Starting at Park HQ, if you venture down the Allen trail about half a mile, you will come around a bend before a steep decline in the trail and reach a gap in the forest canopy to the left.  This is the site of the Allen homestead; a site with a rich human history heavily influenced by its natural environment, and vice versa.

Just a quarter mile from Lake Champlain, our site is underlain by Monkton quartzite, which played a role in the development of the three distinct vegetation stands on the site.  To the north, the drainage from the rocky ledges outside of our site has created a wet understory with a vernal pool running south towards a manmade dug well. 
This, along with foundations of a house and a barn are the only remaining evidence of the homestead built by the Allen family who farmed and pastured most of the land within the park during the 1800s.  As a result, the soil, which was once very fertile due to its location in a floodplain, became depleted and is now a very sandy loam upon which many horsetails thrive.  When the homestead was abandoned in the late 1800s, it was colonized by eastern white pines (which grow better on sandy sites), mature trees that now occupy the canopy under which mixed hardwoods grow.

Today, the site is a popular stop for runners and dog-walkers who use the park extensively.  It is also a good site for wildlife, as the many standing snags provide habitat for squirrels, mice, chipmunks, woodpeckers, and other birds.  In addition, if you visit our site during the spring, you will most likely encounter some of the amphibians that breed in the vernal pool.

All of these factors make our site a great destination during your visit to Niquette Bay State Park.  We hope you enjoy exploring it as much as we did!

One Organism's Litter is Another's Treasure

During our last day in Niquette Bay, we completed an inventory of the forest structure and the potential for wildlife habitat by tallying standing snags (dead standing trees) and coarse woody debris (sticks and logs greater than 10cm in diameter on the ground) using a meter stick and a clinometer.

Snags provide habitat for insects and decomposers as well as the birds that feed on them and other animals like squirrels, mice, bats, and racoons. Below is a summary of our snag inventory of the 19 specimens on our plot. As noted, most of the snags were originally eastern white pines, and most were fairly small in diameter and height, indicating that most snags were fairly young when they died, or that larger snags have fallen over.

Table 1. Snag Inventory. Degree of decay was measured on a 1-5 scale, with 1 meaning a tree that has recently died to 5 meaning a snag that has almost completely decayed.

Average Height (ft.)	Average DBH (in.)	Average degree of decay (1-5 scale)	Most common species
42.09175	9.131579	1	Eastern white pine

In our plot, we also analyzed the presence of coarse woody debris (CWD) that are so vital in providing habitat for plants, insects, and animals as well as structure in soil development and a place for seeds to germinate. We used a technique called the line intercept method to create transects of a measured length (150 feet) across each of the different stands in our plot. We have three diverse types of vegetation in our plot: a field of horsetails, a swamp-like area with a vernal stream, and a classic mixed northern hardwood forest. Therefore, we mapped three transects, one through each stand in our plot, with a fourth through a mix of swamp and hardwood to obtain volumes of coarse woody debris in each area. This information can help tell us if our plot is suitable habitat for animals or insects that depend on decomposing wood for food or habitat, or why certain organisms would not be found here. CWD can also indicate the health of the soil because it helps feed the bacteria that live in the dead wood to recycle nutrients like carbon, nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorous and convert it into rich, organic matter.

Table 2. Volume of Coarse Woody Debris (CWD) Across Dominant Vegetation Areas

Transect#	Dominant Vegetation	Volume of CWD (m3/ha)
1	Horsetail	3.15 m3/ha
2	Hardwood/ Swamp Mix	48.2 m3/ha
3	Hardwood	338.89 m3/ha
4	Swamp	106.8 m3/ha
TOTAL		497.04 m3/ha

Our data shows the greatest amount of coarse woody debris in the hardwood area of our plot. There were sections in this area that displayed evidence of a windstorm that blew through the plot, leaving several woodpiles and downed trees that could invite more woodland birds, salamanders, or insects to live there. The transect through the swamp section of our plot probably also had a relatively large amount of CWD because it is characteristic of these to have thick, nutrient rich environments that developed from the large amount of woody debris littered throughout. The lowest volume of CWD was understandably in the field of horsetails due to the lack of trees that inhabit the area. However, as a whole, our plot is does not have a significant amount of CWD compared to old growth forests that have such large amounts they are effective in sequestering tons of carbon back into the soil.

