Beaver Family Life

Beaver Family Life
New England Forests - Nov 19, 2025
Our Beaver Family Life film portrays one beaver family's daily autumn routines as they prepare a food supply to survive the coming winter, and follows them through winter and into spring and summer, as the family size increases. We'll also see a pa ir of yellow-bellied sapsuckers raise their young of the year. And gray treefrogs capture caterpillar meals around the pond. A number of other inhabitants are highlighted too.

On jase castors! / Talking beavers!

On jase castors! / Talking beavers!
Fiducie foncière du mont Pinacle - 7 nov 2026
À travers une exploration sur le terrain, des démonstrations pratiques et des discussions interactives, nous plongerons dans le monde fascinant des castors, ces véritables ingénieurs de la nature qui transforment les paysages et créent des habitats riches en biodiversité. Nous découvrirons les nombreux bienfaits de leur présence, les défis qu’ils peuvent poser en milieux urbains et périurbains, ainsi que des solutions concrètes pour favoriser une cohabitation harmonieuse.

Beach leaf disease/Maladie de la feuille du hêtre

• Description )
• Envahissante – cette variété génétique de nématode origine de la ceinture du Pacifique (Corée, Japon, Nouvelle-Zélande).
• La maladie cause des difformités de la feuille des hêtres de tous les âges. 
• Les jeunes arbres meurent directement en raison de cette maladie. 
• Détectée pour la première fois en Ontario en 2017, la maladie est présente sur les rives du lac Érié et à Toronto.
• Nom: Litylenchus crenatae ssp. mccannii - Les nématodes qui se nourrissent du tissu entre les veines, endommageant les feuilles.

Umbrella effect of monitoring protocols for mammals in the Northeast US

Martens are showing researchers how healthy Maine's forests are: By preserving the marten habitat, up to 11 other crucial species will be protected, UMaine researchers say

David Guildford - News Center Maine  - May 9, 2022

For University of Maine wildlife habitat professor Alessio Mortelliti, seeing a marten in a stretch of Maine woods means those woods are healthy ... "In terms of when you have those predators, it means you have the whole food chain below them." ...  Studying the marten habitat automatically means studying other vital Maine species like bears, deer, moose, and squirrels with less time and money ... "I think what we’re seeing now is much more holistic foresters that come prepared to handle the demands that society has placed on our forest," Weiskittel said. "As we train the foresters today, they’re thinking about much broader things than just the typical tree diameter [and] tree height. It’s about wildlife habitat," he continued. "It’s about conservation value."

Understanding the American marten could aid conservation, but habitat loss threatens its existence

Sam Schipani - April 8, 2022 - UMaine News 

A group of University of Maine researchers led by Alessio Mortelliti, an associate professor in the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Conservation Biology, found that the American marten could serve as an effective “umbrella monitoring species” for 11 other mammal species in Maine. Umbrella monitoring species are those whose monitoring efforts are also found to overlap with a number of other species. As such, they are useful in reducing the effort required for important monitoring programs, which collect repeated observations or measurements of wildlife to ensure environmental management goals are being met.

Umbrella effect of monitoring protocols for mammals in the Northeast US

Alessio Mortelliti et al. - Nature - 03 February 2022

Our analyses show that up to 11 species benefit from an umbrella effect under a monitoring protocol designed for American marten (Figs. 3, 4, 5) at three different management objectives: the detection of 10%, 25%, and 50% declines in occupancy. The effect is consistent across management objectives in the case of several species (black bear, red squirrel, deer, fisher, and snowshoe hare), and encompasses up to 100% of the townships surveyed (Figs. 3, 4, 5). Some species (coyote, raccoon, and short-tailed weasel) show an umbrella effect when marten are monitored for high effort objectives (10% marten decline, Fig. 3) or when only a large detectable change in the non-target species is needed (i.e., 50% decline in red fox, lynx, and moose, Fig. 3). The least covered species were bobcat and porcupine ... 

