Boston Flora

Tag: Harvard Forest

  • Monday, September 15, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm – Charismatic Megaflora: What Do Old Trees Look Like?

    As with many things, one person’s charismatic megaflora is another person’s tree. For Neil Pederson, PhD, Ecologist, formerly with Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University and now with the Harvard Forest, Harvard University,  a tree that would capture his attention as a younger person is very different from the charismatic specimen that wows him today. What has changed? His understanding of old and the dimensions of time and space as applied to trees. On Monday, September 15, from 6:30 – 8 at the Hunnewell Building at the Arnold Arboretum, Neil Pederson will share how his assumptions were dashed (more than once) and what he has learned while searching for the oldest trees to obtain the longest possible tree-ring based records of environmental history.
    Fee $5 Arboretum member, $10 nonmember.  Register at http://my.arboretum.harvard.edu/Info.aspx?EventID=1.

  • Tuesday, June 3, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – The Secret Dynamics of Plants

    Plants feed our planet and attract our attention with their beauty. Their immobility imparts the sense of calmness and makes us rest and relax in their shadow. Deep inside, however, plants are all but immobile and quiet. On a cellular and tissue level, plants are actually more active, variable and exciting than animals, at least in the opinion of Michael Knoblauch, PhD, Plant Cell Biologist and Director, Franceschi Microscopy and Imaging Center, Washington State University, and Bullard Fellow, Harvard Forest, Harvard University. On Tuesday, June 3, beginning at 7 pm, will lead you into the motile microscopic world of plants to discuss mysteries such as the “plant’s heart”, their “nervous system” and “green muscles”. The lecture is accompanied by an art exhibition of large scale microscopic images on display in the Hunnewell Building, May 28–June 13.
    The talk will take place in the Hunnewell Building at the Arboretum, and the talk is free for Arboretum members, $10 for nonmembers. Register online at http://my.arboretum.harvard.edu/SelectDate.aspx or call 617-384-5277.

  • Friday, April 11, 10:00 am – 2:30 pm – Merging Conservation and Agriculture in New England

    A series of lectures entitled Merging Conservation and Agriculture in New England will take place in the Harvard Forest Seminar Room, Harvard Forest, 324 N. Main Street, Petersham, on Friday, April 11 from 10 – 2:30. The day’s schedule is as follows:

    10:00 a.m. New England Food Vision with Brian Donahue of Brandeis University

    Find out more about the New England Food Vision: http://foodsolutionsne.org/new-england-food-vision. This vision is, in part, an extension of the Wildlands and Woodlands vision for New England: http://www.wildlandsandwoodlands.org/home.

    11:00 a.m. Exploring the Interactions between Nature and Farming

    Conrad Vispo, Claudia Knab-Vispo, Anna Duho, Kyle Bradford – Hawthorne Valley Farmscape Ecology Program http://farmscapeecology.org/

    Looking for feedback we will outline our rationale and draft methods for an upcoming pilot project in the Hudson Valley to explore: 1) what nature can provide to farming (in terms of animal-mediated ecological ‘services’), 2) what farming can provide to nature (in terms of habitats for native plants and animals), and 3), what information is most useful for farmers and land trusts working with agricultural lands. See http://hawthornevalleyfarm.org/fep/
    12:00 p.m. Lunch and Discussion. Please bring your own lunch
    1:00 p.m. Walk Exploring Agriculture & Conservation Management with David Foster – Director, Harvard Forest
    This walk will meet in the Harvard Forest Common Room and carpool to the former Petersham Country Club and Bryant Farm, which have been purchased by the Harvard Forest and are one-half mile from Shaler Hall. Joined by ecologists Glenn Motzkin, Professor Martha Hoopes from Mount Holyoke College, the speakers, Harvard Forest staff including John Wisnewski and Audrey Barker Plotkin, and others we will walk the landscape to discuss Harvard Forest plans to graze the land with an objective of developing a series of conservation grasslands while studying and documenting the process.

    For additional information call David R. Foster, 978-724-3302.

    http://www.wildlandsandwoodlands.org/sites/default/files/zzr_Lily%20Piel_OldAckleyFarm_DSC7775%20-%20Copy_0.jpg

  • Thursday, April 10, 11:00 am – 2:00 pm – Harvard Forest: Reflecting on the Past, Researching for the Future

    Located in picturesque Petersham, Massachusetts, the Harvard Forest has served as Harvard University’s rural laboratory and classroom for ecology and conservation since 1907. The Forest is comprised of 3,750 acres of forests, ponds, streams, wetlands, and agricultural fields providing diverse natural ecosystems and cultural landscapes for study and enjoyment, and is one of the country’s oldest intensively researched landscapes.

