Dear Colleagues:
We are in our final year of the Public Engagement with Science at LTERs (
PES@LTERs) project, a collaborative effort to embed evidence-based public engagement within the research programs at Hubbard Brook and Harvard Forest, funded by NSF’s Advancing Informal STEM Learning program.
At Hubbard Brook, this work has focused on building our capacity to develop and sustain ongoing positive relationships with stakeholders and policymakers, with a long-term goal of improving environmental research, practice, and policy.
John Besley’s research to investigate scientists’ attitudes about public engagement and the cultures of engagement at Hubbard Brook and Harvard Forest is an important aspect of this work. In the coming days you’ll be hearing from John with a link to his final survey for this project.
Please fill out this survey when you receive the link! We are a small sample size and everyone’s participation is really important. Your responses to John’s survey will directly help shape and grow the engagement work at Hubbard Brook and across the LTER Network.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! Please let me know if you have any questions. Below is a quick summary of our recent project highlights. I look forward to seeing many of you on Zoom shortly!
Warm wishes,
Sarah
PES@LTERs Project Highlights at Hubbard Brook
Led by the programs team at HBRF: Clara Chaisson, Sarah Garlick, Anthea Lavallee, and Sarah Thorne; with essential contributions from the USDA Forest Service staff, and PIs, staff, and students from the LTER program.- Increased capacity to build and sustain relationships with key stakeholders, including state and federal policymakers, landowners and land managers, NGOs, science educators, community groups, and outdoor recreation groups.
- Increased capacity for regular science communication via social media, e-newsletters, the Hubbard Brook website, and outreach to reporters.
- Successful face-to-face engagement opportunities for scientists and stakeholders including stakeholder advisors participating in COS meetings (July 2019), online and in-person roundtable dialogues, and a stakeholder symposium in Concord.
- Spin-off public engagement initiatives, supported by our relationship-based approach, including Natalie Cleavitt’s citizen science work with the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, and Stephen Kovari and Lynn Christenson’s work with The Nature Conservancy on wildlife activity on recreation lands in Conway, New Hampshire.
- Resilience Science Links synthesis project led by Alix Contosta, Shannon Rogers, Peter Groffman, Pamela Templer, and Sarah Garlick, involving stakeholders from the Hubbard Brook Advisory Council and collaborators from the New Hampshire Division of Public Health Services and The Nature Conservancy. This synthesis project includes an analysis of early warning signals of changing ecological resilience in the Hubbard Brook long-term record and an investigation of linkages between community resilience and ecological resilience in the White Mountains.
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Sarah Garlick
Director of Science Policy and Outreach
Hubbard Brook Research Foundation
603-986-0686 office/cell