Proctor Maple Research Center

Little Gems Everywhere: Biodiversity in the Maple Sugarbush

Colleen Goodhue - University of Vermont - October 30, 2025

What impact does maple sugaring have on the broader forest ecosystem? It’s a question that often goes unasked, yet biodiversity in maple forests is essential for the long-term health and productivity of Vermont’s forested landscape. This summer, a team of undergraduate and graduate students led by Tim Rademacher, Director of Scientific Research at the Proctor Maple Research Center (PMRC), set out to explore that very question. 

Tim Rademacher is the New Scientific Director of UVM's Proctor Maple Research Center

Ren Dillon - University of Vermont - July 19, 2024

Proctor Maple Research Center is a Field Research Station of the Department of Plant Biology at the University of Vermont, with over 300 acres of sugarbush located in Underhill, VT. UVM has led the world in maple research for over 100 years. 

Migration assistée de l’érable à sucre : et si l’essentiel était invisible pour les yeux ?

Les érables migrent en raison des changements climatiques

Étienne Meunier - Le téléjournal Estrie - 21 octobre 2026 

L'Estrie compte plus de mille producteurs acéricoles, mais leur avenir pourrait être compromis par les changements climatiques. Le journaliste Étienne Meunier s'est intéressé à cet enjeu.

Le réchauffement climatique pousse les érables à migrer

Étienne Meunier - Radio-Canada - 18 octobre 2026 

Plusieurs personnes ont profité de la Journée nationale de l'érable, dimanche, pour parcourir les érablières de l’Estrie qui portent leurs couleurs automnales. La région compte plus de mille producteurs acéricoles, mais leur avenir pourrait être compromis par les changements climatiques. Les températures de plus en plus chaudes forcent les espèces à migrer vers le nord; les arbres ne font pas exception, soutient la professeure-chercheuse en biologie à l’Université de Sherbrooke (UdeS), Isabelle Laforest-Lapointe.

Migration assistée de l’érable à sucre : et si l’essentiel était invisible pour les yeux ?

Morgane Enea, Christian Messier, Isabelle Laforest-Lapointe - Le Climatoscope - 24 septembre 2026

S’adapter, migrer ou disparaître ? Alors que les changements climatiques dépassent désormais l’augmentation moyenne de la température planétaire de 1,5 °C, l’avenir des écosystèmes reste incertain. Certaines espèces sont en danger, comme le caribou forestier, déjà hautement fragilisé en raison de la fragmentation de son habitat. D’autres, comme le cardinal rouge, que l’on rencontre plus fréquemment au sud du Québec, se déplacent vers des milieux plus cléments. Si cette stratégie d’adaptation semble possible pour les animaux pouvant se mouvoir, pour les plantes, ancrées dans le sol, la notion de déplacement est tout autre.

L’eau de Cowansville sera testée pour les pesticides

L’eau potable de Cowansville contient-elle des pesticides?

Communiqué Comité de sauvegarde du bassin versant du lac Davignon - 30 juillet 2026

Puisqu’on ne peut pas régler un problème qu’on ne mesure pas, le Comité Vert de Cowansville

et le Comité de sauvegarde du bassin versant du lac Davignon s’unissent pour financer les

tests d’eau potable organisés par Vigilance OGM à Cowansville.

L’eau de Cowansville sera testée pour les pesticides

Xavier Demers - Guide de Cowansville - 12 août 2026

L’organisme à but non lucratif Vigilance OGM procédera à des analyses d’eau potable à Cowansville fin de voir si des pesticides s’y trouvent, dans le cadre la campagne EAU 2026. ...Des échantillons seront analysés par l’équipe du chercheur Sébastien Sauvé, qui est professeur en chimie environnementale à l’Université de Montréal.  

L’eau potable de Cowansville contient-elle des pesticides?

Pascal Faucher - La Voix de l'Est 31 juillet 2026 

L’eau potable de Cowansville contient-elle des pesticides ?

