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How Do Species Matter? The Potential Effects of the Decline of White Ash (Fraxinus americana) on Flora and Fauna

Presented by Miranda Zammarelli

June 20, 2024, 7:00-8:00pm

White ash (Fraxinus americana) will inevitably be almost non-existent in New Hampshire because of the invasive emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis). We are studying the role white ash plays in the ecosystem before it is functionally extinct to understand how the loss of this species will affect the forest. By comparing the soils, understory vegetation, and insects under different tree species at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, we found that white ash supports a different and more diverse understory community compared to other trees. We surveyed bird communities to assess how they may change with the decline of white ash. We also started the Ash Protection Experiment (APE) to protect 300 white ash trees from the emerald ash borer using insecticide. With these observations and experiments, we aim to study ecological effects of a tree species elimination.

Miranda is a fourth year PhD student in Dartmouth College’s Ecology, Evolution, Environment and Society (EEES) program advised by Matt Ayres (Dartmouth College) and Hannah ter Hofstede (University of Windsor). She graduated from the University of Rochester in 2020 with a B.A. in anthropology and B.S. brain & cognitive sciences. After graduation, she volunteered with the Saltmarsh Sparrow Research Initiative in Warren, RI, where she studied the nesting ecology of the threatened Saltmarsh Sparrow. Currently, her research focuses on understanding the relationship among habitat selection, reproductive success, and singing behavior of migratory forest songbirds. Her research takes place at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in North Woodstock, NH. Her focal study species is the Ovenbird, a ground-nesting migratory warbler.

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Ash Tree Tour at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest

Facilitated by Matt Ayres and Jeff Garnas

July 9, 2024, 1:00-4:00pm

Is one tree as good as another? In the next few years, thousands and thousands of ash trees will die in the White Mountains due to the invasive pest, emerald ash borer. Sadly, ash is destined for rapid functional extinction from our forests, but their spots in the forest will quickly be filled by other trees. How much will it matter that the ash are gone? How, if at all, will the forest be different when the ashes have been replaced by beech, maple, and birch? This field trip will visit the Ash Protection Experiment (APE) in the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (HBEF), where researchers are addressing these questions by comparing the ecology of plants, animals, microbes, and soils in groves of different tree species. We will meet at the entrance to HBEF and proceed into the forest by vehicle to visit some of the ash study plots and discuss the remarkable ecology and natural history of ash trees. We will walk into the forest but no more than about 100 steps.

Matt Ayres is Professor of Biological Sciences at Dartmouth College. Jeff Garnas is Associate Professor of Forest Ecosystem Health at University of New Hampshire. Between them, Matt and Jeff have been studying the ecology of forest pests and pathogens for over six decades.
The visit is typically 2–3 hours and involves a 1-2 mile walking tour through part of the 7,800 acre experimental forest.

Visitors must dress appropriately for walking in the woods the day of the visit. Sturdy walking/hiking shoes and trekking poles are highly recommended, and rain gear and warm hats may be needed if the weather is variable. There are no food services available at the Experimental Forest. We request that trash and food are picked up by visitors before they depart, abiding by all “Leave No Trace” principles. Bathroom facilities and water fountains are available on site at the Headquarters building. Vehicles taking visitors into the Experimental Forest will drive on a single lane well maintained dirt road for approximately 1.5 miles to the trailhead where the tours begin. Groups will meet at the Headquarters building before heading up into the forest. The headquarters building can be found at 234 Mirror Lake Road. North Woodstock, NH 03262.

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W8banakiak Odanak

Presented by Daniel G. Nolett

July 17, 2024, 1:00-2:00pm

In this lecture, Daniel will be guiding the audience through a brief review of W8banaki Nation history and W8banakiak’s ancestral territory: Ndakina. He will also explore the Saint-Francis Indian mission (Odanak) through archeology and will also present information on Black Ash. 

Daniel G. Nolett is Abenaki and a Band member of the Odanak First nation in Quebec, Canada. He has been the Executive director at the Abenaki of Odanak Government (Odanaki W8banaki Tbald8zimek) since August 2005.  He was before that Executive director of the Grand Conseil de la Nation Waban-Aki (W8banaki Tribal Council) from 1995 till 2005. He is very involved in the Abenaki culture. He has been part of the W8banaki traditional songs drum group the Flying Sturgeon/Aw8ssisak akik for more than 25 years. He is also very involved in the revitalization of the Abenaki language (Aln8ba8dwaw8gan). He has been learning the Abenaki language for more than 36 years.

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Books and Baskets: Following the Journeys of an Abenaki Language Book

Presented by Kelly Wisecup

July 30, 2024, 7:00-8:00pm

This talk follows the travels of a language instruction book by the Abenaki leader Joseph Laurent, New Familiar Abenakis-English Dialogues. In the late nineteenth century, a copy of this book traveled with Laurent’s family from Abenaki homelands at Odanak, in what is currently Quebec, to Intervale, NH, where Abenaki families traveled in the summers to sell baskets to tourists. I examine marginalia and postcards pasted into the book to research how the Dialogues participated in the gatherings at Intervale and to consider how Laurent family members used copies of the book to maintain relations to other Abenaki peoples and to Abenaki homelands.

