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November 26, 2024

Approaching Ecosystems as Family Networks: Studying the Decline of Red-Tailed Hawks

Image shows Keshia De Freece Lawrence, left, leaning against a tree. Neil Pederson is leaning against a different tree to the right.

Keshia De Freece Lawrence, Harvard Forest’s Indigenous Education Specialist, is conducting research to investigate the decline of red-tailed hawks. Her work is inspired by years of observing an alarming number of dead hawks along roadsides. De Freece Lawrence, a member of the Ramapough Lenape tribe, combines her academic background with her Indigenous heritage to approach the issue holistically, viewing the

November 26, 2024

Schoolyard Ecology Program Launches Giving Campaign

Image shows several students collecting data outside.

For 20 years, the Harvard Forest Schoolyard Ecology community has brought young people outdoors to collect scientific data in their local environment and has given teachers the support they need to teach real science with real data.

Image shows a picture of a student's hands holding a salamander with a blue backdrop and Giving</body></html>

November 13, 2024

Boston Globe: Neil Pederson, Other Experts Answer Key Questions About Drought Conditions

Image shows autumnal scene, including senescing leaves and former pasture land. By David Foster.

The Boston Globe recently dug into the effects of the current drought, speaking with Neil Pederson, Harvard Forest Senior Ecologist.

While we often think late-season dry spells are less problematic than during peak growing season, they can significantly impact next year’s growth.

Discussing how trees form buds in the fall, Pederson states, “what they are actually doing is setting

November 12, 2024

New Study Reveals Unexpected Soil Carbon Response to Nitrogen and Warming

Image shows a rotting tree stump on the forest floor. By David Foster.

A recent study reveals the nuanced relationship between warmer temperatures and increased nitrogen deposits in forest soils, both of which are influenced by fossil fuel emissions. Published

October 30, 2024

Immersive Global Change Ecology Course Expands Experience of First-Years

Image shows the 2024 First-Year Seminar students at the Swift River in Petersham.

Dave Orwig, Senior Forest Ecologist at Harvard Forest, isn't your typical Harvard instructor. A leading researcher examining - firsthand - a variety of disturbances to forests across the northeast, Orwig is acutely aware of these threats, affecting individual tree species, complex vegetative communities, and the web of organisms that rely upon them. Summers spent conducting research at remote, threatened old

October 29, 2024

Schoolyard Ecology Winter Data Workshop Registration Now Open!

Image shows student work created as part of the Schoolyard Ecology Data Jam

Each year, Harvard Forest's Schoolyard Ecology Program hosts a Winter Data Workshop to provide support to instructors participating in the program. This year, two workshop options will be offered! Because of winter weather and the large number of Eastern Massachusetts teachers, a second data workshop will be held in Cambridge at Harvard's Natural History Museum.


Option 1: Full Data

October 23, 2024

Research Spotlight: Leaf Phenology in New England

Image shows a close-up image of a leaf, with cellular-level coloration of greens, reds, and oranges. By John O'Keefe.

Decades-long research by Harvard Forest ecologist John O'Keefe has shown that climate change is altering the timing of New England's fall foliage. For over 30 years, O'Keefe has meticulously tracked the development of leaves, recording when they leaf-out in the spring and when their leaves change color each autumn. This phenological data - still being collected as we speak -

October 10, 2024

Wintersession Internships for Harvard Students Available

6 students and mentors smile in the forest in winter

NOVEMBER 2024 UPDATE: Applications are now closed.

Harvard Forest Wintersession Internships bring Harvard students (undergraduate and/or graduate) to the Forest in January 2025 for paid, on-site research internships. Interns will work directly with mentors on projects related to Indigenous representation, forest ecology, environmental education, and more (described below). In addition to a paid stipend, room, board, and transportation will be provided

September 19, 2024

New Grant to Center Indigenous Voices and Values in Harvard Forest's Fisher Museum

Image of two prominent Fisher Museum dioramas depicting land use change during European colonization.

Harvard Forest was recently awarded an Inspire! Grant for Small Museums from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services to support the development, design, installation, and evaluation of a new multimedia exhibit to center the voices and values of the Nipmuc people, the tribe Indigenous to the land occupied by Harvard Forest.

The Fisher Museum, which includes seven dioramas

September 5, 2024

October 3 & 4: Yadvinder Mahli to Present Bullard Lectures

Image shows Professor Yadvinder Mahli standing in the woods.

The Harvard Forest and the Harvard University Center for the Environment are delighted to co-present the second Charles Bullard Lectures featuring Dr. Yadvinder Mahli CBE FRS1, Professor of Ecosystem Science at the Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, and Senior Research Fellow at Oriel College, University of Oxford.

The annual Charles Bullard Lectures were established

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