Ecological Relationships and Potential Ethnobotanical Uses of the Forest Understory: A Case Study from the White Mountains of New Hampshire

Session: 
Poster Session
Date and Time: 
Friday, 12 May, 2017 - 13:00
Author(s): 
Ducey
, Mark - University of New Hampshire
Colter
, R. Andy - USDA Forest Service and University of New Hampshire
Hoy
, Joann - Botanist, Auburn NH
Phillipe
, Jessica - USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service

We conducted a botanical inventory of forest understories on the Wild Upper Ammonoosuc watershed in the White Mountains, a region inhabited by the Abenaki before European contact.  We used a stratified random sample across soil groups and management types, with additional plots to capture unusual ecological communities.  We explored hypotheses about species with documented ethnobotanical use:  Are such species associated with particular soil types, with recently disturbed forests, or forests with little or no recent timber management?  Of 190 taxa identified, 138 were associated in published databases with use by the Abenaki or by geographically proximate cultures.  Overall patterns of species richness between those with known uses and of all species combined were highly correlated.  Our results emphasize the degree to which the entire landscape offered potential resources.  A culturally informed approach to conservation can likely be approached through the diversity of plant communities, rather than a purely individual-species level.