News and Highlights | Hubbard Brook

Long-term monitoring is essential to effective environmental policy

Environmental policy guided by science saves lives, money, and ecosystems. So reports a team of eleven senior researchers in Environmental Science & Policy. Using air pollution in the United States as a case study, they highlight the success of cleanup strategies backed by long-term environmental monitoring.

On the 20th Anniversary of the 1998 Ice Storm, What Do We Know Now That We Didn’t Back Then?

Hubbard Brook’s intensive study of a past natural disaster is preparing us for future extreme weather.

It’s not uncommon for technical staff at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest to encounter obstacles during New Hampshire’s harsh winter months. But what greeted forestry technician Amey Bailey when she snowmobiled into the forest one Monday morning 20 years ago was far beyond any of the usual challenges.

New Mobile Tour App

Take a virtual tour of Hubbard Brook with our new app! The U.S. Forest Service has partnered with OnCell to launch a moble tour app for the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest. Visitors can use the app for self-guided tours or students and teachers can use the app to prepare for a field trip.

A microburst windstorm in the Hubbard Brook forest

On 2 June 2013 Hubbard Brook was visited by a severe microburst windstorm that blew down extensive areas of the forest. We quantified the pattern and extent of damage by this rare event to improve understanding of the role of such 'intermediate disturbances' in the dynamics of the northern hardwood forest.

Cues for Masting in Sugar Maple and American Beech

Many tree species exhibit the phenomenon of seed (or fruit) “masting” in which all the trees in a population produce large seed crops in a particular year. For some species this synchronous behavior is thought to favor successful regeneration by saturating seed predators, like squirrels, that also serve as seed dispersal agents – so many seeds are produced in a mast year that the squirrels don’t eat them all. But what cues all the trees in a population to mast synchronously?

Sugar Maple Decline Following Whole-Tree Harvest of Watershed 5

In 1985 we conducted a whole-tree harvest experiment on W5 to evaluate how forest ecosystems respond to this intensive forest management practice and associated high nutrient removal. Periodic measurements on permanent plots across W5 have revealed that sugar maple abundance has drastically declined during thirty years of forest development on W5.

An Ice Storm Manipulation Experiment in a Northern Hardwood Forest

ICE STORMS are an important natural disturbance in forest ecosystems of the "ice belt" that covers a broad area extending from east Texas to New England. These glazing events (defined as 0.25 in. of ice accretion or more) are often perceived as rare occurrences, even though the return interval is as short as 2-5 years in the most ice storm prone northeastern U.S. In this region, ice storms are a major cause of forest disturbance.

Double Barreled October Rain Storms Soak Hubbard Brook

On October 27, two days before the remnants of Tropical Storm Philippe drenched New England, toppled trees, and cut power to over 1.1 million customers, a dozen scientists at the USDA Forest Service’s Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in North Woodstock, NH were hard at work. Alerted by meteorologist Eric Kelsey of a potentially historic extreme rain event, they activated a "Water RAT," or a Rapid Assessment Team, to monitor the pending storm.