Yale Forests News Issue 13
March 2013
Yale Forests NewS
Brought to you by the Yale School Forests and the F&ES Office of Alumni Affairs
2012 Annual Report
Mark S. Ashton, Director of School Forests
MF ‘85, Ph.D. ‘90
It has been another
productive year for
the School Forests:
record
breaking
numbers of students participating
at Yale-Myers Forest, a brand new
building, new education programs,
new extension initiatives and more research projects than ever before.
The Year Behind…
We have had lots of progress and change
this year. Richard Campbell (MF ‘06)
and School Forests Manager for the
last five years has moved to California
where he has secured his dream job as
conservation science manager for Save
the Redwoods. Richard did an amazing
job in growing the forest management
program and helping to start the Quiet
Corner Initiative. He has been succeeded by Alex Barrett (MF ‘12) a very recent
graduate of F&ES and past apprentice
forester from 2011. Alex is a rare breed–a
native New Englander from the Berkshires born and bred! We are thrilled to
have him on board but of course are sad
about Richard’s departure.
“Many Hands Make Light Work”
The 2012 Forest Crew
Luke McKay, Assistant Forest Manager, MF ‘13
A wise man once said that, “many hands make light work.” Although
that wise man was 16th century English writer, John Heywood, it was an
equally wise Irishman who took that old adage to heart in selecting the
members of the 2012 Forest Crew. With a record high eleven members
including Blake Troxel (MF ‘12), Matt Fried (MF ‘13), Matt Decker (MEM
‘12), Tina Schneider (MF ‘12), Nathan Rutenbeck (MF ‘12), Austin Lord
(MESc ‘13), Kayanna Warren (MFS ‘12), Shane Hetzler (MF ‘12), David
Ross (MF ‘12), Tania Ellersick (MFS ‘12), and Luke McKay; the 2012 Forest Crew stormed through the Turkey Hill Division of Yale-Myers Forest
while leaving ample time for the never ending list of camp improvement
projects and new initiatives.
Crew officially started the week after classes with Game of Logging certification and a week’s worth of roadwork in Turkey Hill. Breaking for graduation and the Pacific Northwest trip, we began in earnest on June 11th and
never looked back. A couple days spent remarking boundaries and seeing
what lay before us in Turkey Hill was followed by a series of silvicultural
exercises and walks in the woods with Mark Ashton and Richard Campbell focused on taxonomy, stand delineation, silvicultural prescriptions
and timber marking. Although “still in our nappies” as our instructors like
to remind us, the Crew was set loose to design a sampling plan, conduct
inventory, and actually begin marking trees by the first week of July.
The first marked sale of the summer—“The Squirrel”—appropriately
named given the rodent like shape of the stand’s boundaries—was a crop
tree crown thinning in a well stocked white pine stand. After this relatively straightforward prescription, the Crew moved on to more challenging
crown thinnings including the sales “Bold Move,” “Beaver Love,” “Tickle
the Hinge” and “Joose Run.” The largest thinning—both in area and volume marked—was completed over a four-day span in mid July. Named
“Raccoon Sweats” because of a regrettable meal in which we barbequed
the nocturnal mammal–the sale produced a marked volume of 49 Mbf and
In addition, this year was the largest Ap- over 60 cords of firewood.
prentice Forester Internship Program After marking all of our thinnings we turned our attention to a 26.1-acre
ever. We had eighteen applicants and shelterwood harvest for our last sale of the summer in Turkey Hill. This
eventually eleven apprentice foresters– was the first cut of an irregular shelterwood with group and individual requite a handful! We had to utilize two serves. It was marked in three days for over 135 Mbf. The last day of markschool vans for the program, which the ing this shelterwood coincided with Richard Campbell’s last day as Forest
School has now given to us, including Manager, who left his deft silvicultural touch on the sale. In honor of our
the classic Siccama van, which we have departing Crew Boss we called this sale “Richard’s Last Stand.”
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Yale Forests News Issue 13
March 2013
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been using for the program for the last twenty years. I am sure many of you have fond memories of the van and will
be happy to know that it is still running. Over 370 Mbf was marked–of which 293 was at the Yale-Myers Forest and
77 was at Goss Woods in New Hampshire. This comprised a variety of irregular shelterwoods, crown thinnings and
a femelschlag.