    The Forest is protected from development and operates under a long-term management plan designating specific areas for active forest management, long-term scientific experiments, and reserves.  Since the Forest’s founding, its researchers have been pioneers in applying the lessons from human and natural history to the interpretation, conservation, and stewardship of landscapes.  Harvard Forest scholars collaborate with conservation organizations and state and federal agencies to protect land locally, regionally, and globally.  The Forest is home to the fisher Museum, which contains the world-renowned dioramas depicting the history of landscape changes in New England since colonial settlement.

    On Thursday, April 10, from 11 – 2, the Ecological Landscape Alliance will conduct a tour of the Harvard Forest.  After exploring the dioramas in the Fisher Museum, you will go on a 1.5 mile hike to explore mixed deciduous forests, a pre-colonial hemlock stand and black gum swamp, with nearly 300 years of well-documented human land-use.  You will see a long-term deer and moose browsing experiment in a recently harvested red pine plantation, hydrology weirs that monitor headwater streams leading to the Quabbin Reservoir, a 90′ research tower that continuously measures carbon exchange between the atmosphere and the Forest, a 20 year old soil warming experiment that shows how warming the soil by just 5 degrees greatly impacts the Forest ecosystem, and the “mega-plot,” an 85 acre plot within a global array of tropical and temperate forests in the Smithsonian Global Earth Observatory, in which every tree over 1cm in diameter is mapped, tagged, and measured at 5-year intervals.

    The tour will be led by Audrey Barker-Plotkin, licensed forester, and by Clarisse Hart, education manager.  Both guides are also ecologists by training.  $20 ELA members, $25 nonmembers.  Register online at https://www.eventville.com/catalog/eventregistration1.asp?eventid=1010955 or call 617-436-5838.

    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-y7J_k9lMlZ0/TiSBeRkWWuI/AAAAAAAACQg/afZ_g9Wcte4/s1600/diorama.jpg

  • Wednesday, February 26, 11:00 am – The Ants of New England

    Aaron Ellison , Senior Research Fellow at the Harvard University Harvard Forest in Petersham, Massachusetts, will speak at The Garden Club of the Back Bay’s February meeting about his new guide book A Field Guide to the Ants of New England. Edward O. Wilson, University Research Professor Emeritus of Harvard University, has said “This ground-breaking field guide not only contributes to our basic knowledge of ants, but places the ants of New England within reach of those interested in the natural history of the region.” Sean Menke of Lake Forest College said “This goes beyond any ant book that has come before it and puts it in line with the popular and best bird books on the market – readable and easy to use by non-experts.”

    The meeting will take place at 11 am (members note: the meeting starts one hour later than usual) at The College Club of Boston, 44 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston. Members will receive written notice of the meeting. Free for Garden Club of the Back Bay members, $5 donation requested from nonmembers. An optional lunch will follow the meeting at a separate charge. If you are not a GCBB member but wish to attend, email info@bostonflora.com.

    http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/4141coKAKqL._SS500_.jpg

  • Tuesday, April 16, 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm – Forecasting the Future: Can Ecologists Predict the Fate of Plant and Animal Populations?

    Elizabeth Crone, Population Ecologist of Harvard Forest, will speak at the Arnold Arboretum on Tuesday, April 16, beginning at 6:30, in a program co-sponsored by the Cambridge Science Festival. Population ecologists study plant and animal populations in essentially the same way that insurance actuaries assess risks about human populations: they track births and deaths of different plant and animal species, and use these patterns to predict how these species will respond to changes in habitat management, climate, and more. However, there is much less data about most species than about humans, and environmental planners often want longer-term forecasts than insurance companies. Elizabeth Crone will describe how plant ecologists monitor populations and collect demographic information. She will also speak about successes and failures in forecasting the futures of different plant populations, and describe how ecologists go about the science of fortune-telling. Free, but registration requested at www.arboretum.harvard.edu.

    http://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/sites/harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/files/leaves/Elizabeth_Crone.jpg

  • Thursday, November 29, 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm – The Ants of New England

    Ecologist Aaron Ellison (of the Harvard Forest in Petersham, MA) and co-authors have just completed the new Field Guide to the Ants of New England (Yale University  Press), the first user-friendly regional guide devoted to the diversity, ecology, natural history and beauty of the “little things that run the world.” Lavishly illustrated with more than 500 line drawings and 300 photographs, Ellison’s guide introduces amateur and professional naturalists alike to more than 140 ant species found in the northeast U.S. and eastern Canada. On Thursday, November 29, beginning at 6 pm at the Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, hear a free lecture by the author followed by a book signing. Free event parking in the 52 Oxford Street garage.  For more information call 617-495-3045, or visit www.hmnh.harvard.edu.

