Protecting Scientific Research at Mirror Lake
The Campaign for Mirror Lake
is 75 Percent Complete!
In 2004, the Trustees of the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation took the extraordinary and risky step of launching a $3 million-plus capital campaign to protect a vital piece of property on the shores of Mirror Lake . The goals of the Mirror Lake purchase were threefold: 1) to protect and perpetuate the extensive scientific research and monitoring at Mirror Lake; 2) to establish a vibrant conservation campus, with housing and other facilities for a growing number of Hubbard Brook scientists, students, and educators; and 3) to preserve Mirror Lake’s remarkable scenic and recreational amenities, while maintaining an important wildlife corridor linking the lake to Hubbard Brook forestland.
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Today the Mirror Lake campus is thriving, with facilities that provide rich, new opportunities for scientific camaraderie and collaboration across projects and disciplines. Forestland once under threat from the development of “timeshare condominiums” is now permanently protected. And scientists have unfettered access to their monitoring equipment and other experiments, thanks to HBRF’s land ownership and the donation of a research easement on an adjacent property. The science of Mirror Lake will continue unabated.
Moreover, HBRF is pleased to announce that it has now met a remarkable 75 percent of the original campaign goal, thanks to generous leadership gifts by a number of individuals and foundations, as well as $1.4 million in federal appropriations spearheaded by Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire . At the close of 2007, HRBF retired its original loan with the Open Space Institute, and took out a new, smaller Mirror Lake loan from Ledyard National Bank, HBRF’s long-time commercial banker.
HBRF is now launching the final phase of the Campaign for Mirror Lake, and we ask that all members of the Hubbard Brook community help us meet our Campaign goal over the next three years. The Mirror Lake acquisition added key acreage to the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, established as a research site by the USDA Forest Service in 1955. Our goal is to celebrate the completion of the Mirror Campaign in 2010 during the 55th anniversary of that farsighted act. Please join us!