YALE UNIVERSITY
School of Forestry &
Environmental Studies
Yale Forests News
Brought to you by the Yale School Forests and the F&ES Office of Alumni Affairs
Annual Report 2011
Mark S. Ashton,
Director of School
Forests
‘85, PhD ‘90
Wow – another year went by so fast it felt
like only yesterday that we published the
last newsletter. As usual, we have lots of
activity for the last year to report. You will
find a variety of reports in the Newsletter on
our research, our facilities, and our extension program. This will be the second year
using primarily electronic communications,
and we hope the change of format is a good
one. Please give us feedback on our programs and on any ideas that you may have..
The year behind….
Last fiscal year (2010-2011) was our third
balanced budget after the collapse of timber
markets and three years of deficit from 2006
-2008. Timber prices have not come back to
the pre-recession years but we have been
able to cut our costs and still expand our
activities through a variety of innovative
initiatives. With some generous help from
the School, we have continued to improve
our facilities to increase our capacity to host
larger groups, creating a series of graded
camp sites within our meadows and constructing two lean-tos, one overlooking the
Morse Reservoir and the second Morse
Meadow Brook. In addition, a group of industrious students led by Kris Covey ’10
obtained Class of 1980 funds to build a post
-and-beam pavilion and restored and landscaped the ruins of the old Morse farm outbuildings. Following last year’s collapse of
our old white storage barn, we are in the
process of constructing a new three-bay
garage with storage space above adjacent to
the “Blacksmith’s Shop”. The garage will
serve to store the bulk of our forestry equipment, some research materials, and our two
school vans…including the classic sky blue
Dodge known as the “Siccama van” which
continues its remarkable longevity for what
seems to be at least its 25th year of service!
(Continued on page 2)
Work hard, Work Hard - Forest Crew 2012
-Alex Barrett ‘12The summer of 2011 was filled with wonderful weather, multiple projects, and lots of
good ol’ forestry in the Myers Division of the Yale-Myers Forest. The Forest Crew kept
busy with the usual tasks of roads, boundaries, inventory, and so forth, but with nine crew
members, we were able to go above and beyond the call of forestry duty to tackle and
complete a series of major projects.
This year’s Crew included Alex Barrett, Andrew Breck, Jason Brown, Ben Larson, Cam
Moore, Evan Ray, Shelby Semmes, Ian Starr, and Grant Tolley. Our first week did not
bode well for the summer. It rained every day while we walked the roads of the forestfixing water bars, improving drainage and clearing downed limbs and trees. What appeared to be poor working conditions was actually quite nice; the constant rain and wet
made waterbars easy to design, and the coolness made the hard work much less hot. The
blue van continues to rattle along and was not phased by the adverse conditions. Luckily,
the early season rain proved to be an anomaly.
After breaking for graduation and the European field trip, we got into full swing with lectures, tours of the tornado devastation on Hull forestlands, and the usual slogging through
the woods marking boundaries and taking inventory. Our timber marking began with a
thinning in a nicely stocked white pine stand, a sale that came to be called “Point Number
One.” We then cultivated our love of the heavy metal band Slayer as we worked into
“Expendable Youth” and “Die by the Sword.” Mike Ferrucci, Lecturer in Forest Operations, joined us for a day of marking and Forest Manager Richard Campbell oversaw the
whole show and kept us on track.
By late July, we were ready to step into Shelterwood Land and we marked a gem called
“Get to ze choppa” in honor of our favorite Governator. As of January , this sale is complete. It looks great and our tally was low by a measly 6%! In total- we marked over 100
acres in a mix of thinnings, shelterwoods, overstory removals and blueberry and oaksavannah creation.
In terms of projects, this summer was a banner year. Using a rented backhoe, we rebuilt
the old stonewalls and foundations behind camp - turning the crumbling walls of the old
Morse Farm buildings into new picnic areas and setting the stage for the timber frame
pavilion. Doctoral student Kris Covey secured funding for the pavilion complete with outdoor cooking station, metal roof, and recycled bluestone floor. The frame was built by
Sam Caldwell of Blue Line
Barns, and local stonemason
John Basch helped us out by
building a beautiful outdoor
cooking station. On a rainy day
in June the FES community
joined us for a frame-raising
party. The crew then worked the
rest of the summer installing the
floor, putting on the roof, and
building the banquet table which
quickly became the birthplace of
the official sport of Yale-Myers
Forest – Long Pong
(Continued on page 2)
The 2011 Forest Crew blazes a trail through the forest
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Yale Forests News
Issue 11
(Annual Report Continued from page 1)
This last summer we had a record number of applications for our
“Apprentice Forester” program. Nine students were accepted into
the program, also a record. The Myers Division in the northcentral region of Yale –Myers was used as the forest area where
the students learned to apply their skills and prescriptions. Our
Forest Manager, Richard Campbell (‘07), has been very innovative in matching funds available from the forest to that which the
School can provide – one reason why we have been able to carry
such a large number of students. The apprentice foresters marked
297 mbf, comprising 11 acres of irregular shelterwood, 42 acres
of overstory removal, and 61 acres of crown thinning see Forest
Crew report), as well as worked on many supplemental projects
including landowner outreach, economic and ecological research,
and providing teaching services to various groups visiting the
forest.
