Some information about the trees...

While this information may be of what is currently there, it can also give us a hint of what used to be here. Most of the trees in this plot were not incredibly large. This suggests that, like most of Vermont, this area was cleared for use (such as in agriculture).But around 400 years ago, settlers were just begining to discover the area. It wasn't until 1609 that Samuel de Champlain first discovered Lake Champlain and describes the Green Mountains. At this time, the forests around the lake (including those in Niquette Bay) would have been ancient and untouched. The trees there then would have been much larger than the ones there now are, although the great variety in species may have been much the same. It would have been an incredible place to be.

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Our favorite characteristics of our site:

Our site is so diverse that it is difficult to pick our favorite characteristic of the site. The sharp ledges are without a doubt one of our favorite characteristics. Whenever we would walk around exploring our site it was always fun to climb up the ledges and made us feel like we were on an adventure. The big trees around our site made it also very special. The huge shagbark hickories with their shaggy bark gave our site a magical feeling to it. And it was espescially beautiful when autumn started to kick in and the leaves changed their color. The dense leaf litter dispersed around the forest floor made it seem like a colorful carpet!

Is your site representative or the surrounding forest?

Our site is representative of the surrounding forest. The forest at Niquette bay is extremely biodiverse with many different types of forest. Our site is the perfect example to represent this biodiversity. The sharp ledges that form our site are characteristic of the upper part of the park. The dominant deciduous tree cover and understory that are found in our site are also the dominant cover of the surrounding forest.

Barring major disturbance, what will your site look like in the year 2111?

Our site's understory is covered with maple, hickory, beech and ash saplings. Therefore if something like a fire, a hurricane or some major disturbance was to affect our site and kill all the canopy trees and the understory, the seedlings would most likely form the canopy of our site by the year 2111. The dominant natural community would still be a northern hardwood community and a Mesic maple-ash-hickory community, however, the distribution of the species would change: Having as a dominant species ashes maples instead of hickories. Furthermore, the coniferous species like eastern white pines and hemlock would most likely be absent in 2111 since there weren't almost any seedlings of these species. The hemlock forest community would be replaced by deciduous trees like sugar maples and birches.

What signs of humans (past and present) are there in and around your site?

The only apparent sign of humans that is in our site is a rock structure that looks like it could have been wall in the past. Its only about 3 feet tall and is one-sided. However, there aren't many other signs that suggest any human activity in our site. Signs of humans in the present aren't found in our site because it is “off-trail” and there aren't any features, like caves or an overlooking view that would attract the average visitor. Around our site is the “ledges trail” where visitors often walk through and walk their dogs.

What management recommendations do you have for the park managers?

The management recommendations we could give to park managers would be to preserve the hectare as it is. The forest looks healthy and and the site seems to hold a great amount of biodiversity. Human disturbance doesn't seem to be concerning, because it is “off-trail”. The only recommendation would be to keep up with the good work!

One big tree!!!

Here's a pretty decent-sized tree! This shagbark hickory has a diameter of almost 30 inches! Combined with its height of about 40 or 50 ft, this makes it the tallest tree we found out here!

Wildlife in our hectare

• Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) - Pileated woodpeckers aren't picky about where they live! They are found in coniferous, deciduous, and mixed forests. Although they are more common in old growth forests, they can also thrive in younger forests that contain one or two trees large enough for breeding. With such vauge guidelines, it wouldn't be surprising if there were any pileated woodpeckers on our site! (Photo: forums.att.com)

• Fisher (Martes pennati) - Contrary to the name, Fishers do not eat fish. They will willingly eat most anything they can find and catch. This includes birds, insects, amphibians, rodents, reptiles, fruits, nots, and the occasional porcupine. Fishers can be found most anywhere prey is abundant, which is most often in uneven aged coniferous stands. Not only do the conifers house lots of potential prey, they prevent snow from accumulating under the trees, which would severly limit the Fisher's movement in winter. Fishers nest in snags and fallen trees, both of which were somewhat common on our plot. However, our forest cover was far to spread out to provide the cover the Fisher needs in winter. (Photo: ecologyadventure2.edublogs.org)

• Red-backed salamander (Plethodon cinereus) - Red-backed salamanders are one of the three 'delicate' salamanders found in Vermont. They are also entirely terrestrial, unlike many other species of salamanders. Red-backs have reddish backs with darker sides, and flecked grey and white bellies. They are found in damp areas under leaf litter and coarse woody debris. Our plot, with its abundant seeps and vernal pools is certainly moist enough for the salamanders - and may even be too wet in some areas. (Photo: salamandersinniagara.comoj.com)
  
  

• Porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum) - Porcupines are most known for the quills that cover their body. They are medium sized and brown or black in color. The animal has very poor eyesight, and mostly relies on its hearing and quills to avoid confrontation. The quills are barbed, making them impossible to remove and therefore their best defense mechanism against stronger animals. Porcupines are herbivores and frequent deciduous forests in search of food. Their biggest predator is a fisher, who is agile enough to stay away from their quills. Porcupines will build nests in dens, hollow logs, or downed trees. Populations of porcupines are very common in Vermont and also extremely stable. Our site could very well be prime porcupine habitat. (Photo: nhptv.org)

