Jessica Cohn,
Ecological Restoration Specialist
Jess joins DER as our new Ecological Restoration Specialist with the Cranberry Bog Program. Jess is an ecologist by training and brings experience in ecological restoration project management, wetland science, environmental policy, and climate adaptation planning. She is especially fond of plant ecology and always looks forward to an opportunity to be knee-deep in the mud anywhere from bogs to salt marshes to mangroves.
Ecological Restoration Specialist
Chris Hirsch joins DER as an Ecological Restoration Specialist with the Dam Removal Practice. He will be helping to reconnect the Commonwealth’s rivers and streams by working with dam owners to remove obsolete dams. Prior to joining DER, Chris was an environmental scientist for the Neponset River Watershed Association, where he worked on topics ranging from water quality monitoring to habitat restoration and dam removal.
UMass Amherst researchers celebrate years of restoration and a green exit strategy for farmers
December 15, 2020
Christine Hatch and Glorianna Davenport of the Living Observatory dig for a broken fiber optic cable in the newly constructed microtopography. Foothills Preserve, Plymouth, Mass. Photo courtesy: Ricard Torres-Mateluna/Hatch lab
Students Alyssa Chase, Jeron LeBlanc and Lyn Watts measure soil moisture along a transect above fiber optic cables at Foothills Preserve, Plymouth, Mass. Photo courtesy: UMass Amherst/Hatch lab
AMHERST, Mass. – As the Massachusetts Division of Ecological Restoration’s Cranberry Bog Program released its report this month recounting a decade of restoring former cranberry bogs to wetlands, project research hydrogeologist Christine Hatch and her University of Massachusetts Amherst students are poised to continue collecting data and monitoring the “re-wilded” ecosystems’ progress for years to come.