  • Saturday, July 7, 11:00 am – The Ants of Athol

    Honestly, if someone sends us an announcement with great alliteration, nothing will keep us from posting!  The Ants of Athol is a program of the Athol Bird & Nature Club, featuring Aaron Ellison, Ph.D., who will introduce you to some of the local ants at the Allen E. Rich Environmental Park and Cass Meadow. Dr. Ellison is a senior research fellow at Harvard Forest, and is the lead author of the new book A Field Guide to the Ants of New England, copies of which may be available for purchase.  Meet on Saturday, July 7 at 11 am at the park, near 50 Main Street in Athol.  Rain date will be Sunday, July 8.  For more information, contact the speaker at aellison@fas.harvard.edu.

  • Monday, April 23, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Syrup, Seeds, and Bees: Exploring Links in Maple Ecology

    Elizabeth Crone’s research as Population Biologist at Harvard Forest focuses on the population ecology, life history, and conservation of plants and insects. Most recently, she has turned her attention to a signature “industry” of New England—maple syrup production. She is trying to determine any links between pollinator populations, quantity of maple flower and seeds, and sap flow. Join The Arnold Arboretum on Monday, April 23, from 7 – 8:30 in the Weld Hill Research Building  to learn if each responds independently to the weather or if there are possibly complex, but subtle, interactions taking place in the sugar bush.  Free, but registration requested.  Visit http://my.arboretum.harvard.edu/Info.aspx?EventID=1#April.  Offered with the Cambridge Science Fair and the New England Wild Flower Society.

  • Monday, October 3, 7:00 pm – The Little Shop of Horrors, With a Twist

    The Coolidge Corner Theatre kicks off a new season of its popular Science on Screen series on Monday, October 3 with a special showing of B-movie maestro Roger Corman’s 1960 horticultural cult classic The Little Shop of Horrors paired with a pre-screening talk on carnivorous plants by Aaron Ellison, Senior Research Fellow in Ecology at Harvard Forest. The program begins at 7:00 pm.

    The Little Shop of Horrors tells the tale of a hapless plant-shop clerk who breeds a new species of plant named Audrey Junior that not only talks, but also needs a special kind of food to survive: humans. Famous for having the shortest shooting schedule on record – two days and a night – this hilarious black comedy helped establish director Corman as an underground legend. Starring Jonathan Haze, Mel Welles, and Jackie Joseph, the film also features an iconic cameo by a young Jack Nicholson as a gleefully masochistic dental patient (possibly not a stretch theatrically.)

    Unlike Audrey Junior, carnivorous plants in nature don’t actually devour people – or bellow “Feed Me!” But because these plants grow in habitats where soil nutrients are in short supply, they must rely on animal prey for sustenance. They catch their dinner using a variety of strategies, from snapping their leaves shut on unsuspecting insects to snagging snacks with sticky tentacles to sucking in their prey like a vacuum cleaner.

    Before the film, Dr. Ellison sheds light on the curious world of carnivorous plants and on how these fabulously complex plants can further our understanding of how a complete, functioning natural ecosystem works.

    At Harvard Forest, Harvard University’s 3,500-acre outdoor classroom and ecological research laboratory in Petersham, Mass., Dr. Ellison studies the evolutionary ecology of carnivorous plants, food web dynamics and community ecology of wetlands and forests, and other phenomena. He has received the National Science Foundation’s Presidential Faculty Fellow award for excellence in research and teaching.

    Science on Screen is co-presented by The Museum of Science, Boston and made possible by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Tickets are $9.75 general admission, $7.75 for students, seniors, and Museum of Science members, and free for Coolidge Corner Theatre members. For more information and to purchase tickets online, visit www.coolidge.org/science. Tickets are also available at the Coolidge Corner Theatre box office, located at 290 Harvard Street in Brookline. Phone: 617/734-2500.