Pride Rock: Working Together to Monitor Soil and Ecosystems in the Green Mountain National Forest

The Green Mountain National Forest established 5 more monitoring plots this year for its Long-term Ecosystem Monitoring Project in collaboration with various partners.

What would you think if wandering through the forest you heard laughter, snippets of songs from "The Lion King," and a steady rhythm--"PING….PING!"--of metal hitting rock? If you happened to come across this auditory scene in August in the Green Mountain National Forest (GMNF), there is a good chance that the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps (VYCC) Roving Crew 6 was removing a stubborn rock while digging soil pits for the Forest Service.

Two VYCC crews dug fifteen 2' x 3' x 3' soil pits in August 2009 as part of the Long-term Ecosystem Monitoring Project (LEMP). The north wall of each pit was carefully constructed and smoothed to prepare for description by a soil scientist. Soil takes center stage in the LEMP, but monitoring of trees, forest-floor plants, lichens, and down woody material is also an important undertaking.

The LEMP is a 50-year monitoring effort that will examine the long-term effects of broad-scale environmental changes-particularly changes in climate, air quality, and non-native invasive species. These changes may be indicated through variations in soil chemistry, plant composition and abundance, and lichen tissue chemistry.

Throughout the next 50 years, soil, trees, plants, lichens, and downed woody material will be sampled at regular intervals-typically every 10 years. Soil monitoring protocols are based on those used by the Vermont Monitoring Cooperative, while the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Protocols are used for monitoring everything else.

These plots are all established in places that have not been recently disturbed by humans and that are reasonably protected from future disturbance. The first 10 LEMP plots, which were established in 2008 and 2009, are located in the Breadloaf Wilderness, White Rocks National Recreation Area, Peru Peak Wilderness, French Hollow Ecological Special Area, Lye Brook Wilderness, Glastenbury Wilderness, and George D. Aiken Wilderness. In the next few years, 10 more monitoring plots will be established throughout the GMNF.

Partners with the GMNF in this project include the US Forest Service Northern Research Station (project design and soil analysis), the VYCC (pit digging), a Natural Resources Conservation Service soil scientist (horizon description), and a Green Mountain College intern (project implementation and lichen surveying). The State of Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, the University of Vermont, and the Vermont Monitoring Cooperative are completing long-term monitoring projects similar to the LEMP.

For more information on the LEMP, FIA, and other soil, water, and air resource projects on the Forest, contact:

Nancy Burt

Soil Scientist

231 N. Main St.

Rutland, VT 05701

nburt@fs.fed.us

Mary Beth Dewey

Biological Technician (Intern)

marybethdewey@fs.fed.us

or deweym@greenmtn.edu