FM 104.9 - 30 juillet 2026

Organisés par Vigilance OGM à Cowansville dans le cadre de sa campagne EAU 2026, ces tests permettront d’évaluer si l’eau consommée par les habitants de la région contient des pesticides ... Selon Vigilance OGM, les municipalités peinent à filtrer tous les polluants et le coût des traitements est astronomique.

Link/Lien: Comité de sauvegarde du bassin versant du lac Davignon (Web, Facebook)

My sugarbush has worms/Des vers dans mon érablière

La colonisation silencieuse des forêts par les vers de terre exotiques

Mathilde Beaulieu-Lépine - Le Devoir - 27 août 2025

« La plupart des vers de terre présents au Canada, surtout dans le Nord et au Québec, sont d’origine européenne », explique Jérôme Laganière, chercheur à Ressources naturelles Canada. En effet, la majorité des vers de terre au pays ne sont pas indigènes et ont plutôt été introduits sur le continent il y a quelques centaines d’années ... une grande partie des forêts canadiennes n’abrite toujours pas de vers de terre. Une étude menée au Nouveau-Brunswick a révélé que 60 % des forêts échantillonnées n’étaient pas colonisées ... En milieu agricole, les vers de terre sont vus comme bénéfiques : ils ameublissent les sols, créent des galeries et accélèrent la décomposition de la matière organique. Par contre, en forêt, leur présence bouleverse l’équilibre naturel. Les feuilles mortes forment une épaisse couche de litière et d’humus au sol. Celle-ci est essentielle à la germination des plantes de sous-bois et sert d’habitat à de nombreux insectes, amphibiens et petits mammifères. Les vers de terre peuvent réduire cette couche de 95 %, voire la faire disparaître.

Les vers de terre n’ont pas leur place en forêt

Radio-Canada - 23 juin 2025

Jérôme Laganière, un chercheur pour Ressources naturelles Canada qui s’intéresse aux vers de terre depuis 20 ans, explique que les pêcheurs ne devraient pas relâcher les vers en forêt après avoir pêché.

Non-indigène en Amérique du Nord, ces invertébrés prolifèrent et amincissent la couche d’humus du sol forestier, un habitat pour de nombreuses espèces animales et un terreau fertile pour la germination des graines.

My Forest Has Worms

New England Forests - October 27, 2018
Scientists call it "Lumbricus terrestris". Most of us know it better as ... the  common nightcrawler ! Actually, it's not just the nightcrawler that's a problem, but a number of earthworm species, none of which belong here ... where the non-native earthworms have invaded the hardwood forests, they rapidly eat newly fallen leaves and small twigs, consuming the duff layer, and mixing it into the lower soil layers via their movements into the ground. The duff layer is not replenished as quickly as it is eaten, and disappears. Earthworm activity dramatically decreases the mycorrhizal relationships, and thereby harms the plants that rely on them and the duff layer. The makeup of the soil layers is changed, to the detriment of the forest community that has occupied the land for millennia. Worms break up the organic layer to the point where important elements such as nitrogen, phosphorous, and carbon are leached deeper into the soil, where young plant roots simply can't reach them. Herbaceous plants can virtually disappear, leaving the ground barren and brown. The soil becomes drier due to aeration by the worms. Compare this photo of stark, worm-damaged woods to those of the undamaged old growth forests above.

Le fulgore tacheté pourrait avoir des conséquences catastrophiques pour les industries du raisin et du vin du Canada.

Interplay of biotic and abiotic factors shapes tree seedling growth and root-associated microbial communities

Interplay of biotic and abiotic factors shapes tree seedling growth and root-associated microbial communities

Joey Chamard, Maria Faticov, F. Guillaume Blanchet, Pierre-Luc Chagnon & Isabelle Laforest-Lapointe - Nature: Communications Biology volume 7, Article number: 360 -  22 March 2024

... we use root microscopy, coupled with amplicon sequencing, to study bacterial, fungal, and mycorrhizal root-associated microbial communities from sugar maple seedlings distributed across two temperate-to-boreal elevational gradients in southern Québec, Canada. Our findings demonstrate that soil pH, soil Ca, and distance to sugar maple trees are key drivers of root-associated microbial communities, overshadowing the influence of elevation. Interestingly, changes in root fungal community composition mediate an indirect effect of soil pH on seedling growth, a pattern consistent at both sites. Overall, our findings highlight a complex role of biotic and abiotic factors in shaping tree-microbe interactions, which are in turn correlated with seedling growth. These findings have important ramifications for tree range expansion in response to shifting climatic niches.