In addition to the apprentice program, eight F&ES doctoral and
master’s students conducted their research studies at the forest
over the course of the field season. Brent Frey, Doctoral candidate and Research Coordinator for the forest defended his dissertation and took up an appointment as Assistant Professor of Silviculture at Mississippi State University. First year F&ES Doctoral
student Marlyse Duguid (’10) has taken over Brent’s duties.
Philip Marshall, forever our historian, also obtained his doctorate
in the Spring of last year with an all encompassing study on white
pine. Lastly, in regards to departures, our ever-lasting post doc
Dror Hawlena left us to take up a position as Assistant Professor
at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Professors Oswald Schmitz and David Skelly continued their
various studies with post doctoral researchers, doctoral, and masters students along with ten researchers from other institutions
(see Research Report). In addition, we have successfully added
Dr. Mark Bradford, a soil ecologist, to the list of faculty who are
now permanently engaged with research at the forest. Our formal
education programs through F&ES classes and field trips grew,
with over 15 student field trips during the spring and fall semesters. Most comprised the routine field trips in silviculture, fire,
forest ecology, dendrology and forest operations for our own
curriculum; But there were some exciting and novel workshops
in wilderness survival in January of last year (all survived), tree
climbing (all survived), and horse logging (all survived). In addition we had our usual suite of silviculture field trips from other
forestry schools around New England.
Despite the economic times, this was the fifth straight year where
we increased our extension and outreach activities. We held our
routine research seminar series in which we now regularly overflow our main lecture hall. We had several “dinner with a forester” evenings, and a whole variety of demonstration walks,
hikes and show-and-tell activities guided by our students to professional groups, high schools, town planners and conservation
groups. In total we had 27 functions this past year. This was also
the year where the forest immersed itself completely in engaging
the surrounding community with its Quiet Corner Initiative in
which we now have 47 landowners working with the forest toward sustainable land management issues (see Quiet Corner report). Thanks to the generous support of Frances Beinecke and
the Beinecke Fund #1, we will be able to provide part-time staffing for the Initiative at least through next summer.
March, 2012
The year ahead……
Next year we are beginning to re-start our plans for what we put
on hold several years ago at improving our larger research and
education infrastructure. The School has very generously provided money through the Taylor Fund to build a long awaited
dormitory to sleep 24 with an attached dedicated large classroom/
lecture space that will accommodate up to 50 people. We will be
starting construction this fall and plan to be completed by the
beginning of the 2013 field season. We are also planning the development of a research campus on the south side of the Center
Pike at the old French House farm. We have already cleared
some of the old fields and we will hopefully be building storage
space for research this coming summer. We will then focus on
renovating the old French House as year-round accommodation
to match the renovated Morse House, and to build a three-season
research laboratory. All this we plan to do while retaining and
increasing our commitments to our existing management, education, and research programs and increasing our clinical extension
with our neighboring community. With the School’s backing and
our Dean’s encouragement we are endeavoring to greatly expand
opportunities for our students and for citizens from the region.
We believe that we are developing a truly novel and creative educational, research and management program that will have great
benefit to the university and the region.
(Forest Crew Continued from page 1)
Below camp, we used the backhoe and then countless hours of
raking and smoothing to create 5 new tent sites and we finished
the bonfire pit at the Outdoor Classroom complete with earthen
and stone benches and a huge stone podium upon which countless Modsters will now forever be able to embarrass themselves
by giving outlandish speeches.
In August, we migrated north to the Toumey Forest, where we
cruised the Base Hill Division and prepared a state-mandated
management plan at Crowell Forest in Dummerston, Vermont. It
was great to see another forest type and contemplate some pine.
In the end, we ended up recommending a 18-acre shelterwood
treatment at Toumey that Alex, Evan, and Richard marked this
fall.
