Today Prof. Morrison and her students, including ENVS majors Isabelle Moore and Adam Hammershoy successfully banded 6 Black-capped Chickadees. The little black and white noise makers were captured at the Mary Hooker Environmental Magnet School in Hartford. This activity was part of Prof. Morrison’s bi-annual bird banding program that includes 6th through 8th graders at several Hartford schools.
Justin in the White Mountains
White Mountain National Forest clear-cut soils project
Jon Gourley and his research students entered year two of monitoring soils in the White Mountains of New Hampshire after clear-cutting. Two of the three sites have now been completely cut with hopefully the third cleared by this fall. Justin Beslity and Daniel Hong (both thesis students of the class of ’15) travelled to the Hogsback site on the western slopes of Blueberry Mountain and found what was once a thick transitional forest of birch, beach, spruce and fir to be completely cleared (see photo). Samples from the O and B horizons were taken and are currently being processed for nutrients as well as mercury. The team’s site on the eastern side of the forest in Maine, which was the first to be cut last fall, has the first set of pre and post cut results. They recorded some slight decreases in calcium and aluminum, two critical soil nutrients for new forest growth.