TO SEE WHAT IT’S LIKE TO WORK IN ALL KINDS OF WEATHER CONDITIONS.
♪ ERIN: I WENT TO THE WOODS BECAUSE I WISHED TO LIVE DELIBERATELY, TO FIND ONLY THE ESSENTIAL FACTS OF LIFE IN SEE IF I COULD NOT LEARN WHAT IT
COULD TEACH.
HENRY DAVID THRO WAS ACUTELY AWARE OF ALL THAT COULD BE LEARNED FROM A SIMPLE WALK IN THE WOODS.
AND AT THE HUBBARD BROOK EXPERIMENTAL FOREST IN WOODSTOCK, THEY ARE CONSTANTLY LEARNING FROM THE WOODS.
>> TODAY IS MONDAY.
FOR THE PAST ALMOST 18 YEARS, I HAVE COME OUT IN THIS FOREST EVERY MONDAY, ALL KINDS OF WEATHER, EVEN IN THE RAIN, TO COLLECT THE ROUTINE STREAM AND PRECIPITATION SAMPLES FOR THE
LONG-TERM RECORD.
ERIN: HUBBARD BROOK WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1955 BY THE U.S.
FOREST SERVICE AND IS ONE OF THE MOST STUDIED FORESTS IN THE NORTHEAST.
>> DATA IS COLLECTED ON A 15 MINUTE BASIS.
BUT WE COME OUT AND WE HAVE TO CHECK THE INSTRUMENTS AND MAKE SURE THEY ARE UP TO SPEED AND STILL WORKING.
♪ >> I LOVE BEING ABLE TO BE ABLE TO KEEP MY FINGER ON THE PULSE OF THE FOREST, AND SEE THE SUBTLE AND GREAT CHANGES.
ERIN: HERE THE DATA TELLS A STORY, AND THE WORK PART OF RESEARCH CONSTANTLY BEING GATHERED AND STUDIED AT THE WORLD-RENOWNED FOREST.
>> PEOPLE RECOGNIZE THE NAME HUBBARD BROOK ALL OVER THE WORLD.
ERIN: THE EXPERIMENTAL FOREST IS COMPRISED OF APPROXIMATELY 7000 900 ACRES WITHIN THE WHITE MOUNTAIN NATIONAL FOREST, DEDICATED SOLELY TO LEARNING MORE ABOUT OUR FOREST ECOSYSTEM.
>> THE LONG-TERM MONITORING IS THE HEART AND SOUL OF WHAT WE DO HERE AT HUBBARD BROOK.
IT PROVIDES A FOUNDATION FOR THE LONG-TERM RECORD, AND I THINK WE ALL KNOW THAT ECOSYSTEMS CHANGE THEIR HE SLOWLY.
-- VERY SLOWLY.
IT IS THE LONG-TERM RECORD THAT ALLOWS US TO SEE THIS CHANGE.
I LIKE TO THINK OF IT AS WE MAKE THE UNSEEN SCENE, OR THE IMPERCEPTIBLE PERCEPTIBLE.
ERIN: THE PIONEERING WATERSHED EXPERIMENTS DONE HERE LED TO THE DISCOVERY OF ACID RAIN.
HUNDREDS OF EXPERIMENTS IS -- SPEARMAN’S -- EXPERIMENTS ARE DONE EVERY DAY, EVERY SEASON.
♪ >> ON ANY ONE DAY, WE MIGHT COLLECT 30,000 DATA POINTS.
IN ANY ONE YEAR, WE COLLECT UPWARDS OF 50 MILLION, 60 MILLION DATA POINTS.
I LIKE TO IMAGINE DATA FLYING THROUGH THE AIR.
♪ ERIN: AS THE SITE MANAGER AT HUBBARD BROOK, IAN IS IN CHARGE OF MAKING SURE THE DATA KEEPS FLOWING.
>> EVERY MORNING, WE COME IN AND LOOK AT OUR REAL-TIME COMPUTER AND MAKE SURE ALL THE DATA IS STREAMING WELL AND THERE IS ANYTHING GIVING US PROBLEMS, OR BATTERIES THAT ARE DEAD.
BAD DATA IS WORSE THAN NO DATA.
