Research and Teaching
Land Trust Preserves serve as excellent classrooms for learning in the field and as outdoor laboratories for doing surveys and research. Professors and graduate students from URI and Salve Regina University often ask to use our properties for research. Based on NRLT’s conservation management practices, other professional Naturalists and Wildlife Managers from the State, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, the RI Natural History Survey, and the Native Plant Trust have also used land trust properties to do annual surveys of birds, native plants, amphibians and mammals.
Multiyear Studies
- Changes in frog populations in vernal pools
- Changes in turtle use of habitat after a forest cut
- Impact of sea level rise on salt marsh moths
Surveys
- Statewide Surveys of Bobcats and Coyotes using trail cameras and radio telemetry
- Annual Bird Survey tracking species after an Early Successional Forest Restoration
- Annual Survey of “Ten Tallest Stems” to measure Deer Browse and gauge the effect of Hunting
- Annual Summary of Hunter logs to track changes in Deer Population as result of Hunting
Teaching
- URI students and new RIDEM and NRCS staff make regular trips to the site of the Early Successional Forest Restoration
- Professor at Salve Regina University taught a summer course in field archaeology including an X-ray survey of the location followed by pit excavation.
Invasive Species: The Threat They Pose!
See these documents for more information about managing specific species:
- Bittersweet Management Guide
- Garlic Mustard Management guide
- Japanese Honeysuckle Management Guide
- Lesser Celandine Management Guide
- Multiflora Rose Management Guide
- Privet Management Guide
NRPA/NRLT Osprey Webcam
Watch especially starting in May when the ospreys should be laying eggs, through mid-summer, when the young ospreys leave the nest.