy because I didn’t know of many scientists backthen who actively advocated for conservation. I didn’t think Icould be satisfied studying something I loved that was disap-pearing around me. I wanted to learn enough about policy soI could influence it one day.”

After graduation, Kendra moved to Oregon, where sheworked for a forest advocacy organization for several years.Here she learned the David-and-Goliath dynamics of workingfor a small non-profit. One day Goliath would be theintractable media, the next day, the Forest Service. “I learnedthat small voices sometimes become shrill. I wanted to find adifferent way to influence conservation, one that would bepositive and draw on the connection that people have tonature, like the connection I had to the woods in Michigan.”Kendra left the non-profit and worked for a season with TheNature Conservancy before moving with her husband, twodogs, and horse to Vermont to begin her Ecological Planningexperience. She is currently working on a Natural CommunityAssessment for 18,647 acres in Westford and Essex, Vermontfor The Nature Conservancy.

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KENDRASCHMIEDESKAMP

Photo © Jen Cramer

woods, it was easy to imagine that a bear and a hunter hadmet in the forest. In the lowlands to the southeast, a wet-land was ringed by forests of hemlock that were wonderful-ly cool and easy to walk through. A 1927 topographicalmap of the area showed the wetland and the farmhouse,along with a school across the road that was no longerthere. These are the types of land use that were commonthroughout the study area 125 years ago. According to anold DeBeers fire insurance map, there were at least tenfarms within the study area in 1877. The parcels were largeand, from evidence gleaned from my wanderings, were usedfor pastures, crops, sugarbushes, hunting, and timber.

Outside this working farm, much has changed over thelast century. Parcels have been divided and re-divided:There are now a total of 579 parcels in the study area, withan average size of about 30 acres. The two working farmsthat remain are surrounded by residential parcels. A fewpeople own interior parcels from which they harvest timber,but these are less than 100 acres. Town roads that used topenetrate parts of the interior of the area are now aban-doned or used as recreation trails. On the other hand, theroads that form the perimeter of the area now carry muchmore traffic. One middle-aged landowner told me of sittingon a hillside on his family’s property as a child and onlyseeing a few cars going by on Route 15 each hour. Nowyou have to be careful crossing the road. In the last thirtyyears, new private lanes and driveways have sprung fromthese main roads like rootlets.

The area has changed ecologically as well. First, therewere changes caused by diminishing land-clearing for agri-culture. Aerial photos taken in 1962 depict large areas oflower elevation pastures that are now covered with younghardwood or hemlock-hardwood forest. Beavers, whichwould have been absent from the area 125 years ago, nowflourish in the young forests, creating a diversity of plantcommunities as they move from one pond to another. Thenext change to take place was in the early 1970s, whenresidential development sharply increased in both Westfordand Essex. The ecological changes caused by suburbaniza-tion are harder to see. For instance, while it is likely thatpopulations of wider ranging mammals have declined in theregion due to habitat loss and fragmented land use pat-terns, it’s hard to tease out just how much development inWestford or Essex has contributed to this trend.

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My study area exemplifies much of Vermont—recoveringfrom past agricultural use, but under threat from suburban-ization. The challenges to conservation in the area arehuge: fragmented private ownership, a network of roadsthat are increasingly becoming barriers to wildlife dispersal,and multiple jurisdictions at the town level. However, withdevelopment pressure only increasing, this might be a goodtime to apply effort in the area, despite the challenges.d

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Photo © Walter Poleman

Ecological Planners and FieldNaturalists at Ricker Mountain.

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onservation in the US really began with the identifica-tion and set asides of large tracts of what were tobecome National Parks. In later years, the core mission

of organizations like The Nature Conservancy had been topurchase and protect addition tracts of land, to keep themforever wild. While fee ownership still remains a viable con-servation strategy, the conservation of nature has beentransformed into a call to save biodiversity. Much of thischange is due to the visionary work of people like E. O.Wilson. The seemingly inevitable human population increasepushing land prices skyward, coupled with the recognitionby conservation biologists and others of the landscape scaleof the problem, has forced the development of new conceptsabout and approaches to the conservation of nature.

To be successful at the landscape scale, conservationmust take place as a partnership among public agencies,private interests, and non-profit organizations. Public par-ticipation and community-level support must be consideredin the context of the natural environment, managed forestand agricultural land, and the built environment. The con-nectivity of all land to the wilderness, however defined, isthe critical consideration, and no single authority has con-trol over this network of habitat. Heritage corridors, work-ing landscapes, and conservation networks, for a fewexamples, are all new ideas about the broadened agenda ofconservation. (see http://www.uvm.edu/conservationlec-tures for a sample of the dialog).

To participate in and implement these new paradigms ofconservation, the University of Vermont is pursuing thedevelopment of a Conservation Leadership program.Further linking programs across the disciplines of fieldnaturalist, ecological planning, historic preservation, sus-tainable forestry and agriculture, the ConservationLeadership program seeks to provide students with a morecomprehensive view of the landscape and the teams ofdifferent professionals that strive to make sense of themanagement of this complex terrain. Law, policy, manage-ment, ecology, natural history, geology — and the myriadof related fields — find a nexus in this new approach toconservation of nature in all its forms.

The Ecological Planning curriculum has evolved toembrace this convergence of fields, and I believe is strongerfor it. We hope students will be excited in joining us as wework to understand conservation more broadly.d

Finding Our Wayto the WildernessBY DEANE WANGASSOCIATE DEAN AND FACULTYADVISOR TO ECOLOGICAL PLANNING

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