We continue to have several on going research projects at the School Forests. Marlyse Duguid (MF ‘10, Ph.D. ‘17),
Research Coordinator, continues to develop the extension outreach for School Forests research. She has been developing an electronic bulletin along with Molly Roske (MFS ‘14) that will be publishing research findings at periodic
intervals that will be distributed to professionals and interested landowners throughout the southern New England
area. New to the research scene at the forest is Professor Robert Mendelsohn who is now engaged in economic valuation studies of timber and non-timber goods and ecological services that private lands can provide to the region.
Professor Mendelsohn’s research is part of the Quiet Corner Initiative. See Marlyse Duguid’s Research News and
Notes for more information on current research at the School Forests.
For extension we conducted over 17 extension lectures and field trips to professional forestry organizations, students
(universities, high schools) and neighborhood groups. This coming year we are planning our first regional environmental film festival. Also, in regards to new facilities, and unbelievable as it may sound, by the spring we will have
a completely new institutional dormitory that sleeps 24, a classroom/lecture hall to house over 50 people, and a new
garage/barn with an upstairs forest management office. See Alex Barrett’s Facilities Update for more information
on these exciting new projects.
Lastly, we have been awarded a very nice sum of money from the U.S. Forest Service to fully engage our students
with landowners through a range of courses taught and advised by myself (Management Plans for Protected Areas),
Brad Gentry (Strategies for Land Conservation), Mike Ferrucci (Forest Management Operations), Jim MacBroom
(River Processes and Restoration) and Deborah Spalding (Forest and Ecosystem Finance). We have over 70 landowners in our partnership, and in only two years we have developed management plans for over one thousand acres
and eleven landowners to date. Students also organized three landowner workshops. For more information see
Shane Hetzler’s Note from the Quiet Corner Initiative Coordinator.
The Year Ahead…
This year we will continue to upgrade the Apprentice Forester Internship Program with more formal lectures and
exercises. We now have six demonstration areas for learning. We intend adding another demonstration guide for
soils that we have already developed the trail system for and we would like to start developing another on selection
systems for coniferous forests at Yale-Toumey. All these demonstration areas are used for our own courses, the Quiet
Corner Initiative, and for visiting universities and professional groups. We intend to implement the recommendations from the first set of management plans for landowners. We will do this through this summer’s Apprentice
Foresters under mentorship from professional foresters. And lastly, as mentioned earlier, we will be having our first
environmental film festival in the summer.
Thank You’s…
We would especially like to thank the Taylor Fund, Class of 1980 Fund, and The Beinecke No. 1 Fund for supporting
our facilities development and the Quiet Corner Initiative. We would like to thank Richard Campbell for his service
to the School Forests and to Shane Hetzler for his
Yale-Myers Summer Seminar Series 2013
dedication toward maintaining and continuing to
expand and develop the Quiet Corner Initiative. June 13: Ticks and Tickborne Disease, Durland Fish
And lastly, we should recognize and thank Kris June 27: Discover the Old Connecticut Path, Jason Newton
Covey who has been a creative drive around the July 11: Amphibians and Vernal Pools, Jonathan Richardson
development of all things luxurious around camp
July 25: Emerald Ash Borer, Thomas Worthley
much to the chagrin of the old timers like me.
Refreshments 7 pm, seminar 7:30 pm
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The Crew’s last week at Yale-Myers was marked by Richard’s departure
to San Francisco to take up a really exciting position as conservation
science manager for Save the Redwoods. Alex Barrett arrived as the
new Forest Manager in August and immediately got to work supervising the completion of several camp enhancement projects in preparation for Mods–the most significant being the laying of a blue stone
floor around the new outdoor dishwashing station. Following a deep
cleaning of camp, some of the Crew departed for various parts of the
country while those remaining moved up to Yale-Toumey Forest for The 2012 Forest crew with their instructors.
two weeks of work in Goss Woods–a 185-acre property in Winchester, Photo credit: Dave Hobson.
New Hampshire. In just two weeks our dwindling yet extremely efficient Crew remarked Goss Woods’ boundaries,
completed inventory and marked a 24-acre thinning and first entry femelschlag. Alex Barrett, Matt Fried and Luke
McKay also marked a shelterwood harvest in Goss Woods this fall.