Les alliés invisibles des érablières

Joey Chamard - Le Climatoscope - 25 octobre 2021

... les changements climatiques constituent un des principaux phénomènes pouvant menacer la productivité de nos érablières. Ces changements impliquent notamment une augmentation de la température moyenne annuelle ainsi qu’une intensification des phénomènes climatiques extrêmes, qui se traduisent par une plus grande fréquence de sécheresses et d’inondations. Les érables à sucre sont des organidsmes particulièrement vulnérables à ces changements climatiques puisqu’ils ont une longue espérance de vie, atteignent tardivement leur maturité sexuelle et migrent lentement ... La perspective de cette migration entraîne une nouvelle question fondamentale : les sols en régions boréales et leurs communautés microbiennes permettront-ils à l’érable à sucre de s’y établir et compétitionner avec d’autres essences forestières?  Cet article constitue une présentation sommaire de l’importance des interactions plantes-microorganismes dans un contexte de changements climatiques. Il traite plus particulièrement de la situation de l’érable à sucre au Québec, de l’écologie de ses symbiotes fongiques ainsi que des perspectives innovantes que représentent les communautés synthétiques.

Lien: pdf 

Variation in the leaf and root microbiome of sugar maple (Acer saccharum) at an elevational range limit

Variation in the leaf and root microbiome of sugar maple (Acer saccharum) at an elevational range limit

Jessica Wallace​, Isabelle Laforest-Lapointe​, Steven W. Kembel -  PeerJ - August 14, 2018

In this study, we quantified the microbial communities of the leaves and roots of seedlings of the deciduous tree species sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marshall) within its natural range and at the species’ elevational range limit at Mont-Mégantic, Quebec ... The bacterial and fungal communities of A. saccharum seedlings differ across elevational range limits for all four plant compartments. Distinct microbial communities colonize each compartment, although the microbial communities inside a plant’s structure (endophytes) were found to be a subset of the communities found outside the plant’s structure (epiphytes) ... These findings provide a greater understanding of the ecological processes driving the structure and diversity of plant-associated microbial communities within and at the edge of a plant species range, and suggest the potential for biotic interactions between plants and their associated microbiota to influence the dynamics of plant range edge boundaries and responses to global change.

Vermont launches new weather network to improve flood prediction

Vermont launches new weather network to improve flood prediction

Beth McDermott - Burlington Free Press - May 13, 2026

The University of Vermont has opened the first station in the Vermont Mesonet, a planned statewide system of automated weather stations that will provide local data for flood preparedness, farm planning and research, according to a community announcement ... While other automated weather stations exist in Vermont for aviation and fire safety, the Vermont Mesonet is expected to be the first system focused on observing localized, rapidly changing weather events such as thunderstorms and flooding.

New Advanced Weather Station Will Be Part of Vermont’s ‘Mesonet’

Sasha Goldstein - May 6, 2026

The 30-foot-high tower in Lyndonville is one of 21 planned for Vermont. It can measure meteorological conditions and help Vermonters prepare for dangerous weather.

Experts hope statewide network will help keep Vermonters informed during extreme weather

Abagael Giles - Vermont Public - May 5, 2026

UVM unveiled the first station in the Vermont Mesonet network Tuesday at the Caledonia County Fairgrounds in Lyndonville. At 30 feet tall, the new tower is outfitted with sensors to detect wind speed and direction, multiple thermometers, a snow depth sensor and a rain gauge, among other instruments. Together, they’ll take measurements every five minutes of things like wind speed, soil saturation and relative humidity.

