Research & land management

This past semester students enrolled in Patty Zaradic’s Senior Seminar in Ecology at Bryn Mawr College prepared papers on research they conducted at Crow’s Nest Preserve.

The themes were based on evaluating the ecosystem services of various aspects of the preserve. Topics included the value of native bees at the preserve in pollinating local crops, the values (and strategies for conserving) native plants, the value of carbon sequestration in the preserve’s trees, the economic value of deer management, and the ecosystem services performed by beavers.

The students visited the preserve and in some cases laid out study plots. In other cases the preserve was compared with data collected elsewhere. We scoured our records for plant lists and poured over maps (ground-truthing the data on the maps with current land use conditions). We surveyed hunters and compared the data with statewide trends.

The projects pointed out a need for more raw data from the preserve: we haven’t done a blooming calendar in several years and we can always use more baseline species and natural community lists.

And the projects also pointed out some ways we might adapt our management of the preserve: for example, leaving more areas in a 2 – 3 year rotation of succession (rather than annual mowing of meadows) conserves habitat for a greater diversity of native bee species.

Over the next few weeks I will write a short description of the projects on the weblog and some of their implications.

This week I am cutting multiflora rose and vines with a hand held brushcutter, selectively cutting back the undesirable species while preserving as much as possible of the native vegetation. Some of the areas I am working in have been cut and sprayed before so I am just doing a very precise follow-up to the earlier work and it is progressing more quickly than the original management. Other places I am just getting to for the first time and I am using a power-pole pruner (a chainsaw on a pole) to cut the thick bases of the invasive species.