Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Representative Amy Sheldon, Chair]: H276. Rick Essex, conservation biologist is in the lower part of your screen. Good afternoon, and welcome, Rick.

[Richard "Rick" Enser, Conservation Biologist (former Coordinator, RI Natural Heritage Program)]: Thank you. I let's see. I should have a PowerPoint there.

[Representative Amy Sheldon, Chair]: Rick, can you please introduce yourself to the committee?

[Richard "Rick" Enser, Conservation Biologist (former Coordinator, RI Natural Heritage Program)]: Yeah. I was just waiting to to I have a PowerPoint there to have brought up. But, yeah, Rick, I'm sure. Yep.

[Representative Sarah "Sarita" Austin, Clerk]: Rick, you'll need to share your screen.

[Richard "Rick" Enser, Conservation Biologist (former Coordinator, RI Natural Heritage Program)]: Okay. So I should be putting it up myself. Yep. Okay. Then hold on just a second here. I have it. Where are documents? It's all of his name. It is You

[Representative Amy Sheldon, Chair]: have it.

[Richard "Rick" Enser, Conservation Biologist (former Coordinator, RI Natural Heritage Program)]: Onion. Okay. I'm having trouble here. Thank you. Bear with me. Yeah. I got so many files here. I'm sorry about this. Okay. Hold on. I think I can get this now. Voila. Whoops. Okay. Let's go. So I'm not I've got it up, but I can't quite figure out how to get it into a

[Representative Sarah "Sarita" Austin, Clerk]: Okay. Members do have copies of the presentation So on other if you want to just tell us when you're changing the slide

[Richard "Rick" Enser, Conservation Biologist (former Coordinator, RI Natural Heritage Program)]: Okay.

[Representative Sarah "Sarita" Austin, Clerk]: We can follow along with a physical copy.

[Richard "Rick" Enser, Conservation Biologist (former Coordinator, RI Natural Heritage Program)]: Okay. Well, let's try that then. Sorry about this. So anyway, yes. If you if you have the first slide up, it's biodiversity. And I'm just gonna you know, you can move right to the next one. I'm just using that as a introduction for what I'm gonna be talking about. But let's move right on to the next one, which gives you my name as so I'm Rick. I'm a conservation biologist and from from Rhode Island. I was a coordinator of the Rhode Island Natural Heritage Program for twenty eight years, '79 to o seven. When I retired in o seven, I moved to Vermont with my family and, you know, to pursue, you know, basically what, you know, retired people do. And then, you know, in in subsequent years, since then, I have actually returned to Rhode Island this past year with my family because my wife's got a job down here. So you know, I'm back in Rhode Island for the time being. In any event, let me move right along here. And what I wanna what you know, the the the subject is biodiversity, and I want to, you know, introduce that by by giving you an idea, like you know? So, you know, you I'm sure your question is, well, what makes you an imp what makes you an expert on biodiversity? So