The 2012 Forest Crew was a memorable one and although many hands do not always make light work–the Crew
ended the summer with new friendships and lessons learned that we will carry with us in the years ahead. In closing,
the Crew’s experiences this summer would not have been as nearly rewarding if it had not been for the tireless efforts
of our fearless leaders—Mark Ashton, Richard Campbell and Alex Barrett—as well as our exceptional cooks–Clara
Rutenbeck and Ainsley Lloyd. Special thanks also to Forest Crew alums Mike Ferrucci (MF ‘81, InterForest LLC),
Steve Roberge (MFS ‘05, Cheshire County, NH Extension Forester), and Dave Hobson (MF ‘04, Forest Manager
Emeritus, Green Grow Corporation) for taking the time out of their busy schedules this summer to share with us their
respective work and knowledge.
Facilities Update at Yale-Myers Forest
Alex Barrett, School Forests Manager, MF ‘12
Building on a string of successful years of Yale-Myers Camp improvements, 2012 was yet another exciting year for
the facilities at Camp. Kris Covey (MF ‘10, Ph.D. ‘16) is a dynamic force in his voluntary role as “Director of New
Initiatives” and numerous projects led by both staff and students are currently underway. The Class of 1980 continued its generous support of student projects up at Camp. With their help, we added a smoker to our outdoor
cooking facilities and we put in electricity and lighting under the Class of 1980 timber frame pavilion. Class of 1980
and F&ES Mods money also helped us to build an outdoor dishwashing station under a shed roof off the backside
of the kitchen. Mik McKee (MF ‘13) and Kris Covey led the effort and the Forest Crew installed another beautiful
bluestone floor. This station saw lots of use all summer and with its three sinks and industrial sprayer, it was an
amazing asset during Mods. The white plastic sink hooked up to a garden hose that many of us fondly remember
from Mods is now a distant memory.
Photo: Shane Hetzler
We are excited to have started construction of our new “snore-proof ” dormitory and classroom building. We are
grateful for the assistance on this project from Dean Sir Peter Crane and Sue Wells, F&ES Business Manager, and
the very generous support of the Taylor Fund and the Childs Family. This building is in the same style and design
as the current bunkhouse and classroom building and will complete the “L” shape of our Camp buildings around
the central lawn space. The dormitory’s completion will recreate the original design of Camp when it was first constructed in 1930 but has subsequently fallen apart over the last half century. The only original building that stands
now is the bunkhouse–with its new roof from 2004. We have plans on renovating the bunkhouse in the near future.
The beloved chicken coops had to be moved to new locations at Camp where they continue to be popular spaces
for lost summer students and excess equipment! This classroom and dormitory building is a huge project and will
dramatically improve our ability to host larger groups, lectures, and the summer seminar series. Yale Facilities has
been helping to oversee and coordinate the project and we expect to host lectures in there this spring–knock on
wood! Despite the frigid temperatures, the builders have been hard at work. Please check out the Yale School Forests
Facebook page for updates and photographs of the progress.
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In December, carpenter extraordinaire, Mik McKee, continued to make his mark at Camp by leading an office improvement project in our new barn-garage. Led by Mik, a crew
of volunteers (Alex Barrett, Kris Covey, Matt Decker (MEM
‘12), Evan Ray (MF ‘12), Monte Kawahara (MF ‘13), Matt
Fried (MF ‘13), Dan Maynard (Ph.D. ‘17), and Jeff Stoike
(Ph.D. ‘14)) built lockers for members of Forest Crew on
the first floor, and then tables for the upstairs. Everything
was made out of beautiful hemlock boards sawn out of logs
from Yale-Myers. This coming year the Forest Crew will no
longer have an excuse to display their work equipment and Progress on the new dormitory and classroom building is not hindered
gear around Camp.
by inclimate weather. Photo credit: Alex Barrett.
On the horizon this winter is the construction of a 20’ X 30’ storage shed out at the French House. This will provide
equipment storage for researchers and further replace the capacity we lost with the White Barn’s collapse in 2011.
Karin Burghardt (Ph.D. ‘15) has installed a series of raised beds in the new field by the French House and the easily
accessible storage barn will be particularly helpful to researchers like her who are utilizing our new restored meadow
area for research around the French House.
This spring, Griffin Collier (Yale College ‘13) will be installing his architectural work of art, the Treehouse at Yale, in
a beautiful sugar maple near Camp. Griffin’s dogged persistence in design, structural engineering, and fundraising
has paid off and we at the Forests Office are excited to add Griffin’s project to our facilities. The Treehouse will be a
wonderful place to view wildlife along the Branch Brook, and will provide an opportunity to experience the canopy
structure of the forest.