• Eastern Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) - Wild Turkeys prefer a habitat of hardwood and mixed forests. They are very widespread in deciduous forests. Turkeys have extremely good eyesight, making it hard for predators to sneak up on them. They communicate with vocalization. Wild turkeys need a lot of protein, and mostly eat insects, seeds, nuts, berries, plants, moss, and buds off of trees. The Champlain Valley is an excellent Wild Turkey habitat because it includes hardwood stands, open fields, tall grass, and shrubs. Our site is mixed northern hardwood, although we lack any more open areas. However, the shagbark hickories make our site prime feeding grounds for these large birds. (Photo: vtfishandwildlife.com)

• White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) - Deers are completely vegetarian, eating mostly leaves, twigs, and nuts. Their favorite trees are maple, ash and birch. They also like to eat fruit and nuts. White-tailed deer occupy many different habitats. They prefer the forest edge, with large fields. In winter, deer move to what are called 'deer yards,' dense coniferous stands with more protection from the wind and snow. Deer are found in all of Vermont. Although our plot has some of the tree species prefered by deer, it lacks the wide open areas necessary for grazing, as well as their preferred winter habitat. (Photo: vtfishandwildlife.com)
  
  
• European Earthworm (Lumbricus rubellus) - Earthworms are common in our plot at Niquette Bay State Park. Since worms go into diapause (dormancy) when the pH is around 6.4, they prefer slightly acidic soils, which was what our soils tested as. Earthworms are an important food for many different animals, including many that inhabit our site such as birds, snakes, salamanders and invertebrates. Although many people think of earthworms as a good thing for the soils in an ecosystem, they are invasive and can have negative effects where they are found.

• Barred Owl (Strix varia) - The Barred Owl is an important predator in Vermont. Feeding on small rodents, these birds often wait in a perch and drop on their prey when they pass beneath them. It prefers dense mature forests for habitat, and nests in large tree cavities or other large nests made by other species. On our plot, we have the large mature forests, but we lack very many trees with cavities large enough to house a Barred Owl. This limits the possibility of having these birds in the first place. (Photo: wikipedia.org)

• Emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis)- The emerald ash borer is an invasive species, native to Asia, that has been responsible for the destruction of millions of ash trees (Fraxinus sp.). Trees greater than 2 inches in diameter can become infested, both in forested and landscaped areas. While many trees affected by borers are stressed or diseased, they will also infect healthy trees. At our site, we have some ashes, but they are mainly seedlings - smaller than trees the borer would normally infect. Infected trees exhibit top-down dieback, and 2-4 inch vertical splits in the bark in response to larval feeding. We did not see evidence of ash borers on our site. The emerald ash borer may not be present in our site yet, we are somewhat succeptible to the insect.
  
(Photo: USDA Forest Service, retrieved from www.emeraldashborer.info)

• Brown Snake (Storeria dekayi)-Brown snakes are highly adaptable reptiles that can
  survive in a large range of habitat. They like wetland swampy areas and hide under leaf litter and logs. Our site seems to have favorable features, such as the seeps and vernal pools that are found across the hectare. Also, the large amount of downed wood would provide good cover for the snake. (Photo by Denise Demoid)

• Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea)
This colorful neotropical migrant breeds in mature deciduous and mixed deciduous/coniferous woodlands. The canopy of our site is characterized with deciduous trees such as hickories, maples, beeches, and some oaks. There is also the occasional hemlock and white pine creating part of the canopy. This mix suggests that our site is very well suited breeding habitat for scarlet tanagers.(Photo: http://justofftheonelaneroad.blogspot.com/2011_04_01_archive.html)

• Chestnut-sided Warbler (Dendroica pensylvanica)

The chestnut-sided warblers visit north america during the breeding season, and when winter arrives they migrate to south america where its warm and sunny.

They like forested or shrubby habitats and need a highly specialized habitat for breeding, confined to early-successional deciduous forests ranging from wet to dry sites. Our hectare, while having both wet and dry areas, as well as a lot of understory growth, is not early successional forest, limiting it as habitat for the little traveler.(Photo source: http://www.ownbyphotography.com/traveldiaryp60.html)

(information from http://www.vtfishandwildlife.com)

Key Wildlife Habitat Features

Habitat Feature	Class
high exposed perches	minimal
low exposed perches	very apparent
% canopy closure	31-70
tree cavities (DBH)	all sizes, from <6" to >18"
midstory	deciduous
shrub layer	deciduous
% ground vegetation	30-75
vernal pools/ wetland vegetation	very apparent
dead and downed material	very apparent
overstory inclusions	mixed
water body	seep, vernal pool
proxmity to water	.5 miles to the lake
miscellaneous features	ledges, hard mast

Maps of our site

Basemap:

Plant Communities map:

Down by the bay, where the hardwoods grow...

We have quite a diverse site here in Niquette Bay!

On group 1's plot, we had 9 data points from which we collected our tree data. These data plots were evenly spaced accross the plot, forming 3x3 lines. Each plot was a circle with a radius of 5m (~79m2). In each plot we took note of the trees that fell within the plot - species, height, and diameter breast height. With these numbers, we were able to calculate totals for the entire hectare. There was a total of 36.7 ft2 of basal area per hectare, or 156,933.7 board feet per hectare.

Due to the tree species and understory plants we found in the plot, we concluded that our hectare is mostly Mesic Maple-Ash-Hickory Forest. The species that indicated this were shagbark hickories, sugar and red maples, white ash, American basswood, hophornbeam, and Northern red oak.

Some of the more common herbaceous species that we found are hepatica, trillium, maidenhair fern, wild ginger, and bloodroot.

bloodroot, hepatica, and maidenhair fern.

The excel data with the data for the nine plots we had in our hectare, with information on all the trees. http://www.uvm.edu/~ddrummey/Tree%20Inventory.xlsx