[Representative Sarah "Sarita" Austin, Clerk]: let's move on to the next slide,

[Richard "Rick" Enser, Conservation Biologist (former Coordinator, RI Natural Heritage Program)]: which talks about the natural heritage program. And this is an, you know, an important turning point in the in the conservation of biodiversity. The Natural Heritage Network was created in 1974 by the Nature Conservancy, and it began natural heritage programs in all 50 states to inventory the state's biodiversity and inventory species and ecosystem for conservation needs. And, initially, the results were used to identify targets for conservation by TNC and state land protection programs. So right off the bat, the the the important thing to do was to was to, you know, obviously, the the biodiversity of the state and then determine the status of that, you know, of the species and the ecosystems that we inventory and give them essentially a a rank which allows us to identify those particular elements that are in most need, in critical need of conservation assistance. So the network came up with this very basic global conservation ranks, and you can see there, know, every species, you know, essentially, there are, you know, now a 100,000 that have been ranked by NatureServe, which is these the country's basic biodiversity database. So that helps prioritize everything. And if we move on to the next slide, which you should be on a slide now that says you have big has a big red sign there that says triage. And this is basically what what this is. It's a biological triage, is identifying sites, identifying species that are in most need of assistance, so to speak. And how this is applied was so for example, in Rhode Island, you know, we applied state conservation ranks in all states to also apply state conservation ranks based on those those basic issues that are shown there. If we move to the next slide, I can show you how this develops. And in Rhode Island, for example, in 1982, we published our first technical report, which identified 269 plants that were in need of conservation assistance based on those ranks that are shown there. And then in '9 2017, you know, based on the work that was done in the interim years, you can see how that number has grown, 414. 31% of the state's flora is now considered to be species that are of conservation concern. Most interesting about this figure here is that the state historic figure, which shows 84 plants that are now historic in the state that have been extirpated from the state. Oh, okay. Which is concerning for you know, people who are concerned in biodiversity preservation like I am. So the you know, basically, this this this, you know, history that I have with with conservation biodiversity conservation, you know, in Rhode Island has given me a lot of experience in in in how this work should be done, how we should identify species, how we should identify places to be protected, etcetera. I'm gonna I'm I'm gonna move along because, you know, this is I did you know, you know, I just wanna use this as a you know, this doesn't really need to be, you know, talked about right here. Move right along to act 59. And just to, you know, to to to to reiterate the vision of act 59, which is maintaining an ecologically functional landscape. And, you know, and I and I and I and I identified the, you know, the the the things that I talked about it in as an ecologically functional landscape here with biodiversity, landscape conductivity, watershed health, and and promoting climate resilience. It's really the the things that that you know, it's sort of like what biodiversity does. You know? Biodiversity are the species and the ecosystems and the processes that promote climate resilience, that that that that support watershed health, that support ecosystem health, etcetera, etcetera. The items in in the green, you know, just to be, you know, to be honest here, you know, working farms and forests, you know, opportunities for recreation, historic settlement, and things like etcetera or whatever, it it they are they are a part of a functional landscape, but in an ecological sense. And this is, you know, where we're gonna get, you know, to the down to the weeds a little bit, you know, in an ecological functional sense, you know, in which, you know, biodiversity is is, you know, is is of the, you know, is is one of the primary objectives, then it's difficult to rationalize some of these other things of the working landscapes and whatever. And so it's a matter of trying be careful about how we designate these things. And I will repeat over and over again, and I should if I was on the screen with you, I would have a big sign across my forehead that would say biodiversity just to keep everybody on the idea that, you know, I am coming from this specifically as a biodiversity conservationist. And and and and that's that's how I look at these things. And, you know, and I've dealt with these things in in, you know, in Rhode Island, which is the most really, you know, the most urbanized state certainly in New England. I have seen, you know, the you know, you know, I've seen species disappear because we haven't really done the correct things to do to to conserve to to conserve biodiversity. So act 59 is using Vermont conservation design. And, you know, you know, it it it is, you know, an excellent, you know, you know, compilation of, you know, of, you know, of what we should be looking at, except there are you know, in a biodiversity sense, there are some issues that I, you know, that I would like to point out. In fact, VCD is not a biodiversity conservation plan. It doesn't even use the word in the document itself. Know, talks about, you know, in this one sentence here. Moving along, by the way, I hope you're keeping up with me. I've gone by I've had I had the two covers of VCD pulled up, and now I've pulled to the table of contents. The next slide is the table of contents to the natural community section and talking about ecological functional landscape and that it's fundamental for conserving biological diversity, but then says that people have been and will continue to be part of this ecological functional landscape. And that's true, but we also need to remember that, you know, it's it's it's been it's been humans that are responsible for the landscape that we have today and which is far removed from the landscape that we had before we were on the landscape. And that there are, you know, in that and, you know, biodiversity protection requires, you know, the the protection of natural systems and native natural species, functioning natural ecosystems. And, you know, and and and and BCD does include these other categories, which I call anthropogenic communities. Basically, they're human created communities that are you know, that we can look at just really quickly in the next slide, which is titled natural succession. And as we all know, I mean, they mean, it doesn't take too much to understand that, you know, when when land is cleared, you know, it it will eventually revert back, you know, without continual management. You know, going through stages of grassland stage, shrubland stage, young forest stage, and then to a mature forest stage. So it's, you know, in in in the if we look at if if we think about, you know, Vermont, you know, the natural landscape of Vermont is is is forest. And and and it's really anything that has led to a nonforced condition, an open condition is is pretty much been the result of of human the result of human activity. Certainly, at this period in time, if you move to the next slide, we see, you know, eighteen hundreds landscape, you know, the the the complete alteration of the of the Vermont landscape. Not not only the the deforestation of it, but