Where the Wild Things Are

We evaluated the habitat suitability of our site for the barred owl and the fisher (pictured below--not on our site, but just as a reference in case you run into one). Barred owls require a certain number of trees that have a DBH greater than 51 cm, as well as a certain degree of canopy cover. In our stand, there were not many trees above the 51 cm dbh but there is a 70% canopy cover, and using a formula called the Habitat Suitability Index (HSI), we determined that there is a 83.7% chance of finding a Barred Owl in the stand. For the fisher, the canopy cover, the number of layers of canopy present, and the proportion of coniferous trees to deciduous determines whether or not a fisher will move in or not. The likelihood of finding one in our plot according to a HSI is 61.9%. However, these HSIs merely take a broad assessment of the potential for a site to be good wildlife habitat; therefore, we may not necessarily see barred owls or fishers on our site.

On the other hand, while we were collecting data throughout the month, we heard and saw many different birds such as blue jays, downy woodpeckers, and chickadees, as well as squirrels and chipmunks. We also have a vernal pool located in the north part of our site, providing excellent breeding habitat for amphibians such as frogs and salamanders.

**

Wildlife is very important to people in VT and this site is full of animals, including birds, amphibians, and mammals. We came up with some ideas on how to manage for the species that call this place home. The easiest way to do this is to the forest as is. Let it grow up and out and eventually trees will die and create homes for multiple species and new trees will continue to grow. By leaving it as is, the species that are there will continue to be there and living the way they have been. Species will remain and will not have to move if nothing is removed from the area. Looking at the park as a whole, the area is set up for all kinds animals even though they are not on our site specifically.

The list of species below is the output of a program called NEWild that uses a set of parameters collected by researchers to assess whether a given site could be habitat for specific wildlife species that occur in New England based on previous research. Although it is a great way to get a quick idea about what could live in our site, it is a fairly coarse method and includes many species that probably do not occur in Niquette Bay.

Red Spotted Newt	Olive Sided Fly Catcher
Red Backed Salamander	E. Wood Peewee
Bald Eagle	Yellowbellied Fly Catcher
Coopers Hawk	Acadian Fly catcher
N. Goshawk	Least fly catcher
Broad Wing Hawk	E. Phoebe
Red-tailed Hawk	Great Crested Fly Catcher
Rough Legged Hawk	Tree Swallow
American Kestrel	Brown Creeper
Ruffled Grouse	E. Kingbird
Wilde Turkey	Raven
N. Hawk Owl	Black capped Chickadee
Whip-poor-will	Boreal Chickadee
European Starling	Tufted Tit Mouse
Black Backed Woodpecker	House Wren
Three Toed Woodpecker	Winter Wren
N. Saw Whet Owl	Blue Gray Gnat Catcher
Hairy Woodpecker	E. Bluebird
Ruby Throated Hummingbird	Veery
Downy Woodpecker	Hermit Thrush
White Tailed Deer	N. Flying Squirrel
S. Flying Squirrel	Bobcat

N. Mocking bird	Field Sparrow
N. Shrike	Vesper Sparrow
Loggerhead Shrike	Grasshopper Sparrow
Yellow Throated Vireo	Henslow’s Sparrow
Tenn. Warbler	Song Sparrow
Nashville Warbler	E. Meadow Lark
Black Throated Green Warbler	Brown Headed Cow Bird
Pine Warbler	Virginia Possum
Black and White Warbler	Mast Shrew
Prothonotary Warbler	Smokey Shrew
Worm Eating Warbler	Pigmy Shrew
Oven Bird	N. Short-tailed Shrew
N. Water Thrush	Hairy Tailed Mole
Louisiana Water Thrush	E. Pipistrelle
Wilson’s Warbler	E. Cottontail
Canada Warbler	N.E. Cottontail
N. Cardinal	S. Red-backed Vole
Indigo Bunting	Woodland Vole
Rufous Sided Towhee	S. Bog Lemming
Chipping Sparrow	N. Bog Lemming
Red Fox	Ermine
Black Bear

From this list, we have researched the habitat potential of our site for a few well-known focal species including*:

Barred Owl- The barred owl is most likely a resident of the forest and quite possibly our stand. Barred owls live in mature forests particularly near lakes and streams. They also prefer an open understory for hunting and nesting. The barred owl is most likely a resident to the site because it is an older forest with lots of snags for nesting and an open understory for hunting.

Fisher- Fishers are fans of the coniferous to mixed woods stands that have a continuous canopy. Fishers also prefer wetlands and are unlikely to be found in an open stand or a stand that has been recently burned. They build dens in logs on the ground or hollow trees. In the winter, they prefer coniferous forest types because there is less snow and it is more packed. Although our site does not contain prime nesting sites for the fisher, because of the vicinity of wetlands in the east part of the park, you might find a fisher in other sites.

