Plantation Biodiversity Plots at Harvard Forest since 2007

Plantations have been part of forestry at Harvard Forest since its beginning. Plantations were established from 1911-1944, usually on open or cut-over land. The maximum amount of land in plantations totaled about 270 acres (10% of Harvard Forest’s land base). The tending of the plantations was conducted and carefully documented; however, this work ceased about 1950. Since then, some plantations were out-competed by native tree species, with only scattered planted trees remaining, a few acres of plantations were harvested in the 1950, and about 40 acres of plantations were harvested in the 1990s. As of 2007, approximately 135 acres of plantations remained and ranged in age from 60 to 90 years old. Some stands have substantial areas blown down. In 2008, Harvard Forest developed a management plan to harvest 80 acres of mature plantation forests to terminate these long term experiments, regenerate a diversity of native tree species, restore native forests to these sites, and to initiate a new suite of long term experiments. For the next 10-15 years, the harvested areas will provide early successional habitat for a variety of wildlife species. A suite of permanent vegetation plots was established throughout the plantations to assess vegetation structure in plantations and predict future dynamics in harvested and early seral habitats.