the transformation of the species composition you know, from a completely native biota into one that is has a significant percentage of exotic species. And just this one picture here shows, you know, hay fields that were essentially brought to the new world using old world grass species. And so that now most of our hay fields are really just exotic, you know, plant communities. To suggest that, you know, this this this kind of habitat, and we've been calling it call it a number of things, shrubland, young forest, early successional. If you move to the next slide, you know, we talk about the, you know, the reforestation of the state, you know, you know, to 70 plus percent reforested, but that leaves, you know, 30% of the forest in that state that is still not forested and is in all of these different kinds of conditions that are really early successional in, you know, in in in flavor. Moving to the next slide is one description of, you know, in Vermont conservation design about young forest, you know, what it is that in order to provide it, it needs to be you know, this is you know, you you you're providing it using active management needs to be done in at least five acres in size, and that it needs to be located or should be located in widespread matric natural communities. And that the creation of young forest does indeed have the potential to impact other conservation targets. And so it it it it it's it's important to to to realize that, you know, in in in in in creating old forest and and, you know, bringing back natural systems, we're trying to make them as big as we possibly can. And then by by, you know, going into the midst of that to create a five acre cut of, you know, opening for for a a couple of species is not really a logical way to go about doing biodiversity conservation. And one of the main reasons that that that as a problem is because of the last thing on this list, which talks about the prevent, control, and spread of invasive plant species. You know, this is recommended by BCD and everybody else that talks about making these these patches because this is an ever pervasive problem that is impacting our our state the state. We move to the next slide, and you see some examples there of invasive plants. These are pictures we've been doing some some reconnaissance of of of some of the state management areas and and the Green Mountain National Forest going into these places and looking at the spread of invasive species into these places. You know, we know it's we know what's happening. They know what's happening. We have we have poisoned parsnip up in the left corner and and barberry next to it and garlic mustard. And down in the bottom, in that bottom left corner, is wild chervil, you know, doing its doing its finest. And then, you know, in the in the outskirts of the Green Mountain National Forest. And then the slides next to it on the road going into Bingo Brook and then, you know, in a place at the end of that road where the, you know, has has is growing in in a a in a small forest cut in that place. Moving to the next slide, I think we should just take a quick look to see when we're talking about doing these cuts in in in in in in in places in, you know, in wildlife management areas and the types of things that, you know, that we wanna do. I just wanna, you know, to raise the thing that, you know, one species that is being talked about specifically as, I don't know, as a main priority species in this thing is the woodcock. And indeed, this is you know, shows you just one example of this is in the picture. If you haven't gotten to the picture, by the way, into the slide is a you know, has a nice picture of American Woodcock in the in the corner. And then a and then a picture to the to the right that shows Groton State Forest. And and the Woodcock demonstration area that is that had been conducted on that place since 1984. And you can see it's outlined in yellow, And you can see the quality of the so the five acre cuts that they talk about in VCD, that's what you kind of see there in that right hand side of the of the area and and other cuts. And this is the kind of management that we're looking at that has been suggested for for all management areas. You know, BCD is being used as a justification to do this kind of management, you know, in places, you know, in the middle of of intact forest. And just for you know, just so you know, the the the you know, just in the very top of the picture here, that little sort of, you know, light colored area up there, that's peach and bog, which is one of the state's, you know, premier natural areas. Let me just go to the next slide just to show you that that white patch in the middle of the of the of the site there, you know, is an old gravel pit, which is also being, you know, managed as woodcock habitat, you know, which raises a great issue in that there are a lot of places out there that have been, you know, obviously quite disturbed. You know you know you know, is it, you know, gravel pits like this, you know, that can be restored as wildlife habitat, which seems to be to me a much logical much more logical thing to do than to go into the middle of forest to create, you know, openings in the middle of forest where they really don't need to be. Why are wildlands important? Moving on to the next slide. Why are wildlands important for biodiversity? So we get to the ecological reserve areas situation. And I'm gonna go through this quick because I know I'm I'm I'm running out of time. So if you move on to the next one, I basically, what I'm talking here is about is, you know, the you know, but, you know, talking about biodiversity conservation areas, the ecological reserve areas, move on to the next one, and we talk about natural resource management areas. What we're really talking about here is is is how we designate you know, in for biodiversity conservation, wild lands is the thing. Ecological reserve areas are critical to biodiversity conservation. The the what we what we are calling biodiversity conservation areas, it you know, it's a little too late to talk about semantics and whatever. Maybe not quite the right right, you know, wording, but, you know, it it the the the the decisions about how you know, what needs to be done to address particular species and whatever are critical issues that need to be addressed, you know, in designating these areas. It's just, you know, based on a management, you know, that has been conducted, you know, but essentially what we are seeing in, you know, in places like Groton and whatever is management that has been conducted, wildlife management, game management that has been conducted for decades. It's you know, it and when it was, you know, when it was, you know, done back in the day when biodiversity wasn't even thought about. When, you know, it it, you know, it hadn't become, you know, the the the issue and the the crisis that it has become today. And and we we really need to think about how we manage our our conserve lands and and and and reserves and how we select those places and how we manage these places. And and and, you know, and it's critical, you know, if we're gonna predict biodiversity, you know, which is the which is the basic idea behind this act. So I'm gonna I'm gonna stop there. If there are any if if if there are any questions, I'll be glad to, you know, to ask them. But I think I you know, that that kind of my major point. And so there we are.

[Representative Amy Sheldon, Chair]: Is there any questions for mister Windsor? Seeing none, thank you very Thank you. Okay.

[Richard "Rick" Enser, Conservation Biologist (former Coordinator, RI Natural Heritage Program)]: Yep. Thank you. Thank you.

[Representative Amy Sheldon, Chair]: Take us off.