Kelly Wisecup teaches and researches Indigenous literatures at Northwestern University, where she is a professor in the English Department and an affiliate of the Center for Native American and Indigenous Research. She is a non-Native scholar who works with contemporary Native nations and people to research, teach, and write about Indigenous literatures. Her most recent book, Assembled for Use: Indigenous Compilations and the Archives of Early American Literatures (Yale, 2021), examines how Indigenous writers used forms like the scrapbook, recipe book, list, and catalog to engage with and critique collecting institutions like museums.

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Monitoring and Managing Ash (MaMA): Lingering Ash Detection for Resistance Breeding-How You Can Help!

Presented by Jonathan Rosenthal and Dr. Radka Wildova

August 15, 2024, 7:00-8:00pm

Although emerald ash borer (EAB) typically kills nearly 100% of mature native ash, a small percentage not only survive, but remain healthy years after the rest of the nearby ash have been killed. These trees, found for every widespread Northeastern species, are known as “lingering ash” and can be used to breed resistant native ash.

The Ecological Research Institute developed the Monitoring and Managing Ash (MaMA) program, which facilitates lingering ash detection through data collection and appropriate management practices. MaMA has already achieved lingering ash detection in New York, with material collected for resistance breeding at Cornell University. The program is supported by the Tree in Peril initiative led by The Nature Conservancy in collaboration with the US Forest Service.

The MaMA program leaders, Jonathan Rosenthal and Dr. Radka Wildova, will give an overview of the program and how you can participate in it. If you have questions, please email them to outreach@MonitoringAsh.org.

Jonathan Rosenthal directs the Ecological Research Institute (ERI). Along with ERI’s Senior Scientist, Dr. Radka Wildova, he developed and oversees the Monitoring and Managing Ash (MaMA) program as well as ERI’s research on hemlock decline due to invasive forest pests. Both he and Wildova are among the coauthors of the publication “Nonnative forest insects and pathogens in the United States: Impacts and policy options”, by Lovett et al. (Ecological Applications, 2016). In addition to his duties at ERI, he has taught environmental science at Vassar College and invasion biology, ecology and global change biology at the State University of New York, New Paltz.

Dr. Radka Wildova is the Senior Scientist at ERI. Along with Rosenthal, she developed and leads the Monitoring and Managing Ash (MaMA) program. Before joining ERI, Radka completed a post-graduate fellowship with Dr. Charles Canham of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies focused on modeling ecological and economic consequences of forest pest invasions while taking into account climate change. In addition to her work at ERI, she has taught invasion biology and environmental science at Marist College.

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“Throwaway Society”: Culture and Consumerism in Ed Rossbach’s Basketry

Presented by Sarah Parrish

August 22, 2024, 7:00-8:00pm

Indigenous basketry has long fascinated artists of all backgrounds. But how, if at all, can non-indigenous basketmakers engage these traditions ethically and respectfully? Researcher and fiber artist Ed Rossbach poses these questions in his written and creative works of the 1960s and ’70s. In his art, Rossbach draws on his extensive research into fiber art techniques from throughout history and around the globe. However, he surprisingly combines these methods with contemporary consumer materials ranging from plastic shopping bags to brightly-colored food wrappers and cardboard boxes. This talk will explore the contradictions behind these unusual baskets. While Rossbach unfortunately reinforces stereotypes of indigenous basketry as preindustrial and in need of rediscovery, he is also an early advocate for appreciating indigenous baskets on their own terms through deep, accurate, and hands-on study. Investigating the tensions of Rossbach’s practice may help visitors to Of Baskets and Borers contemplate how we might approach the exhibition from our own diverse, complicated subject positions.

Sarah Parrish, PhD, is Associate Professor of Art and Design at Plymouth State University. Her talk at the Museum of the White Mountains originates from her dissertation research on cultural appropriation in the American fiber art movement of the 1960s and 70s. She has contributed extensively to the field of craft studies through presentations, articles, catalogue entries, and exhibitions. In 2017 she was named the American Craft Council’s Emerging Voices Scholar for this body of work. A passionate educator, she earned Plymouth State’s Transformative Teaching Award and has secured major grants to continue improving her teaching. Her current research involves organizing an exhibition tentatively titled Get Physical: Sport in Contemporary Craft.

This event is hybrid. To receive a Zoom link, please register HERE.

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Basket Making and Ash Pounding Demonstrations

Presented by Annette Nolett and Luc Nolett

September 14, 2024, 1:00-3:00pm

To celebrate the end of our exhibition Of Baskets and Borers, we will host one final in-person event of the summer.

Visiting us from Odanak in Quebec, Annette Nolett and her nephew, Luc Nolett, will provide us with a demonstration of basket making—from start to finish. Luc Nolett will demonstrate the ash tree pounding needed to separate the rings of the tree in order to make splints for basket weaving. Annette Nolett will demonstrate her basket making process—showing us the skills and knowledge ​she has learned throughout her life.