NEWS
from the
QUIET CORNER
ISSUE 6 - SPRING 2015
A NOTE FROM THE
COORDINATOR
Happy spring to you all! I
hope everyone is fully thawed
out and ready to enjoy some
warm weather.
This past season was a busy one
for the Quiet Corner Initiative.
Two winter workshops went
off without a hitch (well,
plenty of hitches by Sam
Rich’s Grand Champion Farm
Team percherons). The third
installment of the portable
bandsaw and draft powered
logging workshop had excellent
attendance despite the pouring
icy rain. I thought the weather,
or at least snow conditions,
would be challenging for
the tracking workshop with
Sue Morse, but we had high
turnout for that as well and it
was a very educational day.
The QCI creates partnerships that expand educational and research opportunities for
students and faculty at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, while
supporting the work of private landowners, natural resource managers, and forest industry
professionals in and around the Yale-Myers Forest. The QCI supports strengthened local
livelihoods, increased forest health, and rural economic development for the long-term
benefit of the land and those that live on it by providing knowledge, energy, and expertise
to our partnering landowners and organizations.
KEEPING TRACK WITH SUE MORSE
Sara Rose Tannenbaum, Master of Environmental Management ‘16
The
students
in
the
management plans course
worked hard to write six high
quality plans for Quiet Corner
properties in the Bigelow
Brook watershed.
Know that we’re looking to
line up landowners in the
Still River watershed for next
fall. If you, or someone you
know, are interested in a forest
management plan for your
property, please let us know!
Please keep an eye out for
our Summer Seminar Series
announcements. I hope to see
you at camp this summer.
Cheers,
Julius Pasay
Forest Manager
Susan Morse, of Keeping Track, speaks about the ideal bobcat habitat hidden in the boulders of Kinney
Road during a QCI workshop in February. (photo by Sara Rose Tannenbaum)
Fourth-generation forester and
wildlife researcher Susan Morse
poked her hiking pole at the yellow
stain in the snow. Bringing the tip of
the pole to her mouth, she breathed
out to activate the scent molecules.
Morse sniffed and said, “If the urine
smells like a skunk, it’s a fox.”
A fox it was. There, in the snow were
delicate nail lines of the print to prove
it. As the group huddled to examine
the track, she gave us another clue.
She drew an “x” between the foot and
the toe pads to distinguish this canine
track from the “m” shape of a feline.
continued on page 2
continued from page 1
This February the Quiet Corner
Initiative partnered with Yale
students to invite Susan Morse of
Keeping Track to teach about the life
histories of local wildlife—like black
bears, bobcat, red fox, gray fox, and
white-tailed deer—in the field.
Founded by Morse in 1994,
Keeping Track is a Vermont-based
organization that helps conserve key
wildlife habitats in North American
through outreach, research, and
education.
Despite the bitter cold, Morse and
her two interns led two half-day
Quiet Corner Initiative workshops.
During the morning workshop at
Bigelow Hollow State Park, we saw
playful otter slides and deer scrapes.
warmed up over lunch inside the
Union Town Hall. There we saw
amazing slides of Morse’s wildlife
photography.
A Keeping Track intern even got
down on all fours to demonstrate the
cadence of different animal strides.
We left with a heightened appreciation
for how to track and manage for the
creatures living in the woods around
us. As Morse says, “Good forestry is
good for wildlife.”
Later, in the afternoon workshop we
drove down Boston Hollow Road to
visit an ideal bobcat habitat in the
boulders of the Yale-Myers Forest.
In between the two workshops, we
Modified from content published on
the Yale F&ES blog titled «Tracking
Wildlife in the Yale Woods» by Sara
Rose Tannenbaum and Hale Morrell.
BACK OF BLAIR’S
TRUCK CHILI RECIPE
Alex Barrett and and young sprout Rowan greet one of Sam and Erika’s oxen. (photo by Danielle Lehle)
TEAMING UP: AN ANNUAL TRADITION
Blair Rynearson, Master of Forestry ‘15
The 3rd annual QCI horse logging
workshop upheld well established
traditions of years past. Sam Rich
and Erika Marczak returned to YaleMyers with their horse and oxen
teams to harvest white pine in a
stand marked for a crown thinning.
Denis Day hauled up his Woodmizer
bandsaw mill and made quick work
of converting low-grade pine logs
into boards.
The weather, notoriously bad on
whatever day we choose to schedule
the workshop, was even worse. A
consistent downpour of rain, just
above the freezing mark, turned the
already icy roads into a skating rink.
Thankfully, the standard, copious
quantity of hot chili, coffee, and a
stubborn fire kept the participants
reasonably warm.
This year’s logs were harvested to
supply timber for a new outdoor
classroom. The Yale School of
Forestry’s Class of 1980 made a
donation funding the construction of
a timber frame open-air auditorium
to be raised this fall. Most of the
timber milled during the workshop
will go towards laying the roof.
As always, we appreciate having
local instructors as capable as Sam,
Erika and Denis that are willing to
demonstrate the merits of small scale,
locally-sourced forestry operations.
And we thank all those that braved
the weather to take part.