UVM begins development of a statewide weather monitoring network

Vermont Business Magazine - 05/07/2026

Archive

Festi’Bois 2026

The Great Tick Illusion — Rethinking Where They Come From

The Great Tick Illusion — Rethinking Where They Come From 

Adam Harrington - Learn your Land - 27 April 2026

For a long time, we’ve been told that ticks are simply moving north as the climate changes. But interestingly, a recent preprint study challenges this assumption. It turns out that the history of the tick on our landscape is far more complex and ancient than we realized.

Le héron, le vison et le grand brochet

Why Eastern Forests Don’t Grow 300-Foot Trees

Why Eastern Forests Don’t Grow 300-Foot Trees

Adam Harrington - Learn your Land - March 25, 2026

It’s a question that leads to an interesting realization: Forests in eastern North America are known for their exceptional biodiversity, but none of the trees that grow in these forests attain the heights that the tallest trees out west reach. Why is this the case? Is it a lack of rain? Is it the soil? Or are there other factors involved?

Beavers are turning rivers into powerful carbon sinks

Beavers can convert stream corridors to persistent carbon sinks
Lukas Hallberg et al - 18 March 2026 - Nature
Recent reintroductions of the Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber) across Europe represents an ecological shift with potential implications for carbon cycling in stream corridors. We present a comprehensive carbon budget of a beaver-influenced stream corridor ... Annually, the beaver wetland was a net carbon sink (98.3 ± 34.4 t yr-1), driven by subsurface removal of dissolved inorganic carbon.
Beavers can turn streams into carbon stores – we measured how much
Jonathan Larsen, Annegret Larsen, Lukas Hallberg - The Conversation - March 18, 2026
Across Europe, beaver numbers are increasing after a long period of decline. As these aquatic mammals recolonise rivers, they are gradually rebuilding wetlands that once existed across many river valleys ... Over just 13 years, the wetland we studied in northern Switzerland locked away more than 1,100 tonnes of carbon. That’s comparable to two Olympic swimming pools filled with charcoal ... When a dam slows the water, sediments begin to settle. These sediments carry organic material such as leaves, soil and plant fragments that contain carbon. Instead of washing away downstream, the material becomes buried in wetland soils.

Beavers might be one of nature’s most unexpected allies in locking away carbon and fighting climate change.
Science Daily - March 22, 2026
Over just 13 years, a beaver-engineered wetland in Switzerland stored over a thousand tonnes of carbon—up to ten times more than similar areas without beavers.
Groundbreaking study finds a natural way to fight climate change
Doyle Rice - USA Today - March 22, 2026
The new research, published on March 18 in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, has, for the first time, calculated the carbon dioxide emitted and sequestered due to engineering work by beavers in suitable wetland areas.

The temperate forest phyllosphere and rhizosphere microbiome: a case study of sugar maple

The temperate forest phyllosphere and rhizosphere microbiome: a case study of sugar maple

Enea M, Beauregard J, De Bellis T, Faticov M and Isabelle Laforest-Lapointe - Frontiers in Microbiology  - 14 January 2025 

To prevent sugar maple from declining in the face of global change, it will be crucial to gain a better understanding (1) of its capacity to shift north in pace with climatic changes and (2) of the contributions of surrounding microbial communities in this process. ... sugar maple assembles diverse and species-specific root and leaf microbiomes, with potential impacts on tree growth, immunity, and survival. First, the origin of the soil on which sugar maple grows appears to play a key role. Despite improved regeneration under colder temperatures, which corresponds to current northern range limit climatic conditions, sugar maple survival and biomass after transplants are up to 50% higher on soil from the center of its range. This suggests that this tree species is highly dependent on root biotic interactions (e.g., in the rhizosphere with arbuscular mycorrhizae) for successful establishment in a newly available niche or in adaptation to climate change, irrespective of the physico-chemical properties of the soil. Second, sugar maple leaves have also been the focus of several studies on tree-microbe interactions in the phyllosphere, demonstrating that the local abiotic environment of trees drives leaf microbial colonization (Laforest-Lapointe et al., 2016a; Wallace et al., 2018).

