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Item Open Access Master's Project: The Vermont Town Forest Census: Building a New Inventory of Municipal Forests with Perspectives on their Stewardship(2025-12-07)Town forests play a special role in forest conservation in the Northern Forest region because they are publicly managed forest parcels that contribute to forest integrity, ecosystem services, and community well-being. As generally small, forested parcels owned by local units of government, these municipal forests can also serve as models for private forest owners to conduct sustainable forest management to achieve diverse management goals. Many communities, however, find that managing these parcels can also bring special challenges as they seek to provide for diverse public demands with limited resources, often through volunteer stewardship committees. Contributing to the Vermont Town Forest Census, my project focused on developing the strategies for deploying the first state-wide Census of municipal forests, executing the first phase of the Census, and assessing initial responses and themes. My work laid the framework for and initiated the updating of an inventory of municipal forests, last revised in 2015 indicating 352 forests totaling approximately 68,000 acres. Together with a core research team and an Advisory Committee of diverse experts, we developed a survey for municipal forest stewards asking key questions to understand and illuminate the trends, challenges, and learnings that town forest stewards are experiencing as they navigate the myriad pressures from climate change, outdoor recreation, development, economic concerns, and loss of habitat. I have compiled an inventory of 186 municipal forests across 85 towns, and determined that 56 towns indicate no ownership of municipal forest lands. Completed Census responses from 112 forest stewards have been recorded in a technical report to be shared with partners and stakeholders across disciplines. Initial findings indicate a wide heterogeneity of municipal forests across sizes, governance structure, management objectives and community engagement. While there continues to be a significant number of forests that are not well known or report a lack of robust management, there are many examples of flourishing municipal forests with various management objectives to deliver combinations of ecosystem services. I present a review of the academic literature of scientific surveys to better understand barriers and factors for high response rates and suggest some key adjustments for the project strategies moving forward. To support the future efforts of the project team, I produced a detailed manual to facilitate continued use of the many systems and tools developed thus far. This body of work, as the foundation for a continuing effort between researchers and practitioners, aims to provide critical insights to state, local, and nonprofit agencies partnering with cities and towns on their land management objectives. More about the project can be found at the Vermont Town Forest Census website.Item Open Access Good Data, Good Questions: Leveraging Comprehensive, Direct-Observation Data Sets for Impactful Research on Organizations and the Environment(SAGE Publications, 2025-12-31)Much research on organizations and the natural environment relies on self-reported corporate data of dubious reliability and accuracy. A new wave of data, originating in satellite observations, forensic genetics, hydrological maps and other sources, can help overcome these shortcomings. We identify several data sets from the natural sciences that are easily accessible and highly accurate, and provide roadmaps for management researchers to utilize them. We further explore the types of research questions these data sets enable, extending beyond the confines of environmental-financial performance relationships that have dominated previous research. By leveraging these and similar data sets, corporate sustainability researchers can obtain clearer insights into corporate environmental impact, opening doors to new avenues of inquiry.Item Embargo An Ecological and Recreational Assessment of Jay State ForestJay State Forest encompasses 7,535 acres along Vermont's northern Green Mountains, and this assessment, based on fieldwork conducted in summer 2024, provides ecological and recreational data to support a Long-Range Management Plan produced by the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources. Jay State Forest contains diverse natural communities influenced by elevation, geology, hydrology, and climate, including boreal talus woodlands, seepage forests, and a sweet gale shoreline swamp. Over 88% of natural communities found in the state forest are considered state significant. Jay State Forest also serves as critical wildlife habitat and a migration corridor for species like moose, black bear, and migratory birds. Its boreal forests and wetlands support snowshoe hare, beavers, amphibians, and numerous breeding songbirds, including Bicknell's Thrush. The forest's elevation gradients may offer refugia for both terrestrial and aquatic species adapting to anticipated climate fluctuations. Recreational use includes hiking, skiing, hunting, fishing, and snowmobiling. Illegally cut backcountry skiing trails were mapped during this assessment, raising concerns about their ecological impacts. Management recommendations address invasive species control, public access improvements, potential ecological restoration efforts, and recreational impacts on sensitive habitats. Overall, this assessment will inform future planning to balance conservation and recreation across this ecologically significant landscape.Item Open Access Big Prairie and the Lost Grasslands of Northern Alabama and The Glades & Barrens, Woodlands, and Forests of the Cumberland EscarpmentNorthern Alabama and southern Tennessee do not strike many people as a place of grasslands. This region, however, known as the Eastern Highland Rim, was pivotal in the early years of the American cotton empire. Working with the Southeastern Grasslands Institute, I hypothesized that the plantation elite used the presence of grasslands to prioritize settlement of the Tennessee River Valley. Using witness tree analysis and archival research, I developed a map of the presettlement landscape of Madison and Limestone Counties, Alabama, showing a shifting matrix of prairie, savanna, woodland, and forest. I then used early land grant data to compare settlement patterns with those historic habitat types. The overlap between cotton settlement and grasslands has major implications for the near-total loss of north Alabama grasslands, both physically and in cultural memory. In part two, I move forward in time to the adjacent ecoregion of the Cumberland Escarpment, where small remnant barrens and glades still exist on the steep slope that joins the Eastern Highland Rim ecoregion with the Cumberland Plateau. In part because these barrens and glades are locked into a byzantine network of private hunting properties, they have never been systematically botanized nor described as a unique system. I accessed and systematically botanized these grasslands, along with the woodlands and forests surrounding them, to help characterize them. In total, 36 rare taxa were identified, including one tentative state record.
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