Natural Resources Management and Policy Commons^™

Forest Management Tradeoffs: Examining Relationships Between Timber Harvest, Carbon Sequestration And Storage, Bioenergy, And Wildlife, Michelle L. Brown

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Timber harvesting is the leading cause of adult tree mortality in forests of the northeastern United States. While current rates of harvest are generally sustainable, there is considerable pressure to increase harvest to meet timber production, climate, and energy goals. Maximizing one of these values may compromise other forest resources, including a wide range of ecosystem services and the conservation of native species. This dissertation investigates the effects of timber harvest on carbon sequestration and storage, bioenergy, and wildlife. First, I estimated current harvest regimes for different forest types and regions across the U.S. states of New York, Vermont, New …

Master’S Project: Exploring And Supporting Social And Ecological Dimensions Of Pollinator Habitat Enhancement In Burlington, Vt, Victoria Hellwig

Rubenstein School Masters Project Publications

Urbanization and other manmade impacts threaten critical pollinator species like the bumblebee, whose populations are significantly affected by habitat loss. In response, activists in the City of Burlington are enhancing habitat to increase biodiversity through collaborative partnerships in urban green spaces. In an effort to explore and support pollinator habitat enhancement in Burlington, I examined social interactions involved in a group highly motivated to enhance habitat at Lakeview Cemetery and Champlain Elementary School, with an emphasis on power dynamics and place meanings of these sites. In conjunction with this exploration, I created landscape designs, planted a native habitat garden, and …

Developing An Adaptive Resource Management Framework For Sustainable Cashmere Production In Mongolia, Elisabeth Lohre

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Cashmere is a multi-billion dollar commodity and recent increases in demand have led to the degradation of grassland and desert steppe ecosystems in East and Central Asia. Cashmere wool is a product of goats and 90% of the world’s supply originates from Mongolia and northern China. As global demand for cashmere increases, the consequences to the natural landscapes and people of the region may be severe, especially given the rapid rate of environmental change due to warming climatic conditions in the region.

Textile manufacturers recognize the need for better goat herding practices and support the development of a sustainable cashmere …

Predicting Wildlife Distributions And Resilience Under Alternative Futures, Schuyler Pearman-Gillman

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

In the northeastern United States, population expansion, climate change, land use, and land-use change all pose serious concerns for wildlife. Understanding the impacts of climate and land-use change on species distributions can help inform conservation decisions. Unfortunately, empirical data on distributions are limited for many wildlife species, making conservation planning challenging. This dissertation focuses on the use of expert opinion data for modeling wildlife distributions and evaluating the impacts of future climate and land-use changes. First, I implemented expert elicitation techniques to collect wildlife occurrence data for harvested species (n = 10) in the New England region. I then used …

Master's Project: Morey Mountain Conservation Area Management Plan, James M. Nash-Howe

Rubenstein School Masters Project Publications

The acquisition of the Morey Mountain Conservation Area (MMCA) adds another important parcel into the Upper Valley Land Trust’s (UVLT) portfolio of conserved lands; however, the specific conservation values found on the parcel were not known until recently.

In the summer of 2019, I, Max Nash-Howe—as a graduate student at the University of Vermont Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources—spent several weeks surveying the property to inventory forest types, unique natural communities, and other important conservation values. My findings and recommendations for how the UVLT should manage the parcel to ensure the integrity of the conservation values found on …

New Hybrid Protected Lands Layer For Vermont Conservation Design Analysis (February 2019), Carolyn D. Loeb, Anthony W. D'Amato

Rubenstein School Masters Project Publications

This shapefile (.shp) is a hybrid of the March 2017 Edition of the Vermont Center for Geographic Information's (VCGI) Vermont Protected Lands Database (VPLD), the Vermont Land Trust's February 2019 Protected Lands database, and The Nature Conservancy's Secured Areas (SA 2018+) database. The VLT and SA 2018+ datasets were used as the scaffolding for the hybrid protected lands layer, with some VCGI VPLD polygons retained if they contained unique contributions. These datasets were combined by C.D. Loeb because each input dataset was missing some protected lands polygons in the state of Vermont. Additionally, the VCGI VPLD dataset contained many overlapping …

Tools For Landscape-Scale Automated Acoustic Monitoring To Characterize Wildlife Occurrence Dynamics, Cathleen Michelle Balantic

