The FEMC’s mission is to serve the northeastern forest region through improved understanding of current conditions, long-term trends, and interdisciplinary relationships of the physical, chemical, biological and human components of forested systems.
About the Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative
The Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative (FEMC) is a partnership of the USDA Forest Service, northeastern state agencies, and the University of Vermont. Our goal is to provide data, services, new products and tools to fill existing gaps in our knowledge and to forge connections among the many organizations, agencies, practitioners, researchers and decision makers working in northeastern forests.
FEMC has four primary focus areas to achieve this goal:
Collaboration Building: The FEMC serves as a hub of forest monitoring and research efforts, bringing together practitioners and researchers from federal, state, university, and private-sector agencies with common interests in the long-term health, management, and protection of forested ecosystems. FEMC facilitates collaboration between these stakeholders to build synergies and efficiencies while expanding the temporal and geographic scope of forest monitoring and research efforts.
Long-Term Monitoring: Through collaborations with government agencies, universities, and independent scientists, the Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative maintains a number of long-term monitoring projects. These projects span disciplines, geography, and time, with some projects going back to the 1980s. FEMC conducts active field work, project development and guidance, and data management for these projects, and keeps databases updated with the most current available information.
Data Services: Originally founded as the Vermont Monitoring Cooperative (VMC) in 1990, the FEMC maintains a long-standing, diverse repository of monitoring and research data relevant to forest ecosystem structure, health and function. The repository includes datasets unique to the archive, region-specific extracts of data maintained by other organizations, and links to datasets hosted elsewhere. FEMC supports our collaborative network by providing data retrieval, archive, management, sharing, analysis, and synthesis coordination.
Tool Development: FEMC staff expertise in database structures, data synthesis, geospatial analyses, and web development allow us to efficiently develop environmental monitoring and data visualization and access tools that allow the everyday user to interact with and acquire data in new and customized ways. Tools are designed to address regional needs as well as state-level project work and custom requests from external partners. These tools provide valuable information to decision makers and land managers to support better understanding, management and protection of forest resources.
Funding for the FEMC core activities is provided by the USDA Forest Service, the University of Vermont, and participating state natural resources agencies. Additional financial and in-kind contributions from partners are a valuable source of support for specific programs. The strength of the FEMC program is a result of the contributions provided by the Cooperative members.