Living Lab
Climate Adaptive Maple Program
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Category
Forestry: Agroforestry
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Partners
Joe Orefice, Director, Yale Forest, Yale School of the Environment; Lee Allen, Emeritus C.A. Schenck Distinguished Professor of Forestry and Emeritus Director of Forest Productivity Cooperative, North Carolina State University, Tony D'Amato and Ali Kosiba from the University of Vermont Rubinstein School of Environment, Glenn Goodrich of Goodrich Maple Farm, Peter Smallidge from Cornell's Arnot Forest.
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Summary
Design and establish an R&D Sugarbush at Smokey House Center that will provide a working platform for maple research. Initial research efforts will focus on accurately tracking the long-term impacts of climate change, forest management, and tree tapping/vacuum on sugarbush health and production.
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Purpose
Conduct long-term research exploring how climate adaptive management strategies can help syrup producers and sugarbushes withstand the impacts of climate change, such as a shorter production season and increased drought events, while maintaining syrup production. Train current producers and the next generation of producers in these adaptive strategies to help ensure survival of industry.
Forest Farming & At-Risk Plant Propagation
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Category
Forestry: Non-Timber Forest Products
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Partners
Yale School of the Environment; Northeast Forest Farmers Coalition (NFFC)
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Summary
Forest farming is an agroforestry practice with roots in indigenous plant traditions that involves growing and stewarding non-timber forest products (NTFPs) under forest canopies. It can increase economic resilience for farms by diversifying income streams while helping to restore at-risk plant species and keep our forest as forest. Smokey House Center started a three year forest farming project which started in 2023 and is supported by a major Northeast Sustainable Agricultural Research and Education (SARE) grant that focuses on conducting applied forest farming research and education in collaboration with researchers, forest farmers and local youth at Smokey House Center. The underlying objective of the project is to develop new strategies for providing planting stock of commercially valuable and at-risk native forest plants such as ginseng, ramps, and goldenseal.
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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.
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Community Science and Recreation Planning Project
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Category
Farming and Forestry: ecological data collection
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Partners
VT Center for Ecostudies; UVM Extension; Strength Perspectives; Vermont Youth Conservation Corps; Sinuosity; Danby VT Planning Commission
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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.
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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.
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Green Building & Forest Economy Project
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Category
Forestry: Timber Forest Products
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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
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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.
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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.
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