News feed

Recreation Trail Use and Forests

2025-01-24

Recreation trail use data was used to provide geospatial products for land managers to better understand how forests are being used and impacted by recreation activities. Strava data was used in developing these products. Read more about the project and using Strava data on the Strava blog: https://metro.strava.com/nl/case-studies/How-Strava-Data-Helps-Forest-Managers-in-the-Northeast-US

You can also explore the project layers directly from the FEMC project page: https://www.uvm.edu/femc/CI4/cooperative/projects/recreation#products

Learn about FEMC's 2024 work from Director Alison Adams

2025-01-08

Watch a video overview of FEMC's 2024 Work

Regional Assessment of Browse report now available

2023-12-18

FEMC reviewed methods used to monitor the impacts of deer browse on forest ecosystems. A final report is now available, which includes a summary of methods as well as a decision tree to select among various methods. The report is available at: https://www.uvm.edu/femc/file/info/12048

Training Opportunity - NEFIN Webinar

2023-09-15

UPDATE:

The webinar has been rescheduled to Thursday, October 26 at noon. 

FEMC recently completed the Northeastern Forest Inventory Network online tool. We are excited to announce a webinar to help you learn how to use the tool and ways that you might be able to put it to use in your work. Please join us online on Thursday, October 26 at noon for a lunch and learn.

We have applied for SAF credits for this webinar.

Register for the webinar

Tracking Shifts in Disturbance Regimes online tool now available.

2021-10-26

We are so excited to announce the release of another new tool: "Tracking Shifts in Disturbance Regimes." The tool focuses on four drivers of forest disturbance: Extreme Weather, Pest or Pathogen, Fire, and Drought. There is also information about some responses to disturbance: Stream Macroinvertebrates, Coldwater Fisheries, and Invasive Plants. You can explore the tool now at www.uvm.edu/femc/disturbance and register for a webinar that will be held on November 3 at 12pm. The webinar has been approved for 1.0 Category 1 SAF credit.

New Online Tool Available to Explore the Impacts of Climate Change

2021-09-29

The Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative is excited to announce the release of the Forest Impacts of Climate Change: Monitoring Indicators Version 1.0 web-tool. This tool allows users to explore where forest monitoring is occurring of 24 expert-identified climate change indicators in the Northeastern U.S. Users can access protocols and visualize where monitoring studies are already being conducted with a focus on aquatic systems, forest systems, trees, and wildlife. Landowners, managers, and researchers can then use these protocols to implement their own, comparable monitoring programs that will be added to the database that already consists of 350 studies with 168 replicable protocols. Developing this network of monitoring sites provides critical information to help close spatial gaps in monitoring efforts and provides baseline data for further inquiry into how forest systems are shifting in response to climate change.

Detecting and Monitoring Beech Leaf Disease in the Northeast

2021-03-25

In collaboration with the US Forest Service and state forest health programs, the FEMC will be expanding a regional network of monitoring plots to track the spread and severity of Beech Leaf Disease (BLD). BLD is a foliar disease associated with a subspecies of Japanese nematode, Litylenchus crenatae. This disease has been documented in both mature and young American beech, with mortality often occurring following multiple years of infection. Oriental and European beech are also prone to infection. First detected in Ohio in 2012, BLD has rapidly expanded throughout the northeastern US and Canada. In 2020, BLD spread considerably throughout New York and Connecticut, with initial detections occurring in both Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The goal of this partnership is to share resources that can aid in detecting this new disease while expanding our regional detection efforts. A portion of FEMC plots with a strong component of American beech will be used to collect measurements of BLD and Beech Bark Disease severity, in addition to site characteristics that may be meaningful factors for disease. The US Forest Service is encouraging partners to use the Tree Health Survey app (available for iPhone and iPad) for reporting potential infections of BLD. For additional information on BLD, consider attending the USDA Forest Service Beech Leaf Disease Virtual Workshop, scheduled for April 15^th, 2021.
– by Cameron Mcintire, USDA Forest Service

Announcing The Northeastern Forest Regeneration Data Network

2020-07-20

We are pleased to announce the Northeastern Forest Regeneration Data Network online at www.uvm.edu/femc/forest_regen

To help the region better understand the patterns and trends in forest regeneration, the Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative (FEMC) created REGEN: The Northeastern Forest Regeneration Data Network , an online data and methodology portal that allows users to explore, search, filter, and compare projects and datasets related to forest regeneration.

