VI. Education, Public Outreach and Impact on Public Policy

Integration of LTER Research and Education. The HF supports its strong commitment to formal education (K through graduate), professional training (post-doctoral and beyond), and public outreach through a series of extremely successful programs that are well-integrated with LTER activities. In the past six years, graduate students from five departments at Harvard (Organismic and Evolutionary Biology (6 PhD), Earth and Planetary Sciences (1 PhD), Graduate School of Design (2 PhD), Kennedy School of Government (1 PhD), and Harvard Forest (6 MFS), the University of New Hampshire (2 MS, 4 Ph.D.), University of Massachusetts (1 MS), and Antioch College (2 MS) have undertaken their thesis research at the Forest. Undergraduate involvement is diverse: Senior theses at Harvard, Smith, Hampshire, and Mount Holyoke Colleges, and by REU students (4), dozens of field trips and courses, including the Harvard Forest Seminar offered to a dozen first year students, and the Harvard Forest Summer Research Program. This 12-week research and educational program involves 25-30 students who work closely with faculty and senior scientists on long-term research. The program culminates in a student symposium at which each student presents the results of their summer work. The majority of students are undergraduates funded through NSF's Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU), Mellon Foundation (for minority students), NSF's Collaborative Research with Undergraduate Institutions (CRUI), and Harvard Forest's Fisher Education Fund. Students from this program have an excellent track record of conducting senior theses, entering graduate studies, and pursuing careers in ecology and conservation.

At the professional level, Harvard University offers 4-8 Bullard Fellowships annually to mid-career scientists for research on environmental issues . Fellows spend 6-12 months at Harvard Forest or Cambridge pursuing research and often collaborating on LTER studies. With international applicants, this program provides an outstanding opportunity for the synthesis of ideas across disciplines and ecosystems. In the past 6 years, 41 Bullard Fellows represent 19 states and 8 foreign countries. Individuals span a range of ecological interest: e.g., N. Brokaw, P. Harcombe, D. Knight, Jiquan Chen, S. Trumbore, D. Whigham, T. Spies, E. DeLucia, J. Aber, J. Wiener, E. Franz, K. Woods, R. Primack, M. Abrams, W. Romme, G. Brush, R. Waide, D. Godbold, T. Webb, A. White, D. Bowman, D. Ford, D. Janos, J. Silva, and C. Vaquez-Yanes. Post-doctoral opportunities are also actively supported with about 15 post-docs working with LTER scientists in LTER II.

The Fisher Museum is the focus for Harvard Forest educational outreach under the guidance of Dr. John O'Keefe, forest ecologist and Museum Coordinator. Each year 5,000-6,000 visitors visit the Museum to see the world-famous Harvard Forest Dioramas, which depict the land-use history of central New England and the ecology, conservation and management of these forests. Other exhibits present and interpret LTER research and its scientific and societal implications. Interpretive nature trails demonstrate and explain current research. John has developed two multi-image slide and video presentations that describe the importance of long-term research at HF and outline the NSF LTER program. During 1999, 85 visiting groups included: youth/scout; elementary; secondary; college/undergraduate; university; and professional/continuing education. More than 35 volunteers staff the Museum on weekend afternoons from May through October. The Museum is also used heavily as a venue for meetings, seminars and retreats by environmental and conservation organizations, state and federal agencies, and departments from regional colleges and universities. Our facilities allow us to host small conferences and symposia including (in 1999), a national meeting of the Ameriflux Network, and a conference on Eastern Old-Growth Forests.

Each year the Forest collaborates with Eagle Eye Institute in Somerville, MA, a non-profit group that organizes environmental programs for city youth. In 1999 this program brought 12 groups of 15 youths for day-long environmental education programs.

Throughout the year we sponsor a seminar series for our staff and regional scientists, drawing on visiting scholars, Bullard Fellows, LTER researchers, regional faculty, and natural resource professionals as speakers. The theme for fall 1999 and spring 2000 is Conservation and Management of the New England Landscape.

Harvard Forest Impact on Public Policy. HF LTER activities have an impact on public policy and societal issues at a national and international scale, in that HF scientists have played key roles in Senate and Congressional hearings and IGCP programs regarding global changes issues (especially S. Wofsy, J. Melillo, F. Bazzaz, J. Aber and D. Foster). The most direct impacts on public policy occur at the state and regional level; publications emerging from HF LTER II research led to:

• Initiation of a statewide Forest Vision and Planning Process, headed by HF Forest Policy Analyst David Kittredge (Foster & Foster 1999)
• Formation of a Regional Partnership of 47 organizations and public agencies seeking to conserve New England landscapes (Golodetz & Foster 1996)
• Protection of the largest sandplain ecosystem in the Connecticut Valley by the state of Massachusetts in 1999 (Motzkin et al. 1996, 1999a)
• Recommendations for restoration of the largest conservation property on Martha's Vineyard and endorsement by the Natural Heritage program and Boston Globe as the "largest restoration proposal in Massachusetts' history" (Foster & Motzkin 1999)
• The only regional analysis of hemlock woolly adelgid impacts, which is widely used by public agencies, organizations and the public (Orwig & Foster 2000, Foster 2000)
• Protection for the largest old-growth stand in Massachusetts (Orwig et al. 2000)
• The N Saturation Experiment and related modeling have been instrumental in generating renewed interest at EPA in N deposition effects (Aber et al. 1998).