Ingredients:
• 1 lb ground venison, ground
beef, or ground turkey
• 2 onions, diced
• 1 green pepper, diced
• 1 tablespoon jalapeño, finely
chopped
• 1 (14 ounce) can Mexicanstyle tomatoes (like Rotel)
• 2 (8 ounce) cans tomato sauce
• 2 tablespoons cumin
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1⁄2 teaspoon paprika (smoked
if you can find it)
• 1 (14 ounce) can kidney beans,
drained and rinsed
• 1 (14 ounce) can black beans,
drained and rinsed
• 1 cup water
Directions:
1. Cook ground meat, onions
and peppers in dutch oven.
2. Drain excess grease then add
tomatoes, seasonings, and
water. Bring to a boil.
3. Add beans, cover and simmer
1-2 hours.
4. Serve with sour cream, cheese
and chips out of the back of
Blair’s truck.
SAVE THE DATES THIS SUMMER!
ENVIRONMENTAL FILM
SCREENINGS
• Tuesday, July 14th:
The Big Burn (60 min) &
The Fire Next Time (10 min)
• Tuesday, July 28th: TBD
Come enjoy the summer
weather at the Yale-Myers
Forest with our annual
summer traditions!
SUMMER RESEARCH SEMINARS
Please stay tuned for a poster with
more details and get ready to learn
about frogs, bees and bats!
• June 11th and 25th*
• July 9th and 23rd*
*Begin at 7pm with refreshments.
This program is accredited to deliver
Continuous Education Units.

READING THE FORESTED LANDSCAPE
Vinh Lang, Master of Forestry ‘15
TOM WESSELS’
FOREST CLUES
Tip-up Mounds— Suggest
strong wind events that are
fierce enough to blow a tree
over. The direction of the
fallen tree can indicate hurricanes or easterlies.
Whorls— Are useful for
aging white pine and sometimes for finding the date of
field abandonment.
Stone Walls— Indicate
past land use. They can be
telling of whether the old
homestead used the land for
pasture, crops, or hay fields.
Basal Scars— Found on
tree trunks, these scars clue
to disturbance by fire or
logging, either by collision
(when a skidder comes
through) or when bark is
removed by burning.
Charcoal— Is a problematic clue because it is often
hidden or mixed up with
black fungus; learn how to
distinguish this!
This wonderful crew explored the forests of Yale-Myers with the master himself. (photo by Gloria Lorusso)
If you’ve ever dreamed of becoming a
character in a book, to participate in
a field exercise with Tom Wessels is
to become exactly that—it is a walk
into living literature, and the living
history of landscapes.
“Weird Apples”— Indicate
repetitive mowing. Refer to
a gnarly mess of branches
typically at the base of the
trunk from repeated injury
as a youth.
Tom Wessels is an esteemed ecologist
noted for his books, “Forest Forensics”
and “Reading the Forested Landscape”.
On December 14th, 2015 Wessels
came to Yale-Myers forest with his
long, white beard and bright red hat
to teach us the nuances of his trade.
Stumps— How many
disturbances, which species,
and why can all be answered
through careful inspection of
residual stumps.
For those who might have missed
the workshop, we’ve included some
of our favorite Tom Wessels clues for
solving the riddles of the forest.
Happy landscape mystery solving!
Wolf trees— Low branches
and growth form suggests
that these trees were open
grown. Trees grown in the
open are outward branching
vs. trees grown in forest
which race for the sky.
Tom Wessels and birches. (photo by Sara Rose)
CITIZEN SCIENCE WILDLIFE TRACKING AND MONITORING
Paula Coughlin, Connecticut Audobon Society
Want to learn more about your
wildlife neighbors?
The Connecticut Audubon Society
(CAS) Center in Pomfret Center
invites you to learn tracking skills
with the Citizen Science Wildlife
Tracking and Monitoring Program,
coordinated by Paula Coughlin.
In the program, trained monitors
document signs of bobcat, black bear,
river otter, fisher, mink and moose—
large mammals that require diverse
habitats. Data is collected at three
study sites (Woodstock, Willington,
Canterbury), quarterly, using Susan
Morse’s Keeping Track, Inc. protocol.
This data has been used in grant
applications for the New Roxbury
Land Trust and The Nature
Conservancy that resulted in
land conservation in the towns of
Woodstock and Eastford.
Contact Paula or check the
Connecticut Audobon Society
website for more information about
how to get involved:
Training hikes are scheduled
throughout the year with a special
emphasis on snow tracking. In
April and May, our citizen science
volunteers are busy counting wood
frog and spotted salamander egg
masses as evidence of species that
breed in vernal pools. Lots of fun!
Paula Coughlin
Citizen Science Coordinator
Connecticut Audobon Society
paulacoughlin@charter.net
860-974-0383
www.ctaudubon.org
Interested in getting a Management
Plan or a Harvest Plan for your
property this fall? Don’t hesitate to
contact Julius Pasay at julius.pasay@
yale.edu with inquiries.
Issue 6 / Spring 2015
The QCI Newsletter is brought to you by the Yale School Forests / 360 Prospect Street, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511
Words by Vinh Lang, Blair Rynearson, Paula Coughlin, Julius Pasay and Sara Rose Tanennbaum / Layout by Sara Rose Tannenbaum / Pictures by Danielle Lehle,
Gloria Lorusso and Sara Rose Tannenbaum
YALE SCHOOL FORESTS
360 PROSPECT STREET
NEW HAVEN CT-06511