The Vermont Monitoring Cooperative has completed a comprehensive new
report synthesizing over 20 years of monitoring and dozens of VMC cooperators' research, including work by the Vermont Center for Ecostudies.
The Vermont Monitoring Cooperative (VMC) was established in 1990 to track changes occurring in Vermont’s forests. Only limited information about the health and baseline conditions of forested ecosystems was available at that time. Vermont lacked the ability to perceive subtle changes in ecosystem condition over time and thus to be able to identify forces affecting forest ecosystem health and productivity. In addition, there was
no dedicated, centralized, and stable location for storing, maintaining, and
distributing important ecological data. VMC was envisioned and created to
collect, assemble, and distribute highquality, documented data and informationto better understand environmental changes and their impacts on forested ecosystems. Understanding the interactive nature of environmental changes required ecosystem-scale, integrated, multidisciplinary monitoring and research based on sound science. Those concepts lie at the heart of the Vermont Monitoring Cooperative’s existence.
This report offers a sampling of the extraordinary amount of information VMC has assembled in its first 18 years. While VMC research focuses primarily on the health of Vermont’s forests, forest ecosystems are complex
entities, affected by weather and climate, by natural and anthropogenic disturbances, and by the long reach of time. And everything in the forest relies on a web of connections, many of which are just now beginning to be understood.
Consider the tiny, reclusive Bicknell’s thrush, a major topic of VMC research efforts. Living at the top of Vermont in our most isolated areas, the bird is nevertheless buffeted by climate change, which alters its habitat both in New England and its wintering grounds in the Caribbean; by atmospheric mercury pollution, which has found its way into its blood
and feathers; and by the presence of happy skiers, who build trails ever higher on the sides of mountains. A goal of VMC is to learn how people can live side-by-side with the thrush, the salamander, and the moose, using the manifold resources provided by Vermont forests, always with an eye
toward a sustainable future.
This report represents the written contributions of 19 cooperators, but collective efforts of dozens of researchers from varying backgrounds and disciplines working collaboratively to compile and tell the stories contained
in this document. To the extent possible, the report is a multidisciplinary synthesis. The majority of datasets in the VMC data library can be broadly characterized under the following section titles of this report: The Health
of Our Forests, Weather and Climate in Vermont, and Monitoring Atmospheric Deposition. This report covers topics including the effects of land-use change on biodiversity, habitat and population levels of many animal species, as well as the effects of alpine development on the
environment. It includes current trends in meteorological parameters such as air temperature, relative humidity, and cloud cover in the Champlain Valley and Vermont.
Also discussed are current conditions and recent trends relating to atmospheric deposition, including transport, acidification of lakes and streams, ozone, and mercury in the environment. Also explored are factors influencing forest health, diversity, structure, productivity, and forests’ ability to store carbon to help mitigate the effects of greenhouse gas
accumulation in the atmosphere.
The information in this report is intended as an introduction to the body of research that has been amassed over time, and which is growing daily. Numerous scientific papers have been published using VMC data, some of which are referenced here. We have tried to highlight successes where VMC data have influenced state, regional, or national policy or where research results have helped alter the behavior of would-be polluters. As an organization, VMC believes that it has an important and timely story to tell.
The Spanish Ornithological Society (SEO/Birdlife) and the Grasslands Alliance will initiate a pilot to explore ways to grow rice in a more environmentally friendly way in the Southern Cone. The Bobolink and the Upland Sandpiper are among the migratory bird species breeding in Vermont that will likely benefit from ecologically-produced rice in South America.