ERIN: HE IS ALSO IN CHARGE OF FINDING ROOM FOR EVERYONE TO WORK.
>> I AM THE GO TO PERSON, WHEN SOMEBODY WANTS TO DO RESEARCH ON STREAMS OR SALAMANDERS, THEY WANT -- THEY COME TO ME, AND WE WILL FIGURE OUT THERE IN THE FOREST THAT CAN HAPPEN WITHOUT
OVERLAPPING WITH OTHER WORK.
THE CRAZIEST ONE, I’M SURE YOU HEARD ABOUT, IS OUR ICE STORM EXPERIMENT.
WE ACTUALLY SPRAYED WATER IN THE WOODS WHEN IT WAS SUBZERO AND WE CREATED AN ICE STORM, AND WE MADE TREES BREAK.
IT WAS REALLY -- THAT IS ONE OF THE FUN THINGS ABOUT MY JOB, HELPING DESIGN THESE EXPERIMENTS.
ERIN: THE ICE STORM IS ONE OF MANY EXTREME CLIMATE EVENT EXPERIMENTS THAT TEST EVERYTHING FROM FROZEN SOIL TO RAINFALL.
♪ >> I AM STANDING IN FRONT OF THE HUBBARD BROOK EXPERIMENTAL FOREST DROUGHT NET EXPERIMENT.
THE DROUGHT NET EXPERIMENT IS ACTUALLY REMOVING 50% OF THE INCOMING RECIPROCATION, AND IT MIMICS A ONE IN 100 YEAR DROUGHT.
ERIN: SCOTT IS A RESEARCH GEOLOGIST AND HAS BEEN WORKING AT HUBBARD BROOK 22 YEARS.
>> SOME OF THE THINGS WE DO AROUND HERE, MORE OR LESS THE SAME THINGS DONE SINCE 1955.
THE LONG-TERM RECORD AND THE FACT WE HAVE BEEN ABLE TO SORT OF KEEP TRACK OF THE PULSE OF THE FOREST THROUGH THE WATER AS IT IS MOVING THROUGH IT IS REALLY UNIQUE.
WE HAVE THE LONGEST RECORD OF RAIN AND SNOW CHEMISTRY IN THE WORLD, AND ONE OF THE LONGEST RECORDS OF STREAM CHEMISTRY IN THE WORLD.
ERIN: THAT RECORD IS ACCESSIBLE TO NEW SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTS AND STUDIES THANKS TO THE PHYSICAL ARCHIVE HOUSE ON SITE WITH OVER 25,000 WATER SAMPLES AND OVER 25,000 WOULD AND SOIL
SEVERS.
>> WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING AT HERE IS ACTUALLY WATER SAMPLES COLLECTED AT THE HUBBARD BROOK EXPERIMENTAL FOREST AS FAR BACK AS 1967.
ERIN: THE HARD-WORKING TEAM AT HUBBARD BROOK TAKES PRIDE IN WHAT THEY DO, AND THEY FEEL STRONGLY ABOUT PASSING THEIR KNOWLEDGE ON TO THE NEXT GENERATION OF SCIENTISTS.
>> I THINK HUBBARD BROOK, PAST, PRESENT, AND NEXT GENERATION GOING INTO THE FUTURE, IS JUST A TREMENDOUS COMMUNITY OF SCIENTISTS AND LEARNERS.
ERIN: THEY WANT EVERYONE TO KNOW THEY ARE KEEPING WATCH.
>> I WOULD HOPE THAT OUR NEIGHBORS, BOTH LOCALLY AND REGIONALLY, THEY HAVE THE PEACE OF MIND THAT WE ARE UP HERE IN THE FOREST AND WE ARE SLOWLY AND CAREFULLY AND METICULOUSLY
MONITORING THE HEALTH OF THE FOREST ECOSYSTEMS, AND ON THE ALERT FOR THREATS NOW AND IN THE FUTURE.
WE DO HAVE POWER THROUGH SOLID SCIENCE, THROUGH COMMUNICATING OUR SCIENCE, AND THROUGH PASSING THAT ON TO OUR POLICY MAKERS TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
WE DO THAT HERE AT HUBBARD BROOK.
♪