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September 17, 2015

Teachers Explore Ecology at Summer Workshop

A group of teacher looking up at the trees above them

Twenty-seven teachers from around New England came to the Forest to learn ecological field methods during the Schoolyard Summer Institute this August, part of the Harvard Forest Schoolyard Ecology Program.

These teachers will lead their 4th to 12th-grade students in ecological field studies at their schools this fall, collecting long-term data to analyze back in the classroom.

Field topics include climate and

September 17, 2015

Bullard Spotlight: David Kittredge and Forest Management Decision-making

Logs being loaded for transportation

Dave Kittredge, a Harvard Forest Bullard Fellow this year, brings experience in forestry, coupled with social science research background, to contribute to an improved understanding of humans in forest landscapes, specifically from the standpoint of forest management, harvesting, and ownership.

Kittredge serves on the faculty in the Department of Environmental Conservation at UMass Amherst, and co-directs the Family Forest Research

June 30, 2015

Registration Open: Schoolyard Summer Institute for Teachers

A group of people on a field walk led by Harvard Forest ecologist

The 12th annual Schoolyard Ecology Summer Institute for Teachers will be held at Harvard Forest on Thursday, August 20. All teachers of grades 4-12 are welcome to register. 

Through field walks and presentations led by Harvard Forest ecologists, attendees will learn how to implement field studies of local ecosystems, invasive species, and/or global climate change with their students in their own schoolyards. The

June 8, 2015

2015-2016 Charles Bullard Fellows Announced

A river flowing through the woods

We are pleased to announce the Harvard Forest Charles Bullard Fellows for 2015-2016. The mission of the Charles Bullard Fellowship Program 

June 2, 2015

Study: Diverse Soil Community Key to Climate Protection

Harvard Forest soil warming research plots

As soil microorganisms decompose plant and animal material, globally, they release 10 times more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than humans do. A warming climate and increased nitrogen pollution accelerate this process, triggering the release of even more greenhouse gases. New results from the Forest's long-term soil warming experiment, published last week in the Proceedings of the National

June 2, 2015

Film Shows the Story of Climate Change, Told By One Tree

Witness Tree by Lynda Mapes

During her Bullard Fellowship at the Forest, journalist Lynda Mapes has been taking a long look at a single tree: a tagged, tracked, 100-year-old red oak. A new short film by Patrick Wellever and colleagues from the Knight Science Journalism program at MIT highlights

June 1, 2015

HF Schoolyard Ecology Teachers Earn Top Honors

Winner of the Overlook Award

For over a decade, K-12 teachers in the Harvard Forest Schoolyard Ecology Program have been working with scientists to incorporate hands-on field science into their classrooms. This year, two of our 72 active teachers were honored at the Massachusetts State House for excellence in environmental education.

Teacher Joann Mossman was one of only six teachers in the state to win "First

May 21, 2015

Bullard Spotlight: Diana Tomback and Foundation Species Loss

Whitebark pine research group at work in Alberta, Canada

Diana Tomback, Professor and Associate Chair of Integrative Biology at the University of Colorado-Denver, has had a unique, two-phase Bullard Fellowship. She spent the winter in HF researcher Andrew Richardson's lab on the main Harvard campus, learning new approaches to assessing the impacts of global change at the forest and global scale.

This summer, she's at

May 14, 2015

New Study: Ecosystem Hotspots Increasing in Mass.

Developed landscape with trees showing fall foliage

All land is not created equal.  Ecosystem "hotspots" do triple duty in the benefits they provide to society. A new study published today in the Journal of Applied Ecology reports that the number of ecosystem

May 12, 2015

40-Year Study Reveals New Insights on Carbon

Walter Lyford's hand-drawn map

The middle-aged forests of the East Coast may not look like carbon-storing powerhouses. But New England forests take in enough carbon each year to offset nearly half the region's household carbon dioxide emissions. A new study by HF ecologist Audrey Barker-Plotkin and Summer Research Program alumna Kate Eisen explores how trees are getting the job done.

The study,

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