USDA Forest Service at Hubbard Brook
The Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest consists of the 3,138-ha Hubbard Brook watershed in the Pemigewasset District of the White Mountain National Forest. This includes the 3,037-ha bowl-shaped valley, initially established in 1955, plus 101-ha of subsequently acquired land for: (1) an administrative site; (2) control over another adjacent watershed; and, (3) access to Mirror Lake with additional residence quarters. There are 16 km of gravel roads within the Experimental Forest which are maintained by the White Mountain National Forest. Except for entry to the administrative site, snow is not removed from these roads in winter. Travel into the HBEF in winter is either on foot with snowshoes and/or skis or by motorized over-snow vehicles. A trail system allows access to major research installations such as precipitation stations. A class-A weather station, 20 additional weather stations and nine gauged watersheds are distributed throughout the Experimental Forest (Figure 1). Generally, these precipitation stations are located at lower, middle and upper elevations in the experimental watersheds and have a density of about one station per 13 ha. Snow depth and water content are measured each winter at two locations on southfacing and two on northfacing slopes.
The USDA Forest Service operates a year-round field laboratory and office building at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest. The Robert S. Pierce Ecosystem Laboratory provides 835 m2 of space, including six offices, four laboratories, one conference room, six dormitory rooms, a kitchen, baths and showers. There are two computer network systems in the laboratory. The Forest Service network operates off of a sever in Durham, NH and is restricted to official Forest Service business as well as access to the World Wide Web. The second network is funded by the NSF LTER Program grant to Syracuse University. This system consists of a server, 5 computers, a wide range of peripheral, high speed internet connection and a local area network with extra connection ports. The facilities at Pleasant View Farm are connected to this server.
A sample archive building was constructed in 1990 to house and archive samples of soil, water, plant tissue, and other materials. In addition, there are 280 m2 of maintenance, storage, garage and shop facilities.
In 1983, Yale and Cornell Universities purchased Pleasant View Farm, the 200-yr-old complex which had been rented for 18 years for use by graduate students and senior researchers, working at Hubbard Brook. With the help of an NSF facilities grant, the farmhouse was completely renovated into an attractive dormitory building that can house 14 persons. In addition, a 2-bay garage and the 200 m2 Henrietta Kendall Towers Laboratory facility was constructed adjacent to the renovated farmhouse to provide research space for our personnel on a year-round basis. This housing and laboratory facility are very convenient for researchers, being only 0.5 km from Mirror Lake and 1.6 km from the HBEF. Equipment in the laboratory includes: two Technicon autoanalyzers, Varian 4-column, four detector gas chromatograph with flame and electron capture detectors, Fisher gas partitioner for the determination of dissolved inorganic carbon, pH meters, Shimadzu gas chromatograph, a Dionex ion chromatograph, Packard scintillation counter, drying ovens, conductivity meter, a small boat, pick-up truck, a portable generator, a variety of field sampling equipment, various microcomputers, as well as distillation and deionizing equipment, along with refrigerator and deep freezer.
In 1999, Yale and Cornell Universities tranferred Pleasant View Farm and the Towers lab to the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation (HBRF). HBRF is dedicated to improve housing and research infrastructure and has raised funds used to renovate the lab in 2000. HBRF employs a half-time faciltiies manager to oversee the operation and management of the complex. With support from the National Science Foundation, HBRF initiated an integrated facilities planning process together with the USFS and other cooperating institutions. More information can be found on the HBRF website under Facilities.