Dear Colleagues,
At our Oct 11th meeting, the Science Coordinating Committee decided that we needed to explore further the issues raised by the proposal presented by Bill Keeton at the Oct COS (proposal attached). Several questions were raised at the meeting with follow-on questions directed to the SCC. The proposal, “Dynamic forest-stream interactions: experimental acceleration of late-successional stream functions and resistance to flood disturbance,” includes gap creation and wood addition in stream reaches in the western end of Hubbard Brook Valley (map below). The proposal asks interesting, relevant questions regarding the interaction of the terrestrial and aquatic environments. At the same time it envisions canopy tree manipulations (12 -18 ha) distributed along six stream reaches in a concentrated area of the Valley. Three additional stream reaches will have wood added to the channel. Thus the research impacts long-term monitoring efforts. To his credit, Bill has reached out early in the process for feedback from the Hubbard Brook community.
We think it is important to discuss the pros and cons of the proposal with the COS first before responding to Bill. So COS members can speak freely, we are not inviting Bill to this discussion, but welcome COS members already collaborating on the proposed work to join the discussion. Bill has asked about the next steps and we will tell him the COS is having an internal discussion about the proposal.
Thus we are inviting you to an online discussion (ZOOM discussion). The trick is to find a time that is least inconvenient. Please fill out the attached Doodle poll by Monday, October 15th if you are interested in participating in the discussion.
https://doodle.com/poll/u2m2m5h2yq4mktwg
You can also email comments to the SCC via John or Pam.
Thanks.
John and Pam
SCC co-chairs