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

In a world confronting climate change and rapidly shifting land uses, effective methods for monitoring natural resources are critical to support scientifically-informed management decisions. By taking audio recordings of the environment, scientists can acquire presence-absence data to characterize populations of sound-producing wildlife over time and across vast spatial scales. Remote acoustic monitoring presents new challenges, however: monitoring programs are often constrained in the total time they can record, automated detection algorithms typically produce a prohibitive number of detection mistakes, and there is no streamlined framework for moving from raw acoustic data to models of wildlife occurrence dynamics. In partnership with …

Spawning Site Selection And Fry Development Of Invasive Lake Trout In Yellowstone Lake, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, Lee Simard

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Since their discovery in Yellowstone Lake in 1994, Lake Trout (Salvelinus namaycush) have been the object of an intensive gillnet suppression program due to their predation on native Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii bouvieri). Managers are also interested in targeting early life stages to augment suppression. A benthic sled was used to sample for Lake Trout eggs at 24 locations, hypothesized to be spawning sites, that encompassed a range of depths, slopes, and substrate composition to determine the location and characteristics of spawning sites in Yellowstone Lake. Lake Trout eggs were collected at seven sites, five of which had not …

Estimating Landscape Quality And Genetic Structure Of Recovering American Marten Populations In The Northeastern United States, Cody Michael Aylward

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The American marten (Martes americana) is an endangered species in Vermont and a Regional Species of Greatest Conservation Need in the northeastern United States. Though historically widespread in northeastern forests, their range presumably contracted to northern Maine and the High Peaks region of the Adirondacks by the early 1900s. Regionally, populations appear to be in recovery. Natural recolonization is believed to have occurred in New Hampshire, northeastern Vermont and the western Adirondacks. A reintroduction effort in southern Vermont that was originally declared unsuccessful is now believed to be the source of a recently detected population in the area. However, our …

Master's Project: Guiding Recreation At Travertine Hot Springs: An Environmental Assessment And Photo Monitoring Protocol, Julia Runcie

Rubenstein School Masters Project Publications

In a remote corner of eastern California, natural hot springs deposit tawny ribbons of travertine limestone within a mosaic of sagebrush steppe, pinyon-juniper woodland, and alkali meadows. Known as Travertine Hot Springs Area of Critical Environmental Concern, these 160 acres host tens of thousands of visitors each year. Trampled vegetation, illegal campfire rings, and two and a half miles of meandering informal paths attest to the heavy use the area sustains. In partnership with the Bureau of Land Management and the Bridgeport Indian Colony, I designed a trail system, a blueprint for interpretive signage, and a suite of infrastructural enhancements …

Early Feeding In Lake Trout Fry (Salvelinus Namaycush) As A Mechanism For Ameliorating Thiamine Deficiency Complex, Carrie L. Kozel

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Recruitment failure of lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) in the Great Lakes has been attributed in part to the consumption of alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) by adult lake trout, leading to Thiamine Deficiency Complex (TDC) and early mortality in fry. The current understanding of thiamine deficiency in lake trout fry is based on information from culture and hatchery settings, which do not represent conditions fry experience in the wild and may influence the occurrence of TDC. In the wild, lake trout fry have access to zooplankton immediately following hatching; previous studies found that wild fry begin feeding before complete yolk-sac absorption. However, …

Master's Project - Wildlife Habitat Linkages Surrounding The Lake George And Southern Lake Champlain Region, Sam E. Talbot

Rubenstein School Masters Project Publications

Conservation priorities – when developed systematically and objectively – can maximize land protection efforts in heterogeneous landscapes susceptible to parcelization and development. One such region surrounds Lake George and Southern Lake Champlain, nested between the Green and Adirondack Mountains. This mosaic of conserved and private parcels sits upon an array of forest, agriculture, wetland, and development valuable to both humans and resident wildlife species. This landscape’s inherent connectedness provides many benefits to wildlife, including species richness, enhanced persistence, and increased genetic interchange. However, it is difficult to make definitive statements about potential wildlife movement through such complex matrices. Therefore, wildlife …

Master's Project - Connecting Guests To The Landscape At Kripalu: Ecological Assessment, Interpretation, And Education, Jessica D. Griffen

Rubenstein School Masters Project Publications

Sweeping views of the Berkshires and miles of trails await guests at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in western Massachusetts, yet surprisingly few visitors venture outside. I collaborated with Mass Audubon to transform Kripalu's grounds from a beautiful backdrop viewed through the windows to an essential part of the guest experience. To accomplish this, I conducted a rapid ecological assessment of the 125-acre property, mapped its network of trails, and piloted natural history programs for guests. The rapid ecological assessment serves as a resource for Kripalu’s grounds staff and future educators. To encourage more guests to venture outside, I …

Analytical And Decision Tools For Wildlife Population And Habitat Management, Kurt Rinehart

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The long-term success of wildlife conservation depends on maximizing the benefits of limited funds and data in pursuit of population and habitat objectives. The ultimate currency for wildlife management is progress toward long-term preservation of ample, wild, free wildlife populations and to this end, funds must be wisely spent and maximal use made from limited data.

