Living Lab
Forest Farming
Category
Forestry: Non-Timber Forest Products
Partners
Yale School of the Environment; Northeast Forest Farmers Coalition (NFFC)
Summary
Three year project started in 2023 supported by a major Northeastern Sustainable Agricultural Research and Education (SARE) grant is conducting applied forest farming research and education in collaboration with academics, forest farmers and local youth at Smokey House Center that seeks to develop new strategies for providing planting stock of commercially valuable and at-risk native forest plants.
Key 2024 events/objectives
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Collect our first round of data on the forest botanical propagation trials we established last fall designed to better understand effective production models for growing at-risk and high value forest botanical crops quickly from seed into planting stock.
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Establish our forest botanical R&D nursery and other demonstration sites that will become the backbone of forest farming outreach efforts.
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Host a regional forest farming conference in partnership with the NFFC over the summer that will serve as a major gathering and educational opportunity for regional stakeholders interested in forest farming.
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Host forest botanical propagation workshops and launch a beginning propagator mentorship program that will support 5-10 land managers in starting forest botanical micro-nurseries.
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Establish baseline data sets for forest botanical populations, with a specific focus on wild ramp populations, across the Smokey House Center property with youth groups in spring that will set the stage for future research efforts.
Purpose
Build infrastructure for forest farming in the Northeast, a practice that can provide new, much-needed sources of income to farmers/forest owners, helping them to keep their forests as forest while actively participating in the conservation of at-risk understory plants.
Community Science and Recreation Planning Project
Category
Farming and Forestry: ecological data collection
Partners
VT Center for Ecostudies; UVM Extension; Strength Perspectives; Vermont Youth Conservation Corps; Sinuosity; Danby VT Planning Commission
Summary
Funded by a Vermont Outdoor Recreation Economic Collaborative Grant, this project will develop a community-informed plan for revitalizing Smokey House’s degraded trail system while designing a trail-based community science program that brings community members directly into the land-based research of the Living Lab. This work will increase access to a spectrum of meaningful recreation opportunities for key community groups like Danby residents and youth groups. In turn, outdoor recreation will be a key mechanism for accomplishing the research goals of Smokey House’s Living Lab program while building a sense of shared community stewardship and connection to the landscape. This project will act as a land-based case study in exploring how recreation opportunities can be designed to support community-based participatory research and stewardship of place.
Purpose
Developing a plan for the public to actively contribute to baseline ecological data collection at Smokey House Center and, in doing so, gain a sense of connection with and shared stewardship of the landscape. Once the plan is enacted, Smokey House Center researchers can use the datasets that are continually updated by the visiting public to help track impacts of climate change and land management strategies across the property over long time frames.
Forest Economy Project
Category
Forestry: Timber Forest Products
Partners
Vermont State University (co-lead with Smokey House Center); Healthy Materials Lab at Parsons School of Design; University of Vermont Rubenstein School of Natural Resources; Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund; Vermont Green Builders Network; New Frameworks
Summary
Vermont State University (VTSU) and Smokey House Center are the co-leads on a forest economy project to begin in 2024, supported by a major grant from the Northern Borders Regional Commission. The project’s research and demonstration of innovative and climate-beneficial building technologies with a broad coalition of academic and industry partners will support advancement of an environmentally sound regional forest sector and wood economy. Every step of the project is designed to offer educational demonstrations for the industry and the general public and participation by local youth. Additionally, a model structure built at Smokey House Center will be used long-term to serve a summer forestry internship program planned for the future that will amplify the work of the Living Lab at Smokey House Center.
Purpose
Research and education into the use of regionally-supplied and innovative wood products sourced through climate adaptive forest management strategies, such as hemlock-based mass timber and wood fiber insulation, that contribute less embodied carbon emissions and sequester more carbon in buildings than more traditional materials like steel and concrete.
School Group Visits
Category
Youth
Partners
Currier Memorial Elementary; Burr and Burton Academy; Dorset School; Long Trail School; Red Fox Community School, Manchester Elementary Middle School, Mettawee Community School
Summary
School groups visit to participate in Living Lab climate research-in-progress. In the spring of 2024, in association with the researchers involved in the Forest Farming Project, youth groups will launch a research project focused on better understanding the long-term impacts of ramp (wild onion) harvesting, helping to set up research plots and transplanting ramps into new areas of the forest for long-term study.
Purpose
In a 2021 ten nation study published in the Lancet, the authors wrote:
“Distress about climate change is associated with young people perceiving that they have no future, that humanity is doomed, that governments are failing to respond adequately, and with feelings of betrayal and abandonment by governments and adults. These are chronic stressors which will have significant, long-lasting and incremental negative implications on the mental health of children and young people.”
Engaging school children directly in cross-generational climate work and research at Smokey House Center is a practical way to inspire meaning and hope while offering pathways to lives of improved health and purpose.
Healthy Materials Lab Studio Design Project
Category
Forestry: Timber Forest Products
Partners
Healthy Materials Lab at the Parsons School of Design
Summary
Lead by Alison Mears, the Director of the Healthy Materials Lab at the Parsons School of Design, a class of architecture students participated in a 2024 spring semester studio class focused on researching and designing a series of affordable housing units that utilize local land-based building materials with a particular focus on showcasing innovative wood products that support the evolution of the regional wood sector. The class included a multi-day visit to Smokey House Center. This project served as a prelude to the Forest Economy Project (see Current Projects for more details).
Purpose
Research and education on the use of locally-sourced, non-toxic building materials, such as hemlock-based mass timber and wood fiber insulation, that contribute less embodied carbon emissions and sequester more carbon in buildings than more traditional materials like steel and concrete.
1000 Farms Initiative
Category
Farming: Pasture Management, Regenerative Farming
Partners
Ecdysis Foundation; Dorset Peak Sheep & Cattle Co., Smokey House Center Partner Farm
Summary
The 1000 Farms Initiative is a project led by the Ecdysis Foundation that aims to capture detailed agroecological data on 1000 different farms in the US that are transitioning to more regenerative practices. In 2023, their scientists came and sampled one of the Dorset Peak Livestock fields which are transitioning from conventional dairy to regenerative sheep grazing. They’ll be back in the summer of 2024 to sample the field again.
Purpose
Baseline soil data collection that will be important to future research on field management practices and that taps into an existing national initiative.
Interested in doing research at Smokey House Center?
Contact Walker Cammack
Program Director
Farm & Forest Living Lab at Smokey House Center