Recent News

How Thoughtful Forestry Can Help Birds

By Michael Mauri in the Greenfield Recorder

A recent study in the journal Science documented a huge decline in birds across the U.S. and Canada (the study and related materials are at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website).

According to the comprehensive study, our overall bird population has declined by nearly a third since 1970 — an estimated loss of three billion birds!

New York Birds At Risk From Climate Change

By Rick Karlin, Albany Times Union

Having good habitat in correct places may help wildlife resist some negative impacts of climate change

ALBANY – Hundreds of bird species face long-term extinction if their habitats continue to grow warmer, according to the National Audubon Society, which recently released a report outlining projections of global warming in future decades if no action is taken to contain it.

Young Forest on Private Lands Helps Bring Back Kirtland’s Warbler

From the Iosco County News-Herald

Habitat created by private landowners is key to bringing back beleaguered species such as Kirtland's warbler and New England cottontail

LANSING – Bird enthusiasts from around the world travel to northern Michigan in hopes of catching sight of a Kirtland’s warbler, a small songbird once poised on the brink of extinction.

Online Tool May Help Wildlife Population Recovery Efforts

By Lauren Cahoon Roberts, Cornell Chronicle

It’s a common sight in the Northeast: Flocks of wild turkeys strutting across the road, frustrating commuters. But this wasn’t always the case.

Less than a century ago, eastern wild turkeys had been nearly eliminated from the Northeast, requiring careful planning by wildlife ecologists to reestablish them in their natural habitat. The effort took decades.

New York's Young Forest Initiative Making a Difference

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is doing big things for wildlife: The goal of the agency’s Young Forest Initiative, launched in 2016, is to manage forests on over 90 wildlife management areas (WMAs) across the state to create more than 12,000 acres of new young forest habitat.

Bobcats Back from the Brink

By Jesslyn Shields in howstuffworks

If you live in the United States, you might never see a bobcat in the wild, but that doesn't mean they're not there. In fact, just because you haven't seen one in your neighborhood yet, doesn't mean there's not a bobcat sighting in your future.

Two New NEC Science Papers Published

Two recently published scientific papers by wildlife biologist Amanda Cheeseman and her colleagues report on longterm studies carried out on New England cottontails in eastern New York State.

“Ugly Effect” Brings Balance to CT Woodland

By Julia Werth, in the Connecticut Examiner

LYME – With hardly any tall trees, the ground covered in grasses and sedges and a few large piles of brush in sight, it seems almost like something has gone wrong. As though something happened here that shouldn’t have. Gone are the rows upon rows of tall oaks and maples, the shade they provided and the quiet commonly associated with New England forests.

Fracking Causes Some Songbirds to Thrive While Others Decline

From phys.org news

A new paper in The Condor: Ornithological Applications, published by Oxford University Press, finds that some songbird species benefit from the spread of fracking infrastructure while others decrease in population.

Native Plants Come Back When Invasives are Removed

By Marcus Schneck, Pennlive

When invasive shrubs are removed from the forest, native plants can rebound more strongly than expected, according to research conducted at Penn State University.

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