By Beth Sullivan
We have come to the end of the year. A year that most of us
would like to forget. A year that has brought such huge disruption and trauma
into everyone’s lives. But, I have made
it a point to try, each day, to reflect on how lucky I am, how grateful I am,
for each small thing, and I find that they are too numerous to count.
I am especially
grateful for our collaboration with the Sea Grant program of University of Connecticut for putting
together an amazing proposal to get us a Long Island Sound Futures Fund Grant
from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to restore a resilient forest at
Hoffman Preserve, which will be adapted
to the warming climate of the future. The following article is the official press
release by Judy Benson.
A very special thank you to Al Bach for being the master
behind this blog for 8 years and his wife Lisa, my dear friend who patiently
edited all my erratic sentences! It was
his encouragement and willingness to do the technical work to set it up and
post it, that gave me the opportunity to write about things I love and wanted
to share. That part of the team is retiring
after this post. I hope to keep writing,
but I am not sure who will have the patience to deal with my punctuation.
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We are grateful for opportunities to educate and inform our visitors.
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We are grateful for opportunities to encourage community involvement.
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We are grateful for opportunities to test how some southern species will grow in our preserves.
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We are grateful for opportunities that allow acorns to become oaks.
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We are grateful for opportunities that allow a new forest to grow green.
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Photographs by Beth Sullivan.
Dec. 18, 2020
CT Sea Grant, Avalonia
project looks to prepare forest preserve for the future
Stonington –
Battered by coastal storms and infestations of wooly adelgids, gypsy moth, winter
moth and emerald ash borer, sections of the 200-acre Hoffman Evergreen Preserve
will now serve as a living lab and demonstration site for how land managers can
help forests adapt to climate change.
“We want to increase the resilience of the forest and
maintain the water quality filtration services it provides to Long Island
Sound,” said Juliana Barrett, coastal habitat specialist for Connecticut Sea
Grant. “We’re trying to plant the right trees for the right time.”
Owned by the Avalonia Land Conservancy and popular with
hikers and bird watchers, sections of the forest became unsafe over the last
decade due to large numbers of diseased and storm-damaged trees. That prompted
the land trust to contract with Hull Forest Products to do selective logging in
2019 that left open areas that will now be the subject of a joint project
between Avalonia and CT Sea Grant.
“This is about helping to restore a healthy forest,” said
Beth Sullivan, Stonington chairperson for Avalonia. “It’s something we’ve been
working towards for the last five to six years.”
A grant of $57,144 from the Long Island Sound Futures Fund,
announced last week, will provide funds for the development of a unique forward-looking
forest management plan for the cleared areas, along with a series of public
education programs. Barrett said the project is one of the first of its kind in
Connecticut that incorporates climate change projections and assisted migration
techniques for plants better adapted to future conditions. Some seedlings and
seeds will be planted as part of the yearlong project, chosen both for their ability
to regenerate under future climate conditions and their value as food sources
for wildlife. Robert Ricard, a forester and senior extension educator with
UConn, will help develop the plan and planting list, and provide guidance on
the best locations for particular species.
“We’re going to try some species at the edge of their limits
in Connecticut that, based on climate change projections, we think will do
well,” Barrett said.
Instead of replanting the same species of hemlocks, oaks and
ash shown to be vulnerable to the pests and weather disruptions brought by
climate change, the plan will identify tree and shrub species likely to be more
resilient in warmer temperatures. These could include loblolly pine, tulip
poplar, sweetgum and others more common in the mid-Atlantic region. About a dozen
loblolly pine seedlings planted last spring, in fact, have already become well
established despite last summer’s drought, Sullivan said.
The preserve, located at the north end of town several miles
from the shoreline, nonetheless provides important services to Long Island
Sound by absorbing runoff and filtering pollutants that would end up in the
estuary, Barrett noted.
The public education component was developed with Avalonia
project collaborator Sharon Lynch, George Washington University professor
emerita in the School of Education and Human Development. An expert in science
teacher education, Lynch currently works on education initiatives with the
National Science Foundation. The education component will consist of a series
of four webinars on topics relevant to the project, including the history of
New England forests and the carbon sequestration services they provide. The
series is intended for municipal officials, land trust officials, forest
landowners and the general public. In addition, a two-day workshop on guiding
principles for coastal forest resilience in the Long Island Sound region will
be offered specifically for municipal officials, resource managers, land trust
officials, forest landowners and students. An accompanying fact sheet will be
developed and published.
Nancy Balcom, CT Sea Grant associate director of CT Sea
Grant, said she hopes the project will provide valuable information for land
managers throughout the region.
“Given the devastation our local forests have suffered which
threatens their ability to provide critical ecosystem and recreational
services, it’s important to not only test the ability of new species to survive
and thrive in our changing climate but to also share the progress and results
widely so other land trusts and organizations can pursue similar paths,” she
said.
Barrett said the lessons learned at the Hoffman preserve
will be shared with other land trusts and land managers, and hopes that tours
of the site can be offered in the future to show how different plant species
are adapting. The project, she said, will be an opportunity “to educate and
engage land trust stewards, resource managers, municipal officials and
neighbors in understanding coastal forest ecosystem services, impacts of
climate change on these systems and guiding principles for management under
changing conditions.”
The grant for the Hoffman Preserve, which will be matched
with $33,600 in in-kind services from Avalonia volunteers, is one of 38 awarded
in this year’s Long Island Sound Futures Fund program. The 15-year-old program combines funds
from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to support projects that
improve the water quality and restore habitat in the Long Island Sound
watershed. This year, $3.8 million in funding will support 15 projects in
Connecticut, 14 in New York, three in Massachusetts, three in Vermont, one in
New Hampshire and two in multiple states.
“It is heartwarming to see innovation at work, people and
organizations getting together, planning and acting now for what the world will
look like in decades,” said Sylvain De Guise, director of CT Sea Grant. “At the
same time, it is encouraging that grant programs are open enough to recognize
and fund innovation, even if riskier than sticking with old habits.
“I think we are heading in the right direction,” he
concluded.
Connecticut Sea Grant,
located at the University of Connecticut’s Avery Point campus in Groton, is one
of 34 Sea Grant programs across the country focused on projects that support
healthy coastal ecosystems, environmental literacy, resilient communities,
fisheries and aquaculture. For information, visit: seagrant.uconn.edu.