Spring is just around the corner. Really!

I write that about spring even though as I type it is snowing outside my window. Forecasts tell us we are in for about 6 inches of snow this afternoon and evening. I still think spring is close at hand...why? Well field season has started again!

On Sunday, March 20, I joined Jim VanGyzen, Rey Center Research Assistant and Plymouth State University graduate student, on Mount Starr King in Jefferson, New Hampshire. We were lucky to be in the field on such a beautiful Sunday.

Mount Starr King is one of two mountains Jim is working on for his graduate research as an Environmental Science and Policy student. Jim is monitoring vegetation phenology and climate on Mount Tecumseh as well as Mt. Starr King. On his first trip in the field this season he was learning how to select and tag buds on trees that will be monitored twice a week to measure the rate of development of spring buds.

Jim is continuing the work started on Mount Tecumseh almost three years ago and is extending it to Mount Starr King. Though the Rey Center’s environmental monitoring is still focused on Mount Tecumseh we were happy to provide technical support in an effort to expand this important study that will help resource managers better understand the influence of climate change on northeastern forests.

Below is a picture (right to left) of Jim, Kim, and Kim’s husband, Ken Vallery, atop Mount Starr King. Wonderful views of the northern presidential mountains are more easily appreciated in winter when the top of this peak still holds several feet of snow pack. It is a snowshoe hike worth taking!

(Submitted by Kim Votta, Rey Center Research Coordinator)