About Me
Some of my highlights
Dr. Rick Van de Poll is the principal of Ecosystem Management Consultants (EMC) of Sandwich, New Hampshire. Beginning in the mid-1980’s, his company was one of the first to perform natural resource inventories for the public and private sector of New England. With an emphasis on biodiversity conservation, EMC has conducted land assessments and completed management plans for local and state land trusts, state and federal agencies, municipalities, and private individuals. Dr. Van de Poll has completed field-based biological inventories on over 250,000 acres of land, including the Castle-in-the-Clouds Preserve in Moultonborough, the Hersey Mountain Preserve in Sanbornton and New Hampton, the Peirce Reservation in Stoddard, and the Lake Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge in Errol. He has completed natural resource inventories in 78 municipalities in NH, 12 municipalities in VT, 12 municipalities in ME, 8 municipalities in MA, and 3 municipalities in NY.
During his natural resource inventory work he has recorded over 1300 mushrooms in New Hampshire, including a number of undescribed species. After studying with Dr. Harry Thiers at San Francisco State University for 2 years, he taught Mycology at Antioch New England from 1985 to 2001, and then Mycology as an adjunct faculty at Plymouth State University from 2003 – 2007. As a mycology instructor, Rick has presented dozens of walks and workshops throughout New England for the past 30 years. In 1988, he co-founded the Monadnock Mushroom Club in the southwest part of the state, and in 2001 he founded the local Sandwich Area Mushroom (SAM) Club.
In the field of land use development, Dr. Van de Poll has worked primarily in the field of wetland science. He is a state-certified wetland scientist and served on the NH Joint Board of Natural Scientists for two terms (10 years), including one term as Chairman. He is a founding member of the NH Association of Wetland Scientists (now the NH Association of Natural Resource Scientists), and served as Vice-President, Education & Research Committee Chair, and Wildlife Discipline Chair. He has worked on dozens of subdivision projects since 1990, and has provided mitigation and restoration plans for residential and commercial development, including five building projects for Wal-Mart.
Dr. Van de Poll has assisted a large number of municipalities with development projects from both the conservation side and the development side, and strives to seek a balance of appropriate “smart growth” types of development alongside suitable conservation initiatives. He has written zoning ordinances and master plan chapters for six municipalities on the subject of wetlands and water resources. Recently he… replace remainder with “co-authored the revised ‘Method for the Inventory and Evaluation of Freshwater Wetlands in New Hampshire’ (UNHCE & NHDES 2011). He is the past Chair the Conservation Commissions of Sandwich, NH and Sullivan, NH. He also served two terms on the Board of the NH Association of Conservation Commissions.
In the field of land conservation, Dr. Van de Poll has been active since 2000, having put 50 acres of his family’s land under easement with the Society for the Protection of NH Forests. In 2002, he was the founding President for the first five years of the Northeast Wilderness Trust (NWT), which is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. He is currently sits an advisor and consultant on several large land protection deals. NWT now located in Bristol, VT currently holds 17 easements and owns four properties, totaling 10,000 acres in New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. For the past seven years has been sponsored to present “Bio-Inventories for Land Conservation” at the National Land Trust Alliance Rally. In his work with NWT, the Forest Society, various municipalities, and several private individuals, he has been responsible for protecting over 20,000 acres of land.
Between 1985 and 2001, Rick was a core faculty member of the Environmental Studies Department at Antioch New England, and is currently an adjunct faculty for the Graduate School at Plymouth State University. He teaches Wetland Science & Policy, Mycology, Natural Resource Inventory and the Summer Science Institute for Secondary School Teachers. As a lecturer, Rick has presented at dozens of seminars and conferences as an invited guest and keynote speaker. Recent research projects include an ecological inventory of the Ossipee Mountain Range, a prime wetlands and wildlife habitat study for the Town of Center Harbor, and a natural resource inventory and water resource ordinance revision for the City of Lebanon.