This diorama, like the 22 others in the Fisher Museum, looks amazingly real. Photo courtesy of the Fisher Museum, Harvard Forest.

On a Tuesday morning late last month, the Fisher Museum at Harvard Forest is hushed and dim, like an expectant movie theater. At the entrance, a sign reads, "Please turn the lights on yourself. The switches are around the corner." The flip of a switch reveals 23 dioramas -- the Harvard Forest Models -- embedded in the four walls of the cavernous room. The miniature scenes of forests and farms glow invitingly.

Located some 70 miles west of Boston, the Harvard Forest is comprised of approximately 3,000 acres of land in Petersham, Mass. Since its establishment in 1907, the Forest has served as a base for research and education in forestry, biology, and ecology. The internationally acclaimed dioramas portray the history of central New England forests, their management, and ecology.

A Changing Landscape

The first model depicts the landscape as seen by the first colonial settlers. Thick tree trunks with delicately grooved bark stretch up and out of view. A few reddish leaves cling to low branches of a sapling. A figure in the foreground looks off toward distant, purplish hills. It is late fall 1700. In the next model, it's 1740. Many trees are gone and a freshly plowed field of ruddy earth stretches back to a small cabin. In the foreground, a lone figure climbs toward a tethered cow. These two models depict the first of many historical changes in New England's landscape -- the clearing of forests by European settlers.

This series of models continues, depicting the expansion of farming in New England, the subsequent abandonment of fields in the mid-1800s, and, ultimately, the regrowth of forests. "The forests out there have been though a lot of changes," says Museum Coordinator John O'Keefe. "Many people are shocked to find out that this area was open 100 years ago -- that it's not always been forest."

The details make the models captivating, but they also make them useful to study. Photos courtesy of the Fisher Museum, Harvard Forest.

Forests throughout New England have a similar history. "The modern structure, composition, and function of our forested landscape today is conditioned entirely by the history of the land portrayed in the dioramas," explains Harvard Forest Director David Foster.

It's not surprising, then, that much current research at the Harvard Forest focuses on this history. The story of these models lies at the heart of the current research activities of the Harvard Forest Long Term Ecological Research Program and the Harvard-based National Institutes of Global Environmental Change.

Forestry Practices

Another series of models depicts forestry practices. In the "First Hardwood Weeding" model, men stoop with machetes in a froth of small trees -- they're weeding out smaller or malformed stems. In the early part of this century, the first Harvard Forest director, Richard Thornton Fisher, developed methods to improve the quality of trees in New England forests.

"The practices depicted [in the models] haven't changed much, though the tools have," says O'Keefe. Because prices for pine were high in the early 1900s, many of these methods focused on promoting the growth of pines. Today, hardwoods such as oaks are more valuable, but the emphasis on management remains. "Many people may want to improve the quality of trees for the future, rather than going in to quickly cut trees for cash," he says.

Foster continues, "For the individual person who wants to put in the time into their backyard, 5-acre lot, the dioramas offer great information."

These unique models have been at Harvard Forest since 1941. Founding Director Fisher designed them in the late 1920s and the Guernsey and Pitman Art Studio in Cambridge constructed them in the '30s.

The artists twisted strands of wire into delicate branches and cut precisely lobed oak leaves from thin copperplate. They molded the rough surface of the ground and painted gleaming skies on the backdrops. The resulting detail is astounding ‹ dirt roads show wheel ruts, tiny tufts of grass poke from old stone walls, the stones themselves are mottled with lichens. In one model, the golden sky of a sunset reflects off the curved trunk of a white birch. In another, a lone bird perches high in a tree branch. These details make the models captivating, but they also make them useful for study. Foster comments, "The models are so filled with information that they continue to teach students, including all of us."

Upstairs, the Fisher Museum offers other engaging exhibits. One explains how trees survive human interference, animal damage, breakage from ice storms, insect attacks, and fungal infections. A sign reads, "Chestnut Blight: A Sad Story," while another reads, "White Pine Rust: A Story Not Quite So Sad." Another exhibit documents the drastic effects of the "wind that shook the world," the Great Hurricane of 1938, which surprised and ravaged New York and New England with winds of up to 180 miles per hour. Photographs show the leveled forests and stacks of logs. Newspaper articles of the time discuss the monumental salvage effort. The equipment of a 1930s woods crew is featured.

Scattered throughout the Museum, posters describe current research being conducted at the Forest, including "Regional impacts of New England Hurricanes since 1635" and "Tree Recovery and Regeneration Following an Experimental Hurricane."

Still, the models are "the starting point for every visit to the Museum," says Foster. They offer valuable insight into the constant changes of New England landscape. Says O'Keefe, "I hope visitors take away a message of hope -- that this landscape is resilient, providing natural resources, aesthetics, recreation, and environmental value."

Outside the Museum, the Forest itself stretches back, inviting visitors to pick up a map at the entrance and explore its many acres.