All in all, it was a great and productive summer. Doctor Ashton’s
legendary hospitality shone throughout, and we continued our
neighborhood outreach through the Quiet Corner Initiative. In
the end, we headed off to all corners of the world (Phillipines,
Boston, San Francisco, Maryland, Utah, D.C., and yes, New Haven) crammed full of forestry experience and the memories of
working hard and having fun with good colleagues at your side.
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Yale Forests News
Issue 11
March, 2012
Research News and Notes
-Marlyse Duguid ‘10, PhD ‘16As always, it has been an exciting and productive year for research at the Yale Forests. Particularly, we have seen a number of excellent
publications produced from research undertaken at Yale-Myers Forest. This January Steven Brady (PhD ‘12) had his paper “Road to
evolution? Local adaptation to road adjacency
in an amphibian (Ambystoma maculatum)”
published in Scientific Reports. By comparing
salamanders from ponds in Yale-Myers to
roadside ponds, Brady found evidence of rapid
evolution in response to exposure to the toxins
present in the roadside ponds. Elsewhere, the
Schmitz lab’s work on food webs produced a
number of great publications this year, including Brandon Barton’s (PhD ‘10) work on
predator-herbivore adaptation to temperature
in Proceedings of the Royal Society of London,
and Dror Hawlena, Kathy Hughes (BS ‘10),
and Dr. Oswald Schmitz’s project on plasticity
in grasshoppers as a response to resource availability, which was published in Functional
Ecology. As always, please check out the full
list of publications on the our website.
Warren (‘12) has been working on quantifying
soil carbon in recent harvests. Kevin Barrett
(‘12) has been studying the relationship between thermal cover and deer browse, with
potential implications for regeneration harvest
planning. Kris Covey (PhD ‘16) and Stephen
Wood (‘11) have initiated a study looking at
methane production in living trees. Methane is
a potent greenhouse gas, and this research has
the potential to profoundly change the current
climate models. Talbot Trotter from the US
Forest Service has set up a new experiment
examining insect communities associated with
eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis). Hemlocks are at risk in the northeast from the invasive hemlock wooly adelgid, and have a tremendous amount of ecological interactions
with insect species. Talbot’s work seeks to
shed some light on the ecological implications
of hemlock decline on these associated species.
In the social sciences, a team of students led by
Dr. Robert Mendelsohn began to investigate
the various market and non-market values held
on private lands in northeastern CT. The work
has potentially strong implications for forest
conservation planning in the region.
This year we welcomed a diverse range of new We also have some interesting projects in the
research projects. At Yale-Myers, Kayanna works at one of our northern parcels. Phillip
Marshall (PhD ‘11) is working on compiling a
botanical inventory for the Bowen forest in
Summer Seminar Series
Vermont. This forest is comprised primarily of
Stay tuned for
northern hardwoods with some spruce-fir
Thursday, June 14
information on this Thursday, June 28
stands. Having an inventory like this provides
year’s speakers.
valuable site information to guide future reThursday, July 12
search and management activities in this forest.
Refreshments are Thursday, July 26
In addition, the Vermont Center for Ecosystem
served at 7 PM,
studies is mapping vernal pools on the Bowen
with talks beginning at 7:30.
parcel, which will be compiled into statewide
Mik McKee (MF ‘13) hauls research equipment to study
methane production by living trees.
data and used for regional conservation planning. Lastly, we have been working with Vermont Audubon to identify areas of conservation value in the forest and help guide management with an eye toward bird conservation. All
of these projects and partnerships are great
examples of how science can help guide conservation and management in the Yale forests.
Last, but definitely not least is that we have
had a changing of the guard. Our former research coordinator Brent Frey (PhD ‘11) has
taken a job as Professor of Silviculture at Mississippi State University. Brent’s research at
Yale-Myers shed a tremendous amount of light
on the dynamics of oak regeneration and the
importance of site when planning regeneration
harvests. We are already incorporating some of
his findings into our regeneration strategies.
We are grateful for all the work he put in as
research coordinator, and wish him the best of
luck in his new position.
The Quiet Corner Report
-Nathan Rutenbeck ‘12Over the last year, the Quiet Corner Initiative has built on our preliminary organizing
successes to get some real work done on the
ground. This has been possible as a result of
participation and enthusiasm on the parts of
landowners in the Quiet Corner, the hard
work of students here at the school, and the
support of the staff and administration. We’d
like also in particular to recognize the generosity of Frances Beinecke and the Beinecke
Fund #1 for their contributions that have
helped pay for student staffing of the Quiet
Corner Initiative projects. Thanks to their
efforts and support, we have had a really
active year with a fair amount of progress to
report.
First, in the early fall we held our first workshop on forest ecology and land use history
at Yale-Myers Forest for landowners participating in the Woodland Partnership Program. The event was organized and led by
students and recent graduates, and focused
on the impact of human land use history on
present forest composition and development.
