SUNY: Wildlife Ecology
SUNY Plattsburgh: Wildlife Ecology
In Fall 2008, We began our class field experiences with an early morning small mammal trapping session at Rugar Woods, a tract of land adjacent to PSU's field house. The tract borders the Saranac River, so we expected to catch a handful of small mammals and we found none, but learned enjoyed a jaunt in the woods and learning the nuts and bolts of using Sherman live traps.
In Fall 2008, We began our class field experiences with an early morning small mammal trapping session at Rugar Woods, a tract of land adjacent to PSU's field house. The tract borders the Saranac River, so we expected to catch a handful of small mammals and we found none, but learned enjoyed a jaunt in the woods and learning the nuts and bolts of using Sherman live traps.
Miner Institute Applied Environmental Science Program: Wildlife Ecology and Management
In Fall 2009, we moved Wildlife Ecology and Management up to Miner Institute in Chazy, NY as part of the Applied Environmental Science Program (AESP) at SUNY Plattsburgh and commenced weekly adventures in wildlife. Students have been working hard on their group research projects, designed from the onset from their own interests in mind. Franklin, Evan, and Brad are surveying forest stands for woodpecker damage in plots affected and unaffected by the ice storm of 1998. They are using coring and point-quarter methods to gather information about their sites, woodpecker preferences, and long-term growth trends in an attempt to determine the most preferred tree characteristics. Britney Curry, Matt Burdick, Taylor Beaton, and Beck Alvord are working with Stealth Cams in various locations (compost pile at an agriculture/dairy facility, local campus woods, and urban areas) to assess site-specific visitation frequency and species richness using this non-invasive survey method. So far, it appears that coyotes, cats, deer, and other mesocarnivores are visiting.
In Fall 2009, we moved Wildlife Ecology and Management up to Miner Institute in Chazy, NY as part of the Applied Environmental Science Program (AESP) at SUNY Plattsburgh and commenced weekly adventures in wildlife. Students have been working hard on their group research projects, designed from the onset from their own interests in mind. Franklin, Evan, and Brad are surveying forest stands for woodpecker damage in plots affected and unaffected by the ice storm of 1998. They are using coring and point-quarter methods to gather information about their sites, woodpecker preferences, and long-term growth trends in an attempt to determine the most preferred tree characteristics. Britney Curry, Matt Burdick, Taylor Beaton, and Beck Alvord are working with Stealth Cams in various locations (compost pile at an agriculture/dairy facility, local campus woods, and urban areas) to assess site-specific visitation frequency and species richness using this non-invasive survey method. So far, it appears that coyotes, cats, deer, and other mesocarnivores are visiting.
Lisa Zimmerman and Matt Soranno are working an inventory of roadkill and are learning important GPS and GIS skills. Lisa is tracking from Saranac Lake to campus, and Matt is surveying the route where his herpetofauna surveys have occurred this fall. They are attempting to determine whether there are areas more prone to vehicle collision and if those spots are species-specific. This information might provide useful to local Dept. of Transportation workers, as well as community members who commute these routes daily.
Here are some pictures of independent projects at SUNY Plattsburgh associated with the Wildlife class, including Brett Goldberg surveying small mammals in riparian areas, and Matt Soranno, a Plattsburgh State University grad student (Natural Science), surveying riparian areas for herpetofauna as a follow-up to his thesis work identifying plants at those same sites.
Finally, Mary Bennett, Roy Otsuka, and Carolyn Strauss are looking at the giving up densities (GUDs) of small mammals in forested, riparian, and urban areas. They are adding predator scent into the containers to determine whether these animals are altering their foraging behavior based on predation risks.
Wildlife Ecology at Miner is a unique experience, such that students can spend a full day in the field learning techniques and meeting professionals who apply these innovations before returning to campus for lecture, analysis, and article discussions. Each week we meet to survey different taxa (birds, herps, fish, mammals), thus students are learning current techniques for surveying wildlife in our area. We met with Mike Peterson to band birds at his home in Elizabethtown using mist nets and later made our way along Route 9 stopping at Noblewood Park, Wickham and Ausable marshes and other wetlands.
The class attended the regional Wildlife Field Conference this fall at Wanakena NY and camped alongside Cranberry Lake. Students and I attended lectures concerning the use of motion cameras for monitoring animal movement, proper safety when handling animals, track plating, research on-going in our region, animal immobilization, and perhaps most exciting- had a chance to fire a dart rifle!
Additionally, the class surveyed small mammals using Sherman traps at Rugar woods (chipmunks, flying squirrel, Peromyscus spp.), Atwood Rd. Chazy, NY (woodland jumping mice, northern short-tailed shrews, Peromyscus spp.), and a riparian area on the Little Chazy (Peromyscus spp., Sorex spp., chipmunk).
We also got to visit some interesting places, including the Vermont Institute for Natural Sciences (VINS) wildlife rehabilitation center in Quechee, VT, the lampricide treatment facility on the Lamoille River, VT, and Paul Smith's Visitor Interpretation Center, among others! Browse our pictures below to see all the neat places and activities we got to do!
We also got to visit some interesting places, including the Vermont Institute for Natural Sciences (VINS) wildlife rehabilitation center in Quechee, VT, the lampricide treatment facility on the Lamoille River, VT, and Paul Smith's Visitor Interpretation Center, among others! Browse our pictures below to see all the neat places and activities we got to do!