SER-NE report to SERI March 2007
Submitted by Chapter Chair Aimlee Laderman
The New England Chapter (SER-NE) 2nd annual Board meeting feb. 28 2007, a teleconference graciously hosted by Vice-chair Mike Toohill courtesy of ENSR, was attended by all but the 2 student members and our very pregnant VT rep. Our Board now consists of 12 members [see below] including representatives from all but one of the New England states (still seeking a NH rep and one At-large rep), and a full, active Executive Committee to which we have now officially added our busy Corresponding Secretary. The Chapter received its non-profit status (ID 000926230) on June 8, 2006. Application for federal501(c)3 tax-exempt status is in process. SER-NE membership now exceeds 65. We are now preparing for our first formal internet election.
SER-NE’s first field workshop was held Nov. 4, 2006 in Burrage Pond MA Wildlife Management Area (WMA), a 600+ acre wetland complex including extensive abandoned cranberry beds, Atlantic white cedar bogs and fens and mixed deciduous swamps. Tim Simmons, manager of the WMA, organized and led the workshop which was attended by botanists, hydrologists, limnologists, ornithologists, and soils specialists coming from 3 of our 5 states, as well as local authorities on flora, fauna and water management. Massachusetts and the Town of Hanson are planning restoration of the site; a major objective of this field foray was evaluation of the most appropriate objectives for that restoration.
Two more workshops are planned for the coming months:
A conference on native Phragmites will be held August 29, 2007 at the Woods Hole Research Center, Woods Hole, MA. Organized and chaired by Dick Payne, the workshop will feature a session with invited speakers and field study in the Great Sippewissett Marsh where native and invasive subspecies of Phragmites co-occur.
A field trip to Martha’s Vineyard is planned for October 2007.
Tim Simmons, tour organizer and primary guide, is arranging local transportation to diverse restoration and reference sites, including the Polly Hill Arboretum, several Trustees of Reservations sites, and the State Forest.
We aim to hold our first annual conference Spring 2008
Since January 2006, Corresponding Secretary Sarah Watts has prepared and emailed to our 175-person maillist a monthly Events Calendar of restoration-related conferences and workshops in our region. Sarah also prepares a quarterly summary of regional restoration literature in SERI publications, the first of 6 issues appearing in Jan 2006. We are pleased to thank Treasurer Ingeborg Hegemann’s husband, Joe Clark, for organizing the SER-NE website and shepherding it into reality.
A roster of local native plant sources is in progress, and a compendium of New England restoration sites is planned for integration into the SERI Global Restoration Network.
