• Pendleton, Miriam (Ed.)
  Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative
  
• Truong, John (Ed.)
  Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative
  
• Kosiba, Alexandra (ed.)
  Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative
  
• Duncan, James (ed.)
  Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative
  
• Pontius, Jennifer (ed.)
  Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative
  

The Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative (FEMC) annual conference was held on December 15, 2017, at the Davis Center on the University of Vermont campus. This marked the 27 th year of coordinated FEMC activities. The guiding theme of “Beyond Communication: Advocating for Science and our Forests” was chosen to help collaborators build capacity to communicate and market their work to a broader stakeholder audience. The morning plenary session was led by Tad Segal who addressed the key frameworks and approaches used in advocating for science-based decision making. Effective communication in science-based decision making was broken down into four focus areas; the communication landscape, cognitive heuristics, the audience, and the motivation model. Following our keynote presentation, four experts in the world of science communication gave 5-minute flash-talks synthesizing their techniques and strategies for effective communication directed towards the many stakeholders our audience collaborate with professionally in their fields. Each speaker used their professional experiences with various audiences and gave succinct focused talks exploring effective communication strategies. Our morning speakers brought to light the importance of understanding your audience, remaining focused on your key message, and determining how your message will benefit your audience. This year the afternoon was devoted to two concurrent sessions where 24 collaborators from across the region presented their most recent work, followed by five working group sessions on the topic of effective communication that were offered by members of the Cooperative.