Long Term Ecological Research

March 3, 2025

New Research from Harvard Forest Reveals How Intense Rainfall Contributes to Future Droughts

Image shows Sam Jurado, principal author, installing research equipment in a forested wetland. By Jackie Matthes.

A new study published in Water Resources Research sheds light on how New England’s soils interact with extreme precipitation, revealing a feedback loop that may contribute to future drought conditions. This research began in 2023 at Harvard Forest as part of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program and was led by Sam

August 15, 2024

Registration Open: Harvard Community Bus Trips to the Forest

a group of Harvard community members smiles from the top of a tall metal tower in the woods

Harvard students, faculty, fellows, and staff may sign up for one of several free monthly bus trips to visit Harvard Forest, located 70 miles west of Harvard Square.

Trips will be geared towards undergraduate and graduate students; faculty, fellows, and staff are also welcome to sign up. There is no cost.

The 4 hours spent on site will be guided by educators

August 14, 2024

Applications Open for Harvard Graduate Student Remote Internships

OCTOBER 2024 UPDATE: These projects are no longer accepting applications.

Applications are now open for 2 remote, part-time graduate student internships, open to enrolled Harvard graduate students in Fall 2024.

Remote graduate internship: Eastern Woodlands Raptor Ecology and Indigenous Forestry (application deadline: September 20 - note: this project is open for wintersession internship applications at https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/winternships)
Remote graduate internship: K-12 Climate

March 21, 2024

LTER updates: Symposium highlights, student research awards, and a submitted research proposal

Image shows 2024 graduate students affiliated with Harvard Forest's LTER Program. By Ben Goulet-Scott.

On March 19, Harvard Forest hosted its annual research symposium, entitled Looking Forward with Long-Term Research: New Directions and Graduate Student Research in the Harvard Forest LTER. Hosting nearly 100 individuals in person and over 50 online, this year's event included a variety of presentations that focused on upcoming research directions in Harvard Forest's Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program. In

February 26, 2024

Register for the Harvard Forest Ecology Symposium on March 19!

Image shows Jackie Matthes discussing research data at the 2022 LTER Symposium.

The annual Harvard Forest Ecology Symposium is coming up on Tuesday, March 19, from 9:00a.m. – 4:30p.m. ET at the Fisher Museum, Harvard Forest, Petersham, MA (click here for directions).

This year, we will highlight new work and early-career researchers with the theme “Looking Forward with Long-Term Research: New Directions and Graduate Student Research in the Harvard Forest Long-Term Ecological

February 20, 2024

Schoolyard Ecology Program Reaches 20 Year Milestone

Image shows a collage of photographs showing educators and students in the field.

Through the support of the Long-Term Ecological Research Program and generous anonymous donors, 2024 marks the 20^th year of the Schoolyard Ecology program at Harvard Forest. For two decades the ecologists at Harvard Forest (John O'Keefe, Dave Orwig, Emery Boose, and Betsy Colburn) have worked with Pamela Snow, and now Katharine Hinkle to train and support teachers and classrooms

October 2, 2023

New Report Examines Mass. Forests and Solar Siting, Offers Path to Net-Zero Goals

a hawk stands atop a roof mounted with solar panels with a forest in the background

A new report released today by scientists in the Thompson Lab at Harvard Forest and Mass Audubon offers the first-ever comprehensive economic and geospatial analysis of whether Massachusetts can meet its solar goals while protecting its most valuable natural and working lands.

The report proposes a shift from large-scale, ground-mount solar to solar projects on rooftops, parking

August 15, 2023

30th Annual Symposium Highlights Student Research Accomplishments

Photo shows Sam Jurado giving a research presentation at the 2023 Symposium.

Marking the culmination of nearly three months with Harvard Forest's Summer Research Program in Ecology, 21 undergraduate students recently presented on their research at Harvard Forest's 30th Annual Student Symposium. Student researchers presented on topics such as carbon storage and modeling, the impacts of introduced species on culturally important plants, soil warming and its effects on belowground

April 4, 2023

Student Event to Mobilize Data Visualization for Local Classrooms

screenshot of blue and grey Lidar point cloud of an oak tree in summer

What: Design Sprint/Hack-a-Thon to build the scaffolding for a new web-tool that will visualize real-time data from the Witness Tree Social Media Project

Who: Open (free) to Harvard undergraduates and graduate students, particularly those with experience in coding, data visualization, and/or educational technology design for middle and high school audiences. Space is limited to 15 people, so register early!

When: Friday,

February 5, 2023

Applications Now Open for LTER Student Research Awards

Beginning in 2020, research awards for graduate students incorporating Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) data and objectives have been awarded regularly through Harvard Forest's LTER Graduate Student Research Awards program. All students wishing to work with the HF LTER program are welcome. No prior association with the LTER program is necessary.

Applications are now open through April 1st, 2023.

To apply, please email

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