Hubbard Brook Research Foundation

Welcome to Hubbard Brook!

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.

Hubbard Brook Welcomes Dr. James P. Collins, National Science Foundation's Assistant Director for Biological Sciences, on July 6, 2009.

Dr. Collins' public presentation, entitled "One Biology, One Science: Biology for the 21st Century" challenges 21st century biology to provide the knowledge needed to address the way the Earth's climate and related life support systems are changing in ways and rates never experienced in recorded human history, and to recognize possible changes well in advance of the onset of environmental degradation, economic hardship, or pandemic disease. Monday, July 6, 7:30 pm at the Robert S. Pierce Laboratory, Mirror Lake Road, Woodstock, New Hampshire. Free and open to the public. Click here for more information.

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.

HBRF's Annual Report for 2008 now available to view or download here.

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 Experimental Forest. 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.

Science and Public Policy 

Click to view or download Science Links reports.

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 opionion leaders, and the public. The intent is to share science in a nonpartisan way in order to make a tangible difference inthe real world: compelling science, easily understood, in the right hands at the right time. To inquire about ordering copies of these reports, please call or email Judy Brown at 603-653-0390 ext 102 or jbrown@hbresearchfoundation.org.

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