In 2002, Ann Davis bought 380 acres between Wilmot and Springfield, a woodlot where, four years earlier, an ice storm had passed through and mangled many of the beech trees, red maples, birch and other hardwoods.
Davis enlisted the expertise of local foresters, whose management methods were born out of the White Mountains-based Bartlett Experimental Forest. They collected the damaged wood in four timber harvests that encouraged the growth of new trees.
“The spruce and the pine that were left after that, they they were maybe 10 or 15 feet tall, and now 20 years later, they are 40 feet tall,” she said. “[They’re] really starting to have timber value, but they’re also just beautiful to look at.”
When the U.S. Forest Service announced last month that it planned to close Bartlett as part of an agency restructuring, a decision it has now committed to reexamining, Davis was devastated.
Over the last twenty years, she and her husband have expanded their farm, Woods Without Gile, to 530 acres. They were named New Hampshire’s Outstanding Tree Farmers of the Year in 2022 and Northeast Regional Outstanding Tree Farmers of the Year in 2024.
She said that, throughout the state, many farms like theirs rely on foresters and researchers associated with Bartlett to provide real solutions.
“Just about everybody in the state of New Hampshire, I would suggest, enjoys either the beauty or being in a forest at some time during the year, and for some people, it’s almost every day,” Davis said. “The research that they do about forest management and forest health and all the rest of those things may not be an immediate impact, but over time, the loss of that resource and that loss of that knowledge, you just never get it back.”
The U.S. Forest Service announced last month that it would be moving its headquarters from Washington, D.C. to Salt Lake City, Utah, consolidating its regional offices and closing over 50 of its 77 research facilities, including Bartlett.
On Monday, Gov. Kelly Ayotte announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which encompasses the Forest Service, would reevaluate the plan to close Bartlett. The Department also confirmed that there were no proposals threatening New Hampshire’s other experimental forest, Hubbard Brook.
In conversations with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Ayotte and Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, requested staffing support for the forests and discussed further investments into Bartlett’s facilities, including improvements to its bunkhouse.
Research at Bartlett
In its first 50 years of existence, research at Bartlett Experimental Forest focused primarily on managing hardwood for timber using already-established techniques. Questions around tree quality development and thinning practices prompted Bartlett to push research forward.
In the last two decades, researchers have investigated the dynamic between vegetation management and the needs of amphibians, small mammals and birds throughout their life cycle, according to the U.S. Forest Service. Hardwood management, regeneration methods and habitat management across the country have been influenced by research conducted at Bartlett.
Mariko Yamasaki, a wildlife biologist, worked in the U.S. Forest Service since 1984, covering research and administration at Bartlett and the Massabesic Experimental Forest. She said private landowners, state agencies and commercial foresters manage their land in different ways, but research can help guide management and create common ground between stakeholders.
“If we as researchers can share the key pieces of how you can manipulate habitat and provide for the full range of terrestrial vertebrates that use forests in New England, hey, that’s pretty good,” she said.
Yamasaki said research into creating diverse, resilient forests is a hallmark of good forest management. Planting a mix of different tree and plant species on top of implementing effective cutting methods not only produces stronger and high-quality timber but also cultivates more suitable habitats for a wide range of species, she said.
At Woods Without Gile, shelterwood harvesting and patch cuts helped Davis manage her land with a focus on enhancing wildlife habitat and protecting water sources.
“Those are all practices that have been proven to work well in northeast over years after years and years of research at the Bartlett Forest,” Davis said.
Fears surrounded potential closure
Jasen Stock looked at a test plot that experimented with high grading — “cut the best and left the rest,” as he put it — and remembered a tour he took at Bartlett’s facility a few years ago. Stock, executive director of New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association, had an “a-ha moment” when he saw how unhealthy and poorly managed the left-behind trees looked.
“When we take a group out there and we say, ‘Why do you hire a forester? Why do you hire a land manager that understands forest management?’ You can take them out to that stand and say, ‘This is why,'” he said, “because the decisions you make today are going to affect the long-term growth and productivity of this property 10, 20, 30, 40 years from now.”
Bartlett hosts many tours, workshops training sessions and discussions for landowners, foresters, teachers and students. The tours are meant to serve as two-way conversations that help researchers see what’s missing from their work or what can be improved upon, Yamasaki said.
Losing Bartlett could have meant losing those pivotal conversations.
“No one agency is going to be able to do things all by themselves. It’s a collaborative, cooperative operation,” Yamasaki said. “It’s an ongoing [conversation] because stuff changes over time and you really need to stay current.”
That research and constant interaction affects forests outside of New England, too. Northern hardwood forests are also found in New York, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, the Great Lakes region and parts of Canada. If Bartlett were to close, Stock said entire bodies of research relevant to these areas would be at risk.
“There’s pieces that we’re still learning, not to also mention that there are other kind of emerging threats and influences on forests that are coming, whether it’s changing weather, changing climate, pests [or] wildlife intensities,” he said.
The support Davis received from foresters has stuck with her through the years.
“One of the things that I think sets the Bartlett site apart is the fact that they’ve done a really wonderful job of providing practical information,” she said. “There’s just no substitute for that.”
