Ann Davis of Wilmot owns and manages the Woods Without Gile, a 500-acre sustainably managed woodlot that is protected from development by a conservation easement. It was New Hampshire’s 2022 Outstanding Tree Farm of the Year.

Did you know that New Hampshire is home to the Bartlett Experimental Forest (BEF), a research site of international importance? In 1931, the U.S. Forest Service established this 2,600-acre forest near Conway as a place where scientists could research forest management methods, also known as silviculture.

For more than 90 years, foresters, biologists, and other resource managers and scientists have conducted decades-long studies at the property. One of them, Bill Leak, has spent his 68-year career studying this forest. He has conducted research on the BEF for 75 percent of its existence. In the world of forest management, the length of Dr. Leak’s tenure, plus the more than nine decades the forest, mostly hardwoods, has been studied, provides a continuity rarely found in other experimental forests.

Unfortunately, the Bartlett Experimental Forest could become an endangered species. Why? The U.S. Forest Service is evaluating whether it will continue to staff and maintain this experimental forest.

Research started almost the moment the research forest was established. One of the constants on the property is the systematic grid of more than 400 quarter-acre cruise plots established on the property in 1931-32. Periodically professionals have recorded the changes in the trees found on these plots. From 2015 to 2017, students and forestry faculty from the University of New Hampshire did this work.

These science-based, methodical observations provide a treasure trove of information about forest composition on a landscape scale, based on studying the plots established more than 90 years ago.

However, the BEF’s important work is not limited to studying how and where trees grow. It also hosts educational tours and workshops. Field classrooms provide private landowners, foresters, teachers, students and state and federal staff with opportunities to see firsthand the results of a range of silviculture methods. These include shelterwood harvests, patch cuts, single-tree selection, clear-cutting and thinning. As a control, about 45 percent of the forest has not been harvested since at least 1890, according to the USDA website entry about the Bartlett Experimental Forest.

Among the many studies started in 1934 when all the trees were harvested from 22 acres on the BEF. Twenty-five years later, when a valuable stand had grown, researchers set up four plots — three employed different thinning treatments; the fourth was left alone. After another 25 years, the study showed that after significant thinning, the growth of crop trees of some species of hardwoods doubled.

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However, trees are not the researchers’ sole topic of study at the Bartlett Experimental Forest. They take a holistic approach. Their subjects range from carbon sequestration and carbon storage to soils, the impact of seed production on animal populations and much, much more.

Virtually all the silviculture techniques used in the management of the Woods Without Gile are rooted in research conducted at the Bartlett Experimental Forest.

This work includes having a consulting forester conduct timber inventories. We employ patch cuts, shelterwood harvests and thinning to improve forest health and diversify wildlife habitat. When we updated our management plan in 2022, the BEF research inspired us to establish no-cut ecological reserves — we will not cut trees in several areas. Leaving these sections undisturbed provides us an opportunity to gauge natural succession. As a result of using these time-tested forestry methods during four harvests in twenty years, the value of the timber at the Woods Without Gile has doubled.

With 4.8 million forested acres, New Hampshire is the second most forested state (by percentage of total acreage) in the United States. Lumber production and related businesses are the third largest manufacturing industry in New Hampshire. The loss of the BEF, a valuable source of information to the landowners and others, could incur long-term economic ramifications.

Furthermore, if the U.S. Forest Service were to close the Bartlett Experimental Forest, it would be an immeasurable loss not only to those of us practicing sustainable forestry in New Hampshire but to anyone who seeks science-based information about forests in the Northeast including their impact on air and water quality and how they mitigate climate change.

If you want to prevent the BEF from becoming an endangered species, please contact Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan and Representatives Chris Pappas and Annie Kuster.