The summer of 2013 is shaping up to be another blast of productivity as we continue to make Camp a premier
research, demonstration and education facility. Alumni, Modsters, students, visiting university groups, and our
neighbors continue to be pleasantly surprised with the upgrades. Consequently, the allure of Camp continues to
grow and we are confident that by being a top-notch facility we will inspire top-notch research and continued excellence in forest management.
Research News and Notes
Marlyse Duguid, School Forests Research Coordinator, MF ‘10, Ph.D.‘17
First of all, a big thank you to everyone who attended this past summer’s research seminar series at Yale-Myers Forest.
The record attendance supports the broader interest in the extensive research themes that are being explored at the
Forest–from acorns and turkey populations to soil carbon and beyond. Discussion and good times were had by all.
Stay tuned for the list of this summer’s speakers.
As always, the breadth and depth of the research publications coming out of the Forest this year was tremendous. Kris
Covey (MF ‘10, Ph.D. ‘16) has received quite a bit of press for his work on the role of terrestrial vegetation on global
methane emissions. Kris and his coauthors measured the release of methane, a potent climate forcer, from microorganisms that colonize the wood of living trees. They found methane concentrations in trees at Yale-Myers to be equivalent in global warming potential to 18% of the carbon likely sequestered. For more information check out their paper,
“Elevated Methane Concentrations in Trees of an Upland Forest” in Geophysical Research Letters. Their research was
also featured in newspapers and blogs in early August. If you want to see some video or pictures of flaming trees, check
out The New York Times Green Blog “The Secrets of Hissing Trees,” or the New Haven Register’s “Old Trees Cut the
Cheese” both from August 2012.
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Another interesting way to look at the carbon cycle is to look at the role of soils and plant litter. Some fascinating
publications coming out of collaboration between the labs of Oswald Schmitz and Mark Bradford explores the relationship of food web dynamics with plant litter decomposition. The paper, “Fear of Predation Slows Plant-Litter Decomposition” by Hawlena et al. published in Science, found that grasshoppers stressed by living with spider
predators have a higher body carbon-to-nitrogen ratio than non-stressed grasshoppers. These chemical differences can have effects on the soil community function. If all this sounds fantastic, check out the paper, “Linking Predation Risk, Herbivore Physiological Stress and Microbial Decomposition of Plant Litter” by Schmitz et al. in the
Journal of Visualized Experiments. It outlines the methods used for the experiment and has an accompanying video.
In addition to grasshoppers, methane, and the carbon cycle, the School Forests continue to host researchers in many
other fields of study. Robert G. Goodby, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Anthropology at Franklin Pierce University, will
continue his work up at Yale-Toumey Forest in Keene, New Hampshire. Many of you will remember Dr. Goodby from
his seminar in 2010. He is returning to look at Native American use at Yale-Toumey as a comparison for some of the
other sites he is studying.
Maria Diuk-Wasser, Assistant Professor at the Yale School of Public Health and her research team spent some time this
summer collecting ticks at Yale-Myers. Her lab is working on a study mapping the prevalence and geographic range of
tick-borne pathogens, including Lyme disease and Anaplasmosis. These diseases are a serious threat to those of us who
work in forests throughout southern New England so her research and forthcoming results are of special interest to all
of us here in the School Forests office.
This has also been a busy year in the Ashton lab. Alaine Ball (MESc ‘12) and Daniela Marini (MESc ‘12) were our hardworking research team this summer. They continued monitoring the long-term regeneration plots across topographic
gradients. Ongoing for nearly twenty years, this is one of the longest-term annual datasets on seedling dynamics in the
country. They also were busy setting up new studies, with the goal of mapping the spatial dynamics of regeneration
across oak-shelterwoods. These shelterwoods have been prescribed since we began regeneration treatments in 1993,
and this experiment should give us some quantifiable data on the success of this silvicultural treatment. In addition,
Kayanna Warren (MFS ‘12) a past student researcher and summer seminar presenter submitted her work on the impacts of shelterwood harvesting on surface soil carbon and litter. Lastly, Angela Orthemeyer (MEM ‘12) and Sinead
Crotty have submitted papers exploring the economic valuation on non-market values of ecosystem services (e.g.,
drinking water, carbon sequestration, recreation access) provided by private landowners in eastern Connecticut. This
research was done in collaboration with Professors Robert Mendelsohn, Mark Ashton and Forest Manager emeritus
Richard Campbell. These papers are the first in a series as part of the Quiet Corner Initiative.
