Teen Researchers Take to the Woods

The third year of our summer teen research program is now in full swing, with five budding naturalists participating in a variety of ecological studies in the Northern Forest. This summer we are surveying for bats and terrestrial small mammals, investigating land-use history in our forests, sampling water quality and forest salamanders, observing loons, and investigating the effects of logging on wildlife species.

The past two nights of small-mammal surveys have produced the highest individual captures and species diversity that we have seen at NorthWoods in nearly ten years. This may be in part the result of a mild January and then deep protective snow cover over the past winter. Overall trapping success was 40%, and species included Northern flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus), short-tailed weasel (Mustela erminea), masked shrew (Sorex cinereus), and many meadow and woodland jumping mice (Zapus hudsonius and Napeozapus insignus).

Photo: Small mammal researcher and University of Vermont professor William Kilpatrick examines a deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) with teen researchers.