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Harvard Forest launches Moose and Deer Study
Harvard Forest has erected a series of exclosures in recently harvested conifer plantations on the Prospect Hill Tract to measure the long-term effects of moose and deer browsing on forest regeneration and development in the region. After being extirpated from Massachusetts for almost 200 years, moose have reestablished breeding populations in the past 15-20 years, and along with an expanding deer population represent an important and largely undocumented forest disturbance in the region. Harvard Forest and Highstead researcher Ed Faison is collaborating with researchers from the University of Massachusetts Cooperative Fish and Wildlife and the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation on this endeavor, as similar exclosures have been built in the Quabbin and Ware River Watersheds.