We got a lot of great feedback from all who
participated, both students and landowners,
and are now looking forward now to our
next set of workshops to be held in the early
summer on the topic of stand dynamics and
wildlife habitat management.
Masters students from the Management
Plans for Protected Areas and River Restoration and Processes classes worked with landowners in the towns of Ashford and Eastford
on six properties situated just south of YaleMyers Forest along the Bigelow Brook, an
area already identified by a number of organizations as a conservation priority within
the context of the greater region. Through
the class students produced professionalquality management plans that integrate their
own systematic ecological and social assessments of the property into a suite of recommendations for sustainable land management, tailored also to the specific goals and
In addition to the first workshop for land- interests of the individual landowners. Our
owners associated with the Woodland Part- hope is that the plans will provide a resource
nership Program, we’ve also been successful
(Continued on page 4)
in the first rounds of clinical coursework.
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Yale Forests News
Forest Manager Richard Campbell is fond of asking,
“when does history stop?” At Yale-Myers, we like to
think the answer is never. This year we’re again
happy to have support from the Class of 1980, and
plan to make this another big year for improvements.
Our work continues to focus in and around the camp,.
This past summer we constructed the oft-mentioned
Class of ’80 pavilion (1), as well as landscaped the
surrounding area to conform with the foundations of
the old Morse Farm buildings (2), and constructed
two lean-tos in the forest near camp to provide scenic
and secluded lodging for temporary residents and
guests.
New Initiatives Around Camp
-Kristofer Covey ‘10, PhD ‘15-
The current bunkhouse
Bonfire pit with stone benches
We’re lucky to have metal smith and sculptor Peter
Barrett working hard on the grill and fireplace hood/
smoker attachment to the outdoor kitchen (3). We’re
working on getting some additional blue stone and
granite to finish up the frame floor and put some
proper looking footers in place. A bit of concrete and
a few days of backbreaking student labor and we’ll
have pretty finished looking pavilion! The next phase
of development calls for running water, electric
lights, and sound, and we’re reviewing plans to add a
small shed roof to the camp building. This would
house a three-bay sink, and cover a pass-through
counter window to the camp kitchen (4). Together
these will expand our capacity to host large dinners
and events.
Elsewhere around the camp, we are in the process of
converting the old greenhouse site to a wildflower
meadow and campsite (5). We also plan to begin
construction on a new dormitory and classroom this
fall (6), allowing us to have a dedicated educational
space as well as increasing housing capacity.
After the collapse of
are working to build
the need for storage
begin the process of
March, 2012
Issue 11
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6
4
1
3
2
Outdoor classroom tent
N
The Class of 1980 Pavilion
our research barn last year, we
a replacement as well as using
Map drawn by Erin Raboin ‘13
and experimental space as impetus to
the site of the old French farm. Things are looking ever-better
establishing a research campus around
around the forest. We hope to see you all there this summer.
(Quiet Corner Report Continued from page 3)
by which landowners can think about their properties and the
values that come from them in a more detailed and comprehensive way, as well as being an indispensible technical tool
for sound stewardship and land management.
Just after the winter holidays, the Quiet Corner Initiative presented our preliminary efforts in the Woodland Partnership
Program at an open house here at the School of Forestry and
Environmental Studies, reaching out to students and faculty to
work with us in developing clinical projects approaching a
variety of other questions and natural resource management
concerns. In this way the Quiet Corner Initiative continues to
engage with the school in thinking of how to best leverage the
educational resources of the School Forests to produce the
highest quality research, professional training, and ecosystems
management possible.
Now during the spring semester, students in the Strategies for
Land Conservation class are continuing to pursue projects
along the Bigelow Brook, but now taking the work completed
in the fall to the next level. The intent of this project is to integrate the individual property-level management plans produced last term into a larger-scale neighborhood stewardship
and conservation plan that will be focused on both increasing
the productivity of the land, and protecting its ability to continue to provide a suite of values to a variety of stakeholders.
This plan will include identification of areas of possible collaboration in land management activities such as timber harvesting, maple sugaring, maintaining recreational trails, and
improving wildlife habitat, as well as potential opportunities
for more formal land protection. These efforts will be tied into
further coursework next fall, when students will write management prescriptions to implement some of the recommendations and ideas that come from both the individual property
and neighborhood level assessments. Finally, at the same time
that work continues around the Bigelow Brook area, another
group of students is currently making connections to a new
group of landowners in the Still River watershed to begin the
process in a new part of the Quiet Corner next fall.
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