Pileated Wood Pecker- Pileated woodpeckers like to live in mature, mixed stands that are near water. They also prefer larger trees that are either dead or are dying and provide large limbs for nesting, of which you can find many on our site. Our site also contains plenty of coarse woody debris to provide habitat for insects that the pileated woodpecker likes to eat.

Red-backed Salamander- This salamander, one of the most common in New England forests, is certainly able to call our site home. It prefers deciduous woodlands with large quantities of woody debris and decaying logs or stumps which abound in our site, particularly in the mixed hardwoods and swampy area, have a plethora of. Under this debris is where the salamanders find most of their food in the form of small insects and spiders. Although our site has a vernal pool, the red backed salamander is unique in that it does not require water to lay their eggs or for any stage in their life cycle. In addition, red backed salamanders are indicator species in a forest, indicating that a site is ecologically healthy because they are so susceptible to pollution.

Northern Brown Snake- The brown snake is found in urban and rural areas. It is a habitat generalist, meaning it can live pretty much anywhere, but it prefers damp woods, swamps, bogs, clearings or open fields. This snake is most likely found on our plot because there are vernal pools and an abundance of moist areas; in addition, it could find shelter in woody debris and downed trees.

Emerald Ash Borer- The EAB is an invasive metallic green insect from Asia, about 3/8 of an inch long, that arrived in Detroit in the summer of 2002. It has systematically killed millions of ash trees in central and eastern states in the US, excluding Vermont so far. VT has been monitoring for the EAB with the iconic purple chemical traps, and we have fortunately found no evidence of the insect so far. The larvae are found under the bark of the trees, and exit via D shaped holes about an 1/8th of an inch wide which we did not see on any of the ash trees in our plot.

Scarlet Tanager- The scarlet tanager lives in mixed deciduous coniferous forests and prefers them to be mature. They can be found in suburban areas with very large old trees. The tanager eats small insects like spiders and earthworms. The tanager could possibly call our site home, but due to the lack of mature trees, it is hard to tell. There should be plenty of food for them, but they also need enough trees of the right size.

Chestnut Sided Warbler- Because this migratory bird prefers forest edges or open, early successional forests with dense understory growth, you probably won't see it on our site when it flies north to breed in the summer. However, other sites in and around Niquette Bay may provide better nesting habitat for the Chestnut-Sided Warbler, so keep a sharp ear for its high musical call of "pleased-pleased-pleased to meetcha!"

Porcupine- A shy, nocturnal creature that requires coniferous forests for wintering as well as rocky ledges or old trees for dens, porcupines may certainly inhabit Niquette Bay, which provides all of the above habitat features as well as plenty of diverse summer forage in the form of basswood, birch, maple, and aspen leaves and bark. However, because the homestead site has little in the way of downed woody debris and rocky outcroppings, you would most likely find a porcupine using our site as a forage area, having a den closer to the Ledges Trail.

Wild Turkey- Hunting is not allowed in Niquette Bay State Park, but even if it were, you probably wouldn't find many wild turkeys here anyway. These game birds need open, mature forests with large mast trees or nearby farms with manure spreads or waste grain dumps for food. Although the park has some mast trees and receives relatively little snow, which makes walking around and getting to the ground easier for turkeys, they would probably not stay very long around our site before moving on to better foraging sites.

White Tailed Deer- White tailed deer live in areas like forest edges and swampy areas, but only near places with large openings such as fields or openings in canopies. White tailed deer need a large coniferous habitat for winter for browse. Deer need places where the snow isn't deep so they can travel and eat and survive. White tailed deer are unlikely in the site but not the entire forest. It would be unlikely to see one due to the lack of conifers and open areas for browsing. There may be some spread through the forest, but not in the hectare we studied.

European Earthworm- This is an invasive species that came to the U.S. from Europe with the early settlers and has caused significant ecological damage to many forests by disturbing the soil profile and causing depletion of nutrients in forests. The earthworm prefers a place that has a lot of organic material to feed on. There is plenty of leaf litter and downed branches in the stand so the earthworm is a likely inhabitant of the stand and the forest as a whole.


*Source:

DeGraaf, Richard and Yamasaki, Mariko. New England Wildlife: Habitat, Natural History, Distribution. Lebanon: University Press of New England, 2001.

**Photos:

Langmaid, Carly.  Fisher (Martes pennanti) (photo).  2000.  Pensacola Junior College.  Retrieved 4 Dec 2011 from .

Dunn, Michael M.  "Barred Owl" (photo) in "Barred Owls!".  Duncraft's Wild Bird Blog.  Retrieved 4 Dec 2011 from .