Scientific Research • Policy Outreach • Education
The mission of the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation (HBRF) is to promote the understanding and stewardship of ecosystems through scientific research, long-term monitoring, and education.
Science and Public Policy
The Hubbard Brook Research Foundation developed its Science Links program to help bridge the gap between ecosystem science and the development of sound public policies on a variety of vexing environmental issues. Working with teams of scientists, HBRF shares cutting-edge scientific research with a range of stakeholders, including government leaders, land managers, educators, the media, other opinion leaders, and the public. The intent is to share science in a nonpartisan way in order to make a tangible difference in the real world: compelling science, easily understood, in the right hands at the right time.
Visit Science Links here.
SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH ~ POLICY OUTREACH ~ EDUCATION
The Hubbard Brook Research Foundation’s (HBRF) mission is to promote the understanding and stewardship of ecosystems through scientific research, long-term monitoring, and education; and to develop new initiatives linking ecosystem science and public policy. HBRF works to sustain and enhance the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study, in partnership with the USDA Forest Service, the National Science Foundation’s LTER program, and many colleges, universities, and other institutions.
“Our Carbon, Our Communities: A community-based vision for using wood biomass in an era of climate change,” a white paper from the third Hubbard Brook Roundtable promotes locally-based wood fuel cooperatives in the Northern Forest
The Hubbard Brook Roundtable met in September 2009 with the goal to create a blueprint for a thriving wood fuel marketplace at the local scale in the Northern Forest Region, that helps increase the efficient use of low-quality wood for fuel, while also promoting sustainable forestry practices. This blueprint is intended to serve as the basis for pilot projects in several communities in New Hampshire, and hopefully as a template for other locations in the Northern Forest region and beyond. Read “Our Carbon, Our Communities” here.
Read more about the Hubbard Brook Roundtable.
Science and Public Policy
The Hubbard Brook Research Foundation developed its Science Links program to help bridge the gap between ecosystem science and the development of sound public policies on a variety of vexing environmental issues. Working with teams of scientists, HBRF shares cutting-edge scientific research with a range of stakeholders, including government leaders, land managers, educators, the media, other opinion leaders, and the public. The intent is to share science in a nonpartisan way in order to make a tangible difference in the real world: compelling science, easily understood, in the right hands at the right time. Visit Science Links here.
Ecosystem Thinking in the Northern Forest – And Beyond
In a new article in the journal BioScience (June 2009), Dr. Gene E. Likens and Jerry F. Franklin propose five sustained, multigenerational actions to protect and restore the vital ecosystem of the Northern Forest “EcoRegion,” a region being degraded by a variety of simultaneous environmental impacts, including acid rain, fragmentation of landscapes, mercury and salt pollution of water resources, invasive species and diseases, and climate change. These threats were among those discussed and agreed upon as top priorities at the Hubbard Brook Roundtable, first convened in 2006 at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest. View or download article here: Ecosytem Thinking in the Northern Forest – And Beyond.
Published as Ecosystem Thinking in the Northern Forest and Beyond. BioScience 59:511-513 ISSN 0006-3568, electronic 1525-3244.© 2009 by the American Institute of Biological Sciences. All rights reserved. Authorization to copy this content beyond fair use (as specified in Sections 107 and 108 of the U. S. Copyright Law) for internal or personal use, or the internal or personal use of specific clients, is granted by the Regents of the University of California on behalf of the American Institute of Biological Sciences for libraries and other users, provided that they are registered with and pay the specified fee via Rightslink® on Caliber (http://caliber.ucpress.net/) or directly with the Copyright Clearance Center, http://www.copyright.com.
Hubbard Brook Consortium Formed to Support Ecosystem Science
Seven institutions have joined with the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation to form a consortium to support research, education, and policy initiatives at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in central New Hampshire, the site of one of the longest running and most comprehensive ecosystem studies in the world.
The seven institutional members of the Hubbard Brook Consortium are the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Dartmouth College, Plymouth State University, Syracuse University, U.S. Forest Service Northern Research Station, the Urban Ecology Institute, and Wellesley College
According to David Sleeper, Executive Director of the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation, “A key objective of the Hubbard Brook Consortium will be to attract new generations of students to ecosystem science, including students from minority and other underrepresented populations in the field of ecology. We also hope to bring international students to the Hubbard Brook ExperimentalForest. In this way, the Consortium will help ensure a bright future for the study of vital forested ecosystems.” As part of its commitment to undergraduate field ecology opportunities, the Hubbard Brook Consortium will sponsor four students to come to Hubbard Brook this summer to perform individual research projects, working with senior scientists.
Who Needs Environmental Monitoring?
In a paper published in the June 2007 issue of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, a team of ecologists from Hubbard Brook and other research forests defend the necessity, effectiveness and economy of these programs, arguing that “monitoring should be considered a fundamental component of environmental science and policy… and (we) urge government agencies and other funding institutions to make greater commitments to increasing the amount and long-term stability of funding for environmental monitoring programs.” Read article here