Regional variation drives differences in microbial communities associated with sugar maple across a latitudinal range

Tonia De Bellis, Isabelle Laforest-Lapointe, Kevin A. Solarik, Dominique Gravel, Steven W. Kembel - Ecology - 12 April 2022

We collected sugar maple seeds from across the species current range, then planted them in temperate and mixedwood/transitional forests (current range) and in the boreal region (beyond range but predicted future range in response to climate change). ... Variation among sites and regions were the main drivers of the differences in host microbial communities, whereas seed provenance did not play a large role ....  Along the latitudinal gradient, we (1) observed reductions in mycorrhizal diversity that can negatively impact maple establishment; (2) and revealed reductions in fungal leaf pathogens that can have opposite effects. Our results highlight the need for an integrated approach including the examination of various microbial taxa on different plant compartments to improve our understanding of plant range shifts and plant–microbe interactions.

Extreme Cold has an Impact on Trees and Invasive Insects

Extreme Cold has an Impact on Trees and Invasive Insects
NorthMetroTV - February 2026

Densité et succès reproducteur de la grive des bois (Hylocichla mustelina) dans les parcs nationaux d’Oka et du Mont-Saint-Bruno

Densité et succès reproducteur de la grive des bois (Hylocichla mustelina) dans les parcs nationaux d’Oka et du Mont-Saint-Bruno

Marc-André Villard, Thierry Grandmont, Mathieu Lemay and René Charest - Le Naturaliste canadien - Volume 148, Number 1, Spring 2024

La grive des bois (Hylocichla mustelina) a été désignée espèce menacée au Canada en 2012. De 1970 à 2021, ses effectifs auraient chuté de 75 % au Canada et de 84 % au Québec. La présente étude visait à déterminer le statut de l’espèce dans 2 parcs nationaux de la région de Montréal. En 2021 et en 2022, 88 nids ont été trouvés dans le parc national d’Oka, contre 10 au parc national du Mont-Saint-Bruno (2022). La densité de nids était nettement inférieure à Mont-Saint-Bruno (0,03/ha versus 0,10/ha), possiblement en raison du surbroutement de la végétation par le cerf de Virginie (Odocoileus virginianus). Les taux de survie des nids variaient d’un parc à l’autre et d’une année à l’autre (Oka : 68,2 % en 2021 et 27,6 % en 2022 ; Mont-Saint-Bruno : 68,9 %). La cause principale d’échec des nids était la prédation. Le taux de parasitisme par le vacher à tête brune (Molothrus ater) était plus élevé à Mont-Saint-Bruno (25 % versus 1,9 %). À Oka, la prédation des nids était plus forte chaque année le long du sentier le plus fréquenté, ce qui suggère un effet négatif du taux de passage des visiteurs sur le succès des nids.

The Wood Thrush (Hylocichla mustelina) was listed as Threatened in Canada in

2012. Between 1970 and 2021, its numbers are estimated to have declined by

75% nationally, and by 84% in the province of Québec. The aim of the present

study was to document the status of this species in two national parks in the

Montréal region. Eighty-eight nests were found in Oka National Park (parc

national d’Oka, 2021 and 2022 combined), and 10 in Mont-Saint-Bruno National

Park (parc national du Mont-Saint-Bruno, 2022). Nest density was substantially

lower at the Mont-Saint-Bruno site (0.03/ha versus 0.10/ha), possibly due to

overbrowsing by white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). Nest survival rate

varied as a function of location and year: Oka: 68.2% in 2021 and 27.6% in

2022; Mont-Saint-Bruno: 68.9%. The main cause of nest failure was predation.

The rate of brood parasitism by brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) was

higher at Mont-Saint-Bruno (25% versus 1.9%). In Oka, nest predation was

higher along the most heavily used trail in both study years, suggesting a

negative impact of trail use by visitors on nest success.