Northeastern Forest Soils Conference 2002 Report

The Northeastern Forest Soils Conference continued its outstanding tradition of providing a setting for scientists and practitioners to present and discuss forest soils research and application in Amherst, Massachusetts this year. Thirty-five people from federal and state government, university, and the private sector gathered to participate in this year’s conference.

The conference opened with a buffet dinner at the Hickory Ridge Country Club in Amherst on Sunday evening, August 25th. Informative presentations on soils and forest resources of the area were provided by Al Averill, Soil Survey Project Leader with the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Greenfield and Matthew Kelty, Associate Professor of Forestry at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Following this introduction, the conference opened 2 days of field tours under sunny skies and pleasant temperatures by returning to Harvard Forest in Petersham, where the conference began in 1939.  Audrey Barker Plotkin and John O’Keefe led the group on a tour of the Fisher Museum. Later, Audrey Barker Plotkin and Heidi Lux provided research findings on the comprehensive site history, climate and carbon exchange, and wooly adelgid and species mortality at hemlock woodlot site and climate and carbon storage at a soil warming experiment.

State Soil Scientist and MLRA Office Team Leader Bruce Thompson, Soil Data Quality Specialist Shawn Finn, and Soil Survey Project Leader Al Averill, all from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, explained the soils of the area to the group at excavated soil pits for the Sunapee and Charlton series.

The conference’s second day continued at the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) Quabbin Reservoir in the Town of New Salem on the Prescott Peninsula. Paul Barten, Matthew Kelty, and Avril de la Cretaz, all from the University of Massachusetts and Bruce Spencer, Chief Forester from the Quabbin Reservoir described current paired watershed research being conducted to investigate the effects of localized natural and deliberate disturbances on stream discharge and water quality and current watershed management practices, including active silviculture timber harvesting being conducted to improve the resistance and resilience of the forest cover. The monitoring equipment at the watershed research sites was demonstrated and the implications of the research for watershed management on Boston’s drinking water supply were discussed.
 

At harvesting sites, the group discussed the possible implications for soil disturbance associated with the evolution of timber harvesting systems in the northeast toward full mechanization and larger, heavier harvesting equipment. Current conservation management practices in place on MDC properties aimed at preventing loss of sediments and nutrients to water resources were highlighted. Two soils pits for the Scituate and Montauk series were displayed and discussed. The group also viewed a climate station and was introduced to a study of the dominance of hay-scented ferns and Japanese barberry in portions of the Prescott Peninsula understory, their association with soil type, and implications for watershed management.

The conference concluded with a visit to the site of the Quabbin Park Visitor Center and Windsor Dam to view the Quabbin Reservoir.

Photographs by Nancy Roskiewicz Finn, USDA-NRCS, Amherst, MA.

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