Join Kevin Evans, Forester and Director of Woodlands for Dartmouth College's 40,000 acres of forestlands, and Peter Clark, applied forest ecologist at UVM, for a discussion of assisted forest migration as a forest management technique for responding to the effects of climate change on tree populations. The conversation will be moderated by Russell Muirhead, Robert Clements Professor of Democracy and Politics at Dartmouth College and member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives. This program is co-sponsored by the Hanover Conservation Commission and the Howe Library.

This is a hybrid event.  Join us in person in the Mayer Room or online via Zoom. Register for Zoom below; no registration required for in-person attendance.

'Assisted migration is the human-assisted movement of tree populations or species in response to climate change and could be a proactive, pragmatic tool for building climate resilience in our landscapes.' To survive climate change, tree species will have to move faster than their natural rate of migration. Kevin Evans and Peter Clark will talk about their research on forest migration and a collaborative planting project with UVM and Dartmouth in the College's Second College Grant property. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from experts about an evolving practice of planting saplings in our forests that mimics natural range expansion.

Kevin is a licensed forester and has managed over 40,000 acres of timberland for Dartmouth College for thirty years.  This includes responsibility for the 27,000 acre Second College Grant property in northern New Hampshire owned by the College since 1807 and managed for the three priorities of education & research, timber production, and recreation. Kevin’s responsibilities include strategic planning, harvesting an annual sustainable level of timber, overseeing multiple research projects, and continuously educating students and others about the forest and its systems. Kevin’s management of the Grant property has received multiple awards in recognition of his commitment to a holistic approach and ecological foundation for silvicultural practices.  He especially enjoys telling people that the dorm furniture at Dartmouth College is made from the maple wood harvested from the Grant property.

As an applied forest ecologist at UVM, Peter Clark is interested in evaluating forest regeneration and developmental dynamics in response to global change and understanding adaptive silvicultural strategies at meeting a diverse suite of ecological objectives. His research background is in forest adaptation, regeneration ecology, functional ecology, and biogeography. He is keenly interested in co-developed science directly informed by natural resource practitioners. His current research involves examining the barriers for operationalizing assisted migration (and other adaptive regeneration efforts for global change), the tradeoffs in managing forests for multiple objectives (e.g., carbon mitigation versus adaptive capacity), and the effects of extreme climate on forest function. 

Russell Muirhead is the Robert Clements Professor of Democracy and Politics at Dartmouth College.Muirhead is a frequent seminar moderator for the Aspen Institute. His research focuses on American politics, democracy, political parties in the United States, and the rise of conspiracy theories in United States politics. In 2019, he co-authored A Lot of People are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy. Muirhead was elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives in November 2020 and assumed office in December. He is a member of the House Election Law Committee. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Hanover Conservancy.