Introduction Page 5


What happened in the Hubbard Brook valley before it became an Experimental Forest?

Part of an old logging camp stove

In the few centuries before the Forest Service purchased the land that eventually became the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, the valley was an active area.

Beginning with farming in the late 1700s and continuing with logging through the next century and into the1900s, humans have modified and changed the Hubbard Brook valley. Why do you think it is important for HBEF scientists to have a good understanding of this land use history?

In 1783 William Hobart established the first farm in the valley between Hubbard Brook and Mirror Lake (see the map; you will learn more about Mirror Lake later in the tour). Farming dominated the early settlement years, followed by a time of small industry sustained by lumber and farming. This industry grew into the logging era by the late 1800s.

By 1920, 200 million board feet of spruce and some hardwoods had been logged from the valley - over 91 percent of the total merchantable timber in the valley! Logging was a major disturbance to the forest.

Logging in the Hubbard Brook valley. This photo was probably
taken in the early 1900's near the location of the current Rain Gauge 7 (in
Watershed 4). See map.

As you can see above, even today evidence of the logging operations are visible in parts of the HBEF. Click here to view traces of old logging camps. This logging affects how the forest looks and functions - even now.

The last major disturbance to affect the Hubbard Brook valley was the Hurricane of 1938. Winds from this hurricane swept across the Valley from the southeast, blowing down trees, exposing mineral soil, and opening up large tracts of land.

As a result of the logging in the early 1900s and the 1938 hurricane, much of the forest today is approximately 80 years old with some patches of younger trees and other patches of older trees.

Eventually the federal government became interested in buying private land to protect the large watersheds of major river systems like the Pemigewasset and Merrimack from things like extensive logging. Following the passage of the Weeks Act of 1911, designed to help the federal government buy these lands, the land in the upper Hubbard Brook valley was purchased and eventually became the White Mountain National Forest. Why do you think it is important to protect these watersheds?

In 1955 the government decided to set aside the entire 3,160 hectare Hubbard Brook valley forever - for the purpose of watershed research. Now the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service Northeast Research Station cooperates with dozens of other institutions to conduct the research that makes up the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study.

Click here for a complete history of events leading to the establishment of the HBEF.


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