Date: 4 and 5 May, 2002

Place: University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH

Host: Department of Natural Resources

Sponsors: Ruffed Grouse Society, Wildlife Management Institute, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, N. H. Fish & Game Department, New Hampshire Audubon Society, New Hampshire Cooperative Extension

CONFERENCE OBJECTIVES:

1. Increase understanding of the importance of disturbance-generated habitats (e.g., early-successional forests and scrub-oak/pitch-pine woodlands) and their role in sustaining biological diversity and community integrity within ecosystems of the northeastern United States (including states of ME, NH, VT, MA, RI, CT, NY, PA, NJ, DE, and MD).
2. Provide a summary of management protocols used to perpetuate early-successional and shrub-dominated habitats and review concerns associated with their application.
3. Identify potential partnerships, funding sources, and methods for increasing participation of private landowners.

CONFERENCE ACTIVITIES:

Day 1: Introductions and summary of objectives, majority of day will be devoted to a series of oral presentations by invited experts. Evening social and banquet to facilitate interactions among all attendees, will include a poster session during the evening social.

Day 2: Field tour to 4-6 representative sites to review management issues and discuss potential innovations.

TARGET AUDIENCE: members of federal and state conservation agencies, private land trusts, non-governmental conservation organizations, university faculty, state cooperative extension organizations, and motivated land owners and managers.

May 4
Spaulding Auditorium

8:15 -- Welcome

8:20 - 8:40 -- Opening Remarks, Larry Payne, Director of Cooperative Forestry, USDA, Forest Service, Washington, DC.

8:40 - 10:00 -- Invited Presentations

Scale and frequency of natural disturbances in the northeastern United States: implications for early successional forest habitat and regional age distributions
Craig Lorimer, University of Wisconsin and Alan White, University of Maine

Historic prominence of early-successional and shrub-dominated habitats
David Foster, Harvard Forest

Abundance, distribution, trends and ownership patterns of early-successional forests and native shrublands in the Northeast
Robert Brooks, USDA Forest Service

Vegetation dynamics and rare species in Northeastern shrublands
Roger Latham, Private Consultant

10:00 - 10:20 - Break

10:20 - 12:00 - Invited Presentations

Shrubland Lepidoptera of conservation concern in the Northeast
David Wagner, University of Connecticut and Michael Nelson, Massachusetts Division of Fish and Wildlife

The importance of birds dependent on early-successional habitats to regional biodiversity
Randy Dettmers, USFWS, Hadley, MA

Mammals dependent on early-successional forests and shrubland habitats
Todd Fuller, University of Massachusetts and Stephen DeStefano, USGS, Amherst, MA

Are pre-Columbian baseline conditions relevant in human-dominated landscapes?
John Litvaitis, University of New Hampshire

Approaches for managing early-successional forests and shrubland habitats
Richard DeGraaf and Mariko Yamasaki, USDA Forest Service

12:00 - 1:20 - Outdoor lunch (Provided)

1:20 - 3:00 - Invited Presentations

Restoration of degraded pitch pine and scrub oak woodlands
William Patterson, University of Massachusetts

Managed powerline corridors: a substitute for loss of native shrublands and secondary succession?
John Confer, Ithaca College

Dealing with invasive exotics
Tim Simmons and Paul Somers, Massachusetts Division of Fish and Wildlife

NGO initiatives to sustain thicket habitats
Scot Williamson, Wildlife Management Institute

State efforts to promote early-successional habitats on private and public lands
James Oehler, Massachusetts Division of Fish and Wildlife

Federal programs to promote efforts among private landowners
Darrel Covell, New Hampshire Cooperative Extension

3:20 - 3:40 - Break

3:40 - 5:00 - Open forum: Where do we go from here?

New England Center

6:00 - 7:00 - Poster Reception (Cash Bar)

7:00 - 9:00 - Buffet Dinner (Provided)

May 5

8:00 - 5:00 -- Visit to field sites
Transportation and lunch provided

REGISTRATION: To attend this conference, complete a Registration form and mail to:

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