Cape Cod, Islands, and Long Island
The coastal area from Cape Cod to Long Island, including Block Island, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, and the Elizabeth Islands is a high priority for conservation because it supports numerous uncommon plant and animal assemblages and is highly threatened by development. We are using ecological and historical studies to investigate the link between the region's history and the modern abundance and distribution of upland plant communities, including grasslands, heathlands, barrens, and woodlands. Our objectives include:
- understanding modern vegetation patterns
- identifying appropriate goals for conservation
- developing management approaches for achieving those objectives
Results to date suggest that despite considerable variation in environmental conditions and fire history, the pattern and intensity of historical land-use continue to influence modern species distributions, even decades after these activities have ceased.
Harvard Forest in the News: Restoration of Martha's Vineyard
"Five years ago Harvard University published a report with a plan to save the forest; the vision would return the forest to its natural state through a massive clearing project coupled with other measures like controlled burns.
Now it appears that the state is ready to carry out the vision articulated in the Harvard study"
Vineyard Gazette
Complete Vineyard Gazette stories and other related Harvard Forest articles
Selected Publications
Parshall, T., D. Foster, E. Faison, D. MacDonald, and B. C. S. Hansen. 2003. Long-term history of vegetation and fire in pitch pine-oak forests on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Ecology 84: 736-738.
Foster, D. R. and G. Motzkin. 2003. Interpreting and conserving the openland habitats of coastal New England: insights from landscape history. Forest Ecology and Management 185: 127-150.
Eberhardt, R., D. R. Foster, G. Motzkin, and B. Hall. 2003. Conservation of changing landscapes: vegetation, land-use history, and fire on Cape Cod National Seashore. Ecological Applications 13: 68-84.
Motzkin, G. and D. R. Foster. 2002. Grasslands, heathlands and shrublands in coastal New England: historical interpretations and approaches to conservatism. Journal of Biogeography 29: 1569-1590.
Motzkin, G., R. Eberhardt, B. Hall, D. Foster, J. Harrod, and D. MacDonald. 2002. Vegetation variation across Cape Cod, Massachusetts: environmental and historical determinants. Journal of Biogeography 29: 1439-1454.
Foster, D., B. Hall, S. Barry, S. Clayden, and T. Parshall. 2002. Cultural, environmental, and historical controls of vegetation patterns and the modern conservation setting on the island of Martha's Vineyard, U.S.A. Journal of Biogeography 29: 1381-1400.
Eberhardt, R. 2001. Implications of land-use legacies in the sand plain vegetation of Cape Cod National Seashore. MFS Thesis, Harvard.
Foster, D. R. and G. Motzkin. 1999. Historical influences on the landscape of Martha's Vineyard: perspectives on the management of the Manuel F. Correllus State Forest. Harvard Forest Paper No. 23 .
Motzkin, G., W. A. I. Patterson, and N. E. R. Drake. 1996. Fire history and vegetation dynamics of a Chamaecyparis thyoides wetland on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Pp. 169-129 In F. B. Samson and F. L. F. L. Knopf (Eds.), Ecosystem Management - Selected Readings. Springer, New York.