While many monitoring efforts and research studies have collected regeneration data, this information has not been aggregated, standardized or made public to the broad group of stakeholders who could benefit from the information. The FEMC responded to these concerns by creating REGEN, a structured framework and portal where visitors can discover and compare projects and datasets that have collected regeneration data.

The data collection available through the portal includes projects and datasets ranging from long term research studies examining the effects of silviculture treatments on regeneration to those looking at the effects of natural disturbances on regeneration. This work reflects the efforts of a broad collaborative group allowing us to work together to promote easier data discovery and utilization without duplication.

Visit the project page to learn more about the project and access the report

2019 FEMC COnference Agenda Announced and Registration Open

2019-11-07

With impacts of a global climate crisis increasingly experienced throughout northeastern forested regions, the Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative prepares for action at our 2019 Conference. This year’s overarching theme "Monitoring for Impacts of Climate Change: Tracking and measuring outcomes in northeastern forests” will present updates and research on a wide range of topic categories.

Our morning plenary includes a talk by Richard Primack, conservation biologist of Boston University, who will focus on his current work which highlights the effects of climate change on the flowering, leafing out, fruiting, and leaf senescence times of plants, the migration times of birds and flight times of insects in Massachusetts, and the potential for ecological mismatches among species caused by changes in timing. Professionals will speak on the various initiatives involved in monitoring and measuring aspects of climate change and forest ecosystem responses, pests and disease, technology and partnerships, forest management, forest and alpine ecology, wildlife and forested rivers and streams.

In addition to the contributed talks there will be an opportunity to participate in moderated working sessions in which windows for discussion will encourage insight from numerous perspectives. Over the course of the day, our scheduled presentations will be separated by coffee, lunch and snack breaks providing a chance to view a display of exhibited posters, make new connections and catch up with colleagues. As part of FEMC’s effort to connect across boundaries in the scientific community, we are excited to welcome researchers, educators, natural resource managers, and non-profit from a range of disciplines, all of whom are supporting the Cooperative goals of sharing information and making connections.

Full conference details are available at https://www.uvm.edu/femc/cooperative/conference/2019/agenda.

2019 FEMC Conference Now Accepting Talks, Posters, and Working Sessions

2019-09-25

The Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative (FEMC) is pleased to announce that submissions for presentations, posters and working sessions are now being accepted for the 2019 Conference. The conference takes place on Friday, December 13th, 2019, at the University of Vermont, and this year’s theme is "Monitoring for Impacts of Climate Change: Tracking and measuring outcomes in northeastern forests". Full conference details are available at https://www.uvm.edu/femc/cooperative/conference/2019. We encourage you to consider contributing a presentation and/or poster about your work. Guidelines and submission forms can be found online at https://www.uvm.edu/femc/cooperative/conference/2019/paper_call, and submissions are due October 20th.

All accepted abstracts will be published online as a part of the 2019 Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative Conference Proceedings (check out last year’s proceedings). We also provide the opportunity for participant-led working sessions in the afternoon, where you can convene collaborators to focus on a topic of your design. If you are interested in proposing a working session, you can learn more and submit your idea at https://www.uvm.edu/femc/cooperative/conference/2019/work_session. Working sessions are approved on a rolling basis until we run out of rooms or November 8th, whichever comes first. FEMC staff are happy to discuss session ideas before submission if that is helpful.