Schoolyard Webcam Part of National Phenology Study

This year, a collaboration between Harvard faculty member Andrew Richardson and long-time HF Schoolyard Ecology Program teachers Kate Bennett and JoAnn Mossman led to the extension of a national effort to track forest phenology over time. Students at the Overlook Middle School in Ashburnham, Massachusetts, can now track seasonal budburst and leaf color change on a webcam overlooking their schoolyard's forest canopy. The image data will complement data that students collect in trees by hand through the Harvard Forest LTER "Buds, Leaves, and Global Warming" Schoolyard Ecology program. It will also complement the information obtained from real-time canopy cameras at the Harvard Forest. The Overlook site is the first K-12 site in the country to install a PhenoCam camera. Harvard Forest's Schoolyard program is looking to install 4 more cameras at additional local school sites over the coming year.