Monthly Newsletter of the Duke Forest Teaching and Research Laboratory at Duke University
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Site survey instrumentation at D'Orangeville Lab's new site in the Durham Division.
Photo courtesy of D'Orangeville Lab. Learn more about this site below.
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Facilitating Novel Research
through Creative Collaboration
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No research project looks like another, so our team considers each one in great detail to determine if the Forest and its team can meet the needs of the project. Most of the time, with a commitment to creativity, problem-solving, and collaboration, we can figure out a way to say “yes”. The rare times we say “no” usually happen because we simply don’t have the type of site the project needs or it has chemical or infrastructure requests we can’t accommodate. While navigating these project requests takes effort and time, it’s our mission to facilitate them and when we can say “yes,” the results are always worth it.
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In 2021, Associate Professor of Forestry and Environmental Management at the University of New Brunswick, Loïc D'Orangeville, approached us with a unique request. He needed a field site for a 15+ year project named TransX. This project studies the vulnerabilities of key northeastern tree species in a warming environment. The TransX sites span Eastern Canada and the Northeastern US with the Duke Forest site being the farthest south.
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Now, as you may notice while walking our roads and trails, our teaching and research forest doesn’t have a lot of open land available for planting, so Dr. D’Orangeville’s request challenged us to get creative so the Duke Forest could host this important project.
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Scenes from the 2021 final harvest. The sign shown in the center image documents silvicultural activities on the stand. Read about these unique signs, which you may have noticed walking around the Duke Forest.
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As luck would have, at just about the same time the project request came in, we had finished up a Loblolly Pine harvest in a stand inside Gate 12 of the Durham Division that had been managed since 1932 (you can view clips of this in the Duke Origins | Duke Forest video). After consideration of Dr. D’Orangeville’s needs, we decided to offer him a 6-acre area that we would take out of production in order to host this experiment. Though it wasn’t the ideal size, it was workable, and we began efforts to prepare it for his experiment. In September of last year, our team, along with students from the Nicholas School of the Environment, performed a prescribed burn to clear the site for winter planting. Our staff also refurbished and relocated an old research building from our Blackwood Division to the new experiment site for the D'Orangeville Lab's use.
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Images from the September 2023 prescribed burn.
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Maintenance & Infrastructure Manager Craig Hughes with the refurbished building loaded on a trailer bound for the Durham Division research site.
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We are delighted to share that after a three-year process of conversation and site management, the Canadian researchers have successfully laid out their site and planted their first trees. And in a bonus collaboration with Duke’s Johnston Laboratory, they had their site and stands nearby flown over by drones with Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) capabilities.
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We look forward to sharing more details this summer about what our northern friends are discovering, and we’re proud of the work we put in to make their research here a reality.
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Stay tuned for more exciting updates!
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We got a glimpse of the first LiDAR images from the site. This one is looking NW from the southern part of the stand into the adjacent longleaf pine stand.
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Photo courtesy of the D'Orangeville and Johnston Labs.
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Read volunteer Paul Travis' resource documenting this stand (and another, part of the larger harvest) over time through pictures.
Read more
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Become a Friend of the Duke Forest with a $50+ gift in support of our mission! Read More
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Thank You and Farewell from our Asst. Dir. of Engagement
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Our Assistant Director of Engagement for the past six years Blake Tedder is transitioning to a new role. While we are certainly sad to see him go, we are delighted to know that his next career steps won't take him far away.
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Blake will be working as the Climate Program Manager for Duke's new Office of Climate and Sustainability (OCS) where he will be one of the key team members operationalizing Duke's visionary Climate Commitment. The Office of the Duke Forest, in recognition that it has much to contribute to the Climate Commitment, now sits under the OCS umbrella, so we will have plenty of reason to continue working with Blake.
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Click the link below to read Blake's farewell letter — an ode to the value of staying connected with this incredible land base, and please join us in wishing Blake success in his new role.
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New Protection and Safety Coordinator: Kevin Egan
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Before recently retiring and relocating with his wife to Durham, Kevin served with the Ocean Springs, Mississippi Police Department on the Gulf Coast where his responsibilities included ensuring the safety of persons and property, investigating incidents, and enforcing local ordinances and state statutes. His extensive background also includes roles as a Special Investigator for the United States Office of Personnel Management and a Reserve Deputy (Major) with the Fulton County Sheriff’s Department in Atlanta, GA. He holds a BA in Business Administration from Oglethorpe University.
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Kevin's commitment to de-escalating situations, extensively documenting incidents, and assisting individuals from diverse backgrounds aligns with our mission and approach. His experience in coordinating with various agencies, including the National Park Service, as a regular part of his duties on the Gulf Coast, highlights his ability to coordinate with first responders and communicate effectively with visitors at a popular land base.
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Join us in extending a warm welcome to Kevin, whose diverse skills and dedication will undoubtedly contribute to keeping the Duke Forest safe for all to enjoy. We look forward to the positive impact Kevin will make.
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Know How to Spot Fig Buttercup
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Fig buttercup (also known as Lesser celandine or by its scientific name Ficaria verna) is a non-native invasive plant introduced from Europe. Don’t let the showy yellow flowers fool you! This plant can cause serious problems, blanketing stream sides very quickly. Our field team is already busy removing plants found along New Hope Creek.
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Our work on Duke Forest is part of a larger, regional effort to eradicate this plant, and we are thankful for the support of Julie Tuttle and Duke Forest neighbors. So far this year, we are finding fewer plants than in years past.
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If you spot this plant on Duke Forest property, please do not attempt to remove it, but do let us know. Also, learn how to report it to the iNaturalist project or to remove it on your own property via this link.
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Our small team is always busy maintaining and managing this incredible land base for teaching, research, sustainable natural resource use, and conservation. Some of the things on our field crew's list this month are:
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Mission Action and Support
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- Onboarding a new Protection and Safety Coordinator (see above)
- Treating Ficaria Verna along New Hope Creek (see above)
- Moving a road and gate in the Durham Division (not public access).
- Assisting with research maintenance and installation (Environmental Protection Agency, University of New Brunswick, and North Carolina State University)
- Clearing roads, culverts, and ditches of leaves and debris.
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Placing new gravel on some of the roads in the Blackwood Division.
- Planting Loblolly, Shortleaf, and Longleaf seedlings in various stands.
- Cruising timber in the Dailey Division for an upcoming harvest.
- Assessing and remarking boundary lines in the Hillsboro Division.
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Working with the office on infrastructure billing for research sites.
- Hiring for our Roberts Family- and Toney Lumber Company-funded forest intern positions (more next month!)
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- Working through multiple trespassing issues in restricted research areas.
- Documenting unauthorized trails in the Korstian Division.
- Maintaining shelters between rentals.
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Annually, we survey, maintain, and remark our boundary lines on a rotating subset of Duke Forest land. These annual tasks serve a crucial role in preserving the integrity of our research Forest. Remarking and assessing our boundary is just one way we learn about property encroachments and invasive plant introductions.
Pictured here is Forest Technician Zach Carnegie smoothing bark for boundary line paint. Forest Supervisor Tom Craven is holding the line in the background.
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Become a Friend of the Duke Forest with a $50+ gift in support of our mission! Read More
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The Duke Climate Commitment is a university-wide, impact-oriented initiative to address the climate crisis by creating sustainable and equitable solutions that place society on the path toward a resilient, flourishing, carbon-neutral world. Through education, research, external engagement and campus operations, the Duke Climate Commitment seeks to imagine, design and implement a sustainable future for all.
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