Through simulation-based analyses, I evaluated the efficacy of various models for estimating population abundance from harvest data. Because managers have different estimators to choose from and can also elect to collect additional data, I compared the statistical performance of different estimation strategies (estimator + …

Effects Of Landscape Change On Corsac Foxes In Mongolia, Myagmarjav Lkhagvasuren

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Landscape change affects the distribution of wildlife and represents a conservation concern, especially in Asia, which is experiencing rapid development. In Mongolia, mining, livestock grazing, infrastructure development and climate change represent major drivers of change that will impact habitats and few tools exist to predict how wildlife will respond. I examined the impacts of landscape change on the corsac fox (Vulpes corsac) in a steppe region of Mongolia. The corsac fox occurs widely throughout northern Asia, but has experienced declines in many regions and remains one the least studied canids. I addressed two questions: 1) how do common features of …

Habitat Use By Early Successional Bird Species Along Powerline Rights Of Way: Making Connections Across Private Lands, Christine Rose Peterson

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Wildlife species that rely on early successional habitat are showing long-term region-wide declines, including songbirds such as Eastern Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus), Field Sparrow (Spizella pusilla), Blue-winged Warbler (Vermivora cyanoptera), Golden-winged Warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera), Prairie Warbler (Setophaga discolor), and Brown Thrasher (Toxostoma rufum). All six species are listed as Species of Greatest Conservation Need on a majority of the New England state's Wildlife Action Plans and in 2011, the Golden-winged Warbler was placed under review for federal listing. In areas where vegetation structure is actively maintained in early successional stages, such as powerline rights-of-way (ROWs), there is an opportunity to provide …

Using Stable Isotope Analysis To Estimate Black Bear (Ursus Americanus) Diet In Vermont, Eliese Antona Dykstra

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The black bear (Ursus americanus) is an iconic species with cultural, economic and ecological importance in Vermont, USA. Bears exhibit a highly variable diet, and few studies have described bear diet in the state. Information on diet may provide insight into foraging behavior, thus allowing managers to better assess patterns of human-bear conflict. My objectives were to estimate the relative contribution of food items to bear diet and how factors including sex, habitat, food availability, and nuisance status describe patterns of consumption. I collected samples from bears and major food groups including C3 plants, white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), corn (Zea …

Considering Vermont's Future In A Changing Climate: The First Vermont Climate Assessment, Gillian L. Galford, Ann Hoogenboom, Sam Carlson, Sarah Ford, Julie Nash, Elizabeth Palchak, Sarah Pears, Kristen Underwood, Daniel V. Baker

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

The Vermont Climate Assessment (VCA) paints a vivid picture of a changing climate in Vermont and calls for immediate strategic planning to sustain the social, economic and environmental fabric of our state. The VCA is the first state-scale climate assessment in the country and speaks directly to the impacts of climate change as they pertain to our rural towns, cities and communities, including impacts on Vermont tourism and recreation, agriculture, natural resources and energy.

Decision Support For Natural Resource Management, Jonathan Cummings

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

This research spans a variety of research topics with a common theme, providing decision support through the development and analysis of methods that assist decision making for natural resource and wildlife management. I used components of structured decision making and decision analysis to address natural resources management problems, specifically monitoring and estimating the status of harvested populations, as well as data collection decisions for landscape conservation.

My results have implications for the way populations are monitored and their status is estimated. I find that the inclusion of error in data collection can have a substantial impact of the performance of …

Why I Love Grasshopper Sparrows, Michele Patenaude

UVM Libraries Conference Day

Since 2001, Michele (a library circulation supervisor in her day job) has conducted a summer breeding-bird survey of Grasshopper Sparrows at Camp Johnson in Colchester, VT. Named Grasshopper Sparrows because their breeding call sounds like a grasshopper, this little brown bird is endemic to certain types of scrubby grasslands which are becoming more scarce in the Northeast. The Grasshopper Sparrow is also declining and the species is not on the list of Vermont Endangered Birds. Come to this presentation and learn about the bird, how Michele surveys them, why they are endangered, and why Michele loves these quiet, little brown …