Afforestation and the Potential for Increased Habitat Quality for Mammalian Nest Predators in an Adirondack Peatland

Paul Smith’s College Adirondack Watershed Institute

Michale Glennon and Damien Thompson

Low elevation boreal peatlands in the Adirondacks are home to some of New York’s rarest birds and we have tracked 8 of them for nearly 2 decades. These northern species are particularly sensitive to the changes that a warming climate are bringing to their habitats. Those changes include tree encroachment into formerly open peatland habitat, which brings with it the risk of improved habitat quality for nest predators such as red squirrel. We investigated the occurrence of red squirrel and other small mammals along a gradient of tree cover in Barnum Bog at the Paul Smith’s College Visitor Interpretive Center. Our aims were to understand the association of red squirrel and other species with forest cover and to assess the diversity of species using this peatland habitat. As these open bogs become more forested, habitat quality may increase for a diversity of mammals, with implications for nest predation on bog associated species.