Room to Grow: Monitoring Restorative Plantings at the Green Mountain Audubon Center

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Canary hues of sunflowers and goldenrod, nighttime temperatures that suddenly call for a second layer, and a general quiet from much of the bird population. Yes, folks, September has finally reared its bittersweet head. Here at Audubon Vermont, we have had a strikingly beautiful and incredibly productive summer. As demanding fieldwork slows down, we are gifted with the opportunity to catch our breath, reflect on another fantastic season, and make time for important follow-ups on some of our projects.

One of those projects took place back in April. Our Conservation Biologists and Youth Conservation Leadership Program joined forces with a band of intrepid volunteers to establish a native tree and shrub planting here at the Green Mountain Audubon Center. The weather made the day very memorable! It somehow ended up being the exact day of the spring’s final slush-and-snow-and-freezing-rain storm, but the event was a high-spirited success despite the bitter cold. A huge round of applause, again, to everyone who soldiered through! You may find yourself pondering what ever happened to those little plants? Luckily, we have been working to find an answer to your curiosity!

Monitoring and ongoing maintenance are critical to the success of restorative plantings. It would be hard for plants like these to succeed without support including watering, treating invasive species, trimming back competing vegetation, and keeping wildlife exclosure fencing in working condition. So those little trees we planted—339 of them, to be exact—got a little check-up appointment this June when Audubon Vermont staff paired up with a University of Vermont Extension Intern to monitor the plants’ performance. With a measuring stick slung over his shoulder and a survey tablet in hand, this intern helped us gather crucial data on the health and survivorship of the plants we installed.  

Over the rest of the summer, Audubon Staff also made a few visits of our own. In August, we gave each cluster of plantings and the surrounding areas a much-needed haircut, using a tractor-mounted brush cutter and a couple of weedwhackers to remove the brunt of the thick stalks of goldenrod and mats of grass. A final pass with some hand scythes let us precisely remove competing vegetation—while still keeping some native pollinator-friendly flowers like milkweed—directly around the young plantings. To top it all off, a select few plots received a sprinkle of wildflower seed mix which, once they take root next spring, will help to attract beneficial native pollinators to the meadow.  

And that brings us to now. Our work and the development of this habitat is far from complete—the surviving plants still face some hurdles on their journey to becoming a full-fledged shrubland ecosystem, like their first full winter creeping up in just a few months. We will continue to do our best to prepare them, reinforcing and adding new fencing to deter the occasional ravenous deer, collecting further data on growth and survivorship, and coordinating future enhancements of this restoration effort. Once established, these restorative plantings will provide critical shelter, food, and breeding habitat for birds including Field Sparrows, Yellow Warblers, Common Yellowthroats, and Tree Swallows. Until then, we’re excited to continue sharing updates about the progress of the plantings and the people that care for them.