Lyford Grid

In the 1960s, Harvard Forest soil scientist Walter Lyford meticulously mapped and measured a 7 acre (3 ha) portion of the woods behind his Harvard Forest home. He included all live and dead trees, stone walls, streams, soil types, boulders, and other features on a series of 32 large-scale maps (each measures 20 inches by 20 inches, so the scale is a phenomenal 1” = 5’). Lyford completed the first full tree census in 1969, and re-measured all the trees once before his retirement in 1976. Since then, researchers at Harvard Forest have continued the study, remeasuring the plot in 1991, 2001, and 2011. The plot is a focal study area for dendroecology work, ground-based lidar mapping, and calibrating regional modeling efforts. Our next census is happening in Summer 2021.