FSML Planning for the Future of the Holt Research Forest

University Of Maine, Orono ME

Investigators

Abstract

University of Maine is awarded a planning grant to enable the development of a 10year plan to update and formulate new research, educational, and public outreach programs at Holt Research Forest (HRF) in southern Maine. Recent changes of project leadership and supporting foundation creates an ideal opportunity to build on past successes and create a plan to ensure the legacy and sustainability of HRF as a field station. This plan is needed in part because a whole new set of environmental challenges, not foreseen in 1982, have emerged. The plan will develop strategies to stimulate research and teaching on the value of healthy managed forest ecosystems, climate change adaptation, and forest dynamics at the urban/rural interface. A strategic plan will establish the steps needed for establishing an enhanced infrastructure, a refined data management plan with increased access to the valuable long-term data, broader dissemination of research results, and developing greater communication between HRF and similar field stations. A key outcome of the planning grant and resulting strategic plan would be expanded opportunities for teaching, training, and learning that engage graduate students, postdocs, undergraduate students, K-12 teachers and youth, and adult learners. The Holt Research Forest (HRF) a field station located in southern mid-coastal Maine and has a 35-year history of multidisciplinary ecological research. The site features a red oak white pine forest ecosystem, an important and relatively understudied forest type, estuarine frontage with salt marshes and tidal flats, and the largest fresh water pond on the island. The unique coastal setting of HRF within the nationally recognized Kennebec Estuary with 30,000acres of conservation lands within a 15 mile radius provides a wide spectrum of possibilities for expansion of research. This planning project seeks to articulate the growth potential for research, educational, and public outreach programming. The process will involve a wide diversity of stakeholders and potential beneficiaries. Other universities and colleges, scientists, natural resource professionals, local schools, conservation organizations, state agencies, woodlot owners, and the general public will all be engaged to improve the outcomes. This will be accomplished through three workshops and a conference; soliciting an external evaluation from experts in the field; networking with peers at similar stations; and synthesizing the findings into a10-year strategic plan that will guide future endeavors.