Howland Forest

A team of scientists from the US Forest Service, the University of Maine and The Woods Hole Research Center are studying the forest near Howland, Maine, representative of a vast forested area of central Maine. This site is located within the GMO Northern Experimental Forest (formerly owned by International Paper), and much of the new research is being done in cooperation with GMO . The team includes plant physiologists, ecologists, meteorologists and soil scientists who study how the intact forest interacts with its environment, responding to warm and cold spells, wet and dry conditions, and differences in weather from year to year. We are also studying how forest disturbance could alter how the forest interacts with the environment, and what the consequences might be for carbon storage in these forests.

Below the canopy at the Howland forest

The Howland study site is located in a boreal transitional forest. This forest is dominated by mixed spruce, hemlock, aspen and birch stands ranging in age from 45 to 130 years. The soils are formed on coarse-loamy granitic basal till.

We measure the amount of carbon that the forest is accumulating in trees, deadwood and soil, and study the conditions that favor this storage of carbon. Our research helps us understand how different factors affect the rate at which forests store carbon and how carbon storage might change in the future.

Currently, this old growth forest is scheduled to be harvested in the near future.  We are working with the Northeast Wilderness Trust to purchase this area, securing it for future research and nature.  Click here to learn more about the effort to secure the Howland Research Forest http://www.newildernesstrust.org

©Woods Hole Research Center, 2007