More Vegetation, Please!

Birds and small mammals need cover and food to survive predators and successfully raise young. You can help fill gaps in forest open areas and along treelines by taking clippings from easily grown plants, raising them in any old container for a few weeks and getting them out to those gaps.

Brushy hedges Are Home (to some)!

Thick hedges are home and food for a myriad of species. But because of popular mowing practices, soil and sun conditions and natural disturbances, there are many open spaces that can naturally support more dense cover and food.

The ACC nature steward manager can direct you to these openings and get rooted cuttings to you from the nurseries (above). Poke the cuttings in the ground, done!

For a sense of accomplishment, take photos that day and again next year for comparison. Even better, come back next year early in the morning to hear the birdsong.

Wanted: More Birds, Bats and Bugs!

It's biodiversity, it's the food web, it's sinking populations. Development, habitat fragmentation, pesticides and other causes make for a housing shortage.

Properly designed, properly built and properly placed housing to the exact needs of their inhabitats (not to our preferences for "pretty") will help increase populations of birds, bats and bugs over time. 

ACC will point you to the right construction plans, buy your materials (you provide the labor) and train you in properly placing them on town open spaces.

Be a Roving Reporter!

"Biodiversity" can mean "lots of stuff" out there. Once you get off the trail and recognise native wildflowers, the density of perch trees along a waterline, the comparitive thickness or thinness of understory cover, the path of the sun over a meadow encouraging fruited brambles, the lack of riffles in an shady stream, a lack of down and dead wood around a wetland, --- then you may be goaled to report on the goodness or lack thereof of biodiversity in our open spaces.

The nature steward manager can point you to references (google is good but UNH professionals are better) of what to look for and demonstrate the tech (phone cameras, apps, GIS maps, etc.) for your reporting.

Remove an Invasive and Sell on Etsy!

Well, maybe not that simple -- but there are tons of Youtube videos that will show you how to make furniture and art objects from vines. 

Not just any old vine, but as a nature steward you will look around our forests for the gnarly, twisted, dangling Asiatic Bittersweet vine. Once found, saw, clip or lop off pieces that satisfy your creative juices and someday your pocketbook.

And know that for every cut an entire tree is likely saved from destruction by smothering.

Vernal Pools

Vernal pools are special habitats, known only to salamanders, turtles and other lovers of shady damp places. They are special in that there is no water inlet or outlet and they usually dry up in summer -- so no predators.

The ACC consulting forester marks the location of pools for future certification by someone knowlegeable -- you! Click the map to get the live, interactive map and turn on the blue GPS dot to travel to where you can get an idea where you, the steward, can make a difference. A short training session and an early wakeup on The Big Night will prove or disprove whether your pool is indeed a Vernal Pool. Your findings will be recorded on this map, and on Harris Center and New Hampshire state databases.

Wildlife Corridors

Elongated areas of habitats desirable to wildlife have been computed and mapped out in our area. "Desirable" means large enough (a porcupine doesn't go far but a bobcat can range 25 miles), no human developments nearby, lots of food and cover vegetation, water, and more quality-of-life features for them. 

You, the steward, can make a difference. A nature steward can traverse and report on conditions in these corridors for conservation purposes.

Natural "Accommodations" for our Fauna

Snags, perches, cavities, lodges, Oh My! Over time trees will die, mud will be slapped into place, holes found, berries and nuts will grow and fall -- all to the good for our fauna friends.

But here and there there may not be as many accommodations as nature has naturally provided. Maybe a few more dead logs will accommodate more frogs, maybe more snags and cavity trees will host more raptors, bugs and fungi -- more biodiversity.

You’ve picked up and read some of the Habitat Stewardship brochures

... and ...

Now you’d like to do something about biodiversity and enhancing Amherst natural habitats!

For example:

• Locate beaver lodges and assess their food supplies

• Harvest wildflower seeds in the fall and plant in grasslands for summer bird seeds

• Build and place bee hotels for native pollinating insects

• Locate and verify vernal pools

• … and many more!

Contact the ACC with your interest.

Age: 14-Adult

Difficulty: Low -to- High

Requires: Interest

Time: Periodic/As You See Fit

In all Cases Take Tick Precautions (especially about Permethrin)