Finally, we were thrilled to welcome some new experiments in some familiar systems. Karin Burghardt (Ph.D. ‘16)
has been busy building and setting up a tremendous number of large raised beds in the French Road fields. Karin works with the Schmitz lab and her research explores
plant-insect interactions. In this experiment she is looking
at the role of insect herbivory on goldenrod and its role on
soil nutrients. Also from the Schmitz lab, Judith Ament
(MESc ‘13) spent the summer watching grasshoppers and
spiders and looking at the effects of spider hunting mode
on grasshopper habitat domain. Last but not least, we also
have a new project out of the Skelly lab this year. Meredith
Atwood (Ph.D. ‘17) has started on her doctoral research
exploring seasonal variation in food web dynamics in
vernal pools throughout Yale-Myers. If you see someone
wandering through Yale-Myers in waders it is probably Kris Covey extracting methane from a tree at Yale-Myers Forest. Photo
Meredith!
credit: The New Haven Register.
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Yale Forests News Issue 13
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A Note From The Quiet Corner Initiative Coordinator
Shane Hetzler, Quiet Corner Initiative Coordinator, MF ‘12
When I was a student at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, I spent half of my graduate career
working on the fledgling Quiet Corner Initiative. Looking back, it is with excitement that I write you today.
Our initiative has grown more than we ever could have hoped for, from 40 curious neighbors to over
70 committed landowner partners in just two years. By the end of this coming year, 12 partner properties will have management plans written for them, and two river assessments on the Bigelow Brook will have
been completed. These reports, along with other plans and publications already completed, are a substantial contribution made by graduate student research and professional services provided to our partnering
landowners. Students are now working with landowners to help steward over 1,000 acres of land surrounding YaleMyers Forest with the aim of attaining 10,000 acres. In the future this will include implementing the plans by constructing trails, managing timber sales and working on conservation easements with mentor foresters, local land
trusts, and the Connecticut Forest and Park Association.
Last spring we hosted our third landowner workshop on stand dynamics using our Tree Heaven Demonstration
Area. On October 13th, we hosted our fourth landowner workshop on the subject of wildlife habitat creation and
monitoring. This workshop linked representatives from Yale F&ES, the University of Massachusetts, the Forest
Service, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service with a collection of interested landowners on a field visit
to numerous sites around Yale-Myers Forest that are currently being managed for wildlife.
Currently, we are working to bring some of the selected films of the Environmental Film Festival at Yale to the Quiet
Corner for weekly summer night film showings under the stars. We are also finishing the creation of a new partner
database that will allow us to more effectively pair landowners with grants and workshops specifically catered to
their values and goals for their land. Finally, we are working with a collection of conservation professionals to develop both our renewable energy and small-scale farming sectors. As you can see, we’ve been busy!
This collaborative effort between Yale F&ES and our neighbors in the Quiet Corner has not only provided valuable
resource management services to our partners, but has created an invaluable learning opportunity for our students.
I am reminded almost daily by these young professionals how great it is to be working with engaging landowners
on real working lands, learning from our partners as well as sharing expertise. In addition, our students and faculty
at Yale F&ES have been conducting research outside the boundaries of Yale-Myers Forest, asking and answering
questions that have relevance to conservation issues across the country.
You see, our initiative stands to benefit everyone involved. As a native Oregonian, I’ve seen first hand how collaboration has changed the face of conservation. Embattled groups that were used to interacting with each other through courtrooms have begun reaching out to each other for mutual
benefit, as well as for the benefit of the people and lands around them. It is
partially in this spirit that the Quiet Corner Initiative moves forward, recognizing that–“We are only as strong and as successful as our surrounding
neighbors.” The road to preserve working lands and rural livelihoods in
the Quiet Corner is not always straightforward, but together we stand a
much better chance of success than alone.
The Forest Crew of 1976 had a special reunion at the Yale F&ES alumni session
at the SAF conference in Spokane, WA. Brothers Guldin (Jim and Rich) and
Bob Seymour (inset) recalled their many mis-adventures that we are sure their
superiors would be interested in hearing about now.
Photo credit: Mark Ashton
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