I posted this letter over on Slack but wanted to share it here as well since Slack is new for us. Thank you in advance for reading.

The COVID-19 crisis continues to challenge us all. Like many, I’ve been obsessed with how to be most useful during this time. Across the science communication and science education fields, this has meant a nationwide push to collect and share science learning resources to support this new world of online schooling. Staff from the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation and the US Forest Service continue to work in this arena and we invite any of you who would like to get more involved to join us (we meet weekly on Mondays at 1:00 pm — stay tuned for more info).

We’ve also ramped up our efforts to support the Hubbard Brook community, sharing personal stories to keep connected and trying out new ways to work together online. Our leadership has been working tirelessly to develop new protocols for the experimental forest and housing facilities to maintain essential research and keep us all safe. 

But I can’t help but feel like we can do more. Many of you know that the towns surrounding Hubbard Brook survive on tourism and the service industry. As one of my co-workers at HBRF put it during our last staff meeting, “Our whole town just lost its job.” I live on the other side of the White Mountains from Hubbard Brook, in North Conway, where the story is the same.

Perhaps you read this headline in the New York Times this morning, with a feature article about Bristol, New Hampshire, 30 miles south of Hubbard Brook:
“This is Going to Kill Small-Town America.” 

I’m writing this letter to implore all of us to consider how our research efforts at Hubbard Brook might support the community members in the hard-hit small towns of the White Mountains, both now and in the future. Do you have jobs that need to be done in Bartlett or Hubbard Brook? Do you have funds to support an education and outreach activity that a local teacher or student could work on from home? Could we cobble together enough funds and tasks to support even a few community members from the White Mountains over the summer rather than deferring all funds to next year?

If you have ideas, please email me or post below my comment on Slack so others can see. Thank you for considering it.

Sending good wishes out to you all,
Sarah
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