The Winooski Valley Park District partnered with Dr. James Murdoch’s Terrestrial Wildlife class this spring to investigate the impacts of climate change on wildlife with a focus on principles of wildlife ecology and conservation.  This service learning partnership was one of four classes supported by a sub-grant through Northern New England Campus Compact and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Using occupancy models, GIS and literature reviews, the project aimed to assess the ‘suitability’ of Colchester Pond, the largest WVPD park, for three wildlife species, including bear, bobcat, and fisher, and how that ‘suitability’ will change under two scenarios of climate change.  After determining the probability of each species researched occurring in the park under present conditions, students then developed two climate change scenarios and estimated how those changes will impact the natural landscape of the park, and applied their models to determine impacts on each species.    

The class estimated that climate change will have little impact on bobcat and fisher in Colchester Pond.  However, students found that the impacts may be substantial for bears, mainly due to expected changes in forest cover.  The results provide a quantitative assessment that can be used by WVPD to set priorities for wildlife conservation and proactively manage for expected changes.