Harvard Forest is an ecological research area of owned and managed by

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

and located in Petersham, Massachusetts. The property, in operation since 1907, includes one of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

's oldest managed forests, educational and research facilities, a museum, and recreation trails. Harvard Forest is open to the public.

Research and education

Harvard University conducts forest

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary ...

and

conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and manageme ...

research on the property, including two major programs: the Long Term Ecological Research LTER program, funded by the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...

and established in 1988 to investigate New England's natural

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syst ...

; and the National Institute of Global Environmental Change program established and funded by the

United States Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United States ...

and emphasizing the study of physical and biological processes in relation to

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

. Harvard Forest is also slated to be the northeastern core site of the

National Ecological Observatory Network National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is a large facility program operated by Battelle Memorial Institute and funded by the National Science Foundation. In full operation since 2019, NEON gathers and provides long-term, standardized da ...

. A number of smaller research programs are also conducted in Harvard Forest. This includes the Schoolyard LTER program, which allows K-12 classrooms to participate in the collection and analysis of environmental data

Soils

The forest is mostly supported by stony sandy loam

podzol In soil science, podzols are the typical soils of coniferous or boreal forests and also the typical soils of eucalypt forests and heathlands in southern Australia. In Western Europe, podzols develop on heathland, which is often a construct of ...

soils developed on glacial till and most commonly mapped as

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Ber ...

, Becket, Skerry, Peru, and Marlow series. However, the classic podzol banded appearance is absent from many profiles due to obliteration of the pale eluvial (A2 or E) horizon by

earthworm An earthworm is a terrestrial invertebrate that belongs to the phylum Annelida. They exhibit a tube-within-a-tube body plan; they are externally segmented with corresponding internal segmentation; and they usually have setae on all segments. T ...

activity, which was noted in Harvard Forest in the 1920s.https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/sites/harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/files/publications/pdfs/Fisher_Ecology_1928.pdf

The Fisher Museum

The Fisher Museum, open on weekends, offers exhibits on current research as well as twenty-three model

diorama A diorama is a replica of a scene, typically a three-dimensional full-size or miniature model, sometimes enclosed in a glass showcase for a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies such as military vehicle mode ...

s portraying the history, conservation and management of

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

woodlands. A sixty-seat lecture hall is located in the museum. Harvard Forest staff and students conduct educational programs and guided natural history tours for adults and children. Self-guided interpretive trails are located on the property, as well as several miles of primitive roads and trails, open to the public for non motorized recreation including hiking, wildlife observation, mountain biking, cross country skiing, hunting (in season) and similar passive pursuits. Camping, fires, and motorized vehicles are not allowed. An observation tower is located on the forest's Prospect Hill Tract. The Fisher Museum and primary trailhead are located on

Massachusetts Route 32 Massachusetts Route 32 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. The highway runs from the Connecticut state line in Monson, where the highway continues as Connecticut Route 32, north to the New Hampshire state line in Royalston, ...

north of Petersham center. Harvard Forest is part of an area of over of protected open space including several properties owned by

The Trustees of Reservations The Trustees of Reservations is a non-profit land conservation and historic preservation organization dedicated to preserving natural and historical places in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is the oldest land conservation nonprofit orga ...

, state forest land, and the

Massachusetts Audubon Society The Massachusetts Audubon Society, commonly known as Mass Audubon, founded in 1896 by Harriet Hemenway and Minna B. Hall and headquartered in Lincoln, Massachusetts, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to "protecting the nature of Massachusett ...

Rutland Brook Sanctuary Rutland () is a ceremonial county and unitary authority in the East Midlands, England. The county is bounded to the west and north by Leicestershire, to the northeast by Lincolnshire and the southeast by Northamptonshire. Its greates ...

References

External links

Map of Harvard Forest's Prospect Hill TractHarvard UniversityMap of Brooks Woodland Preserve

Rutland Brook SanctuaryHarvard ForestHarvard Forest Dioramas with high resolution images for download
{{Coord, 42, 31, 52.77, N, 72, 11, 23.24, W, display=title Harvard University Protected areas of Worcester County, Massachusetts Forests of Massachusetts Museums in Worcester County, Massachusetts Forestry museums in the United States Petersham, Massachusetts Research forests Protected areas established in 1907 1907 establishments in Massachusetts