Maddie and Christoph Geiss went up North for a visit to Harvard Forest in Petersham, MA. Maddie got some one-on-one instructions on how to identify tricky and not-so-tricky pollen from Wyatt Oswald.
With only two scopes available, Christoph drew the short straw, had to leave them to their slides, and go for a walk, exploring the forest.
What a miserable way to spend a morning!  But, hey, if its for the good of our students we all suffer. Harvard Forest is great. Two short hiking paths teach you about land use history and forest evolution. The paths are lined by numerous experiments. The entire forest seems to be wired and labelled.
Which is probably just a sneaky way to show all our tax (NSF) dollars at work. The rest of the forest, away from the trails, is probably completely full of trees. :-) . Christoph Geiss, investigative reporter, will convince Maddie that she’ll definitely need some more help, return to Harvard Forest, sneak off the trail and work on some more conspiracy theories.
Hey, it was fun! I highly recommend a visit. If you go and read the signs or the trail guides you’ll even be able to tell whether this stone wall once surrounded a field or a pasture. How? Hey, I can’t give away all my secrets. Go – see for yourself!