This session will highlight the role that an industrial forest plays in advancing our management and understanding the role of forests in the global ecosystem, while contributing to the fiber, recreational and aesthetic needs of society.
Originally dedicated in 1978 as a laboratory for International Paper’s Northern Forest Research Center, the HOWLAND EXPERIMENTAL FOREST (HEF), 16,385 acres in central Maine, is a focal point for silvicultural and scientific research. Early efforts in HEF supported development of intensive forest management programs for northeastern ecosystems and included: Seminal work in soils mapping resulting in site classification keys for over a million acres of industrial lands in Maine (one by-product of this research was a informational module for small landowners in the critically acclaimed Yankee Woodlot Series; Establishment of a seed orchard and field trials leading to the development of the Northern Tree Nursery; Spacing and thinning trials to improve techniques for managing growth and stocking; Development of company specific stocking and prescription guides; Various herbicide-screening trials instrumental in the labeling of products widely used today in forestry applications.
The work at Howland attracted scientists at the nearby University of Maine who collaborated on many of the company research projects ongoing in the forest. This resulted in establishing the Howland Integrated Forest Study Area (HIFS) within the HEF in 1987 to address the need for research on the effects of atmospheric deposition on forest ecosystems. The collaboration between IP, UM, USFS and US EPA to develop a long term biogeochemical cycling study was part of the US National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program. Since that time, NASA, Dept. of Energy, Dept. of Defense, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, NOAA, Woods Hole Research Center and many other universities, agencies and researchers have utilized the forest at Howland to expand knowledge in remote sensing, forest pest, soil sciences, climate change, tropospheric ozone, nitrogen cycling and a host of other topics. During this time a long term NASA project at the Goddard Space Flight Center regularly aimed the cameras and sensors of satellites and shuttles on the Howland Forest as part of the Forest Ecosystem Dynamics Project. The total volume of imagery taken makes Howland one the ‘Most Photographed“ sites on the planet. During the 1990s the focus on global change research shifted from atmospheric deposition to carbon sequestration. Howland is a key member of the Ameriflux Program and the majority of the current funded research program (approximately $2 million annually) at HIFS focuses on CO2 exchange between the forest canopy and the atmosphere. International Paper and the consortium of researchers are in the midst of a ten-year project to research carbon flux as various timber harvesting methods are conducted.
While Howland has been a frontier of research, it has remained as the back yard for the local community to hunt, fish and snowmobile and continued to furnish jobs and wood to the local economy. Howland is a “Working Forest”.
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