The Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies owns 10,880 acres of forestland in Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Vermont that are managed by the School Forests Program. The Program currently manages a total of 7 discrete forests that were donated to the School between 1913 and 1986 and range in size and geography from the 75 acre Crowell Ravine in Vermont to the 7,840 acre Yale Myers Forest in Connecticut. The forest composition reflects a latitudinal gradient ranging from a central hardwood covertype in Connecticut to a northern hardwood covertype in New Hampshire and Vermont. Extensive stands of pine and hemlock exist in both regions. The area encompassed by the Yale Forests includes almost all of the topographical and soil conditions, site classifications, and covertypes found in New England.
The management goals of the Yale Forests are to provide educational, research, and professional opportunities for the faculty and students and to serve as an asset in the School’s investment portfolio. Faculty and students use the Yale Forests as a laboratory for teaching, management, demonstration and research. The Forests are also utilized for academic field trips, intensive internship and training programs, and workshops for professional and community organizations. While a member of the faculty serves as Director and a University staff member serves as the Manager, graduate students working as interns or coordinators carry out the bulk of the on-the-ground management and administration. The Yale Forests are maintained as working forests, which includes selling timber and non-timber forest products from the land.
The School Forests Program, like the University as a whole, is committed to basing judgments concerning the education and employment of individuals upon their qualifications and abilities and affirmatively seeks to attract to its faculty, staff, and student body qualified persons of diverse backgrounds. In accordance with this policy and as delineated by federal and Connecticut law, the Program does not discriminate in educational programs or employment against any individual on account of that individual's sex, race, color, religion, age, disability, national or ethnic origin, or sexual orientation.
Yale Myers Forest
The largest parcel is the Yale Myers Forest, which covers 7,840 acres (3,213 ha. 12.2 sq. mi.) in the towns of Ashford, Eastford, Union, and Woodstock, in Windham and Tolland Counties, Connecticut. This forest has the most activity in terms of education, research, and harvesting operations of all the forests managed by the School. Yale Myers is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). It is comprised of mainly mixed hardwoods on glacial till soils with a large component of hemlock, several scattered white pine stands (mainly of old field origin), and occasional red pine plantations started in the 1940s after field abandonment. There are numerous small ponds and most wetland areas have been created by beaver activity. The majority of this parcel is surrounded by large state (park and forest) and private forest ownerships. Most of the adjacent private landholdings are small in terms of acreage, but Hull Forest Products owns two large inholdings in the forest. Its situation makes it part of one of Connecticut's most remote forest areas, although suburban commuter dwellings are beginning to surround this area.
The Yale Toumey Forest is 1930 acres in area (764 ha, 2.22 sq. mi) and is located in the towns of Keene and Swanzey in Cheshire County, New Hampshire. The forest is mostly white and red pine, all of plantation or old-field origin and as a result of hurricane blowdowns. Large areas comprised of glacial sandy outwash of the Assabet river valley promote a coniferous forest. In the area surrounding the city of Keene, the forest has become more like a suburban park, as the residents of the city use forest spring water and hike, jog and bike on forest trails.
The Bowen Forest covers 462 acres (184 ha, 0.7 sq. mi.) in the town of Mt. Holly in Windsor County, Vermont. This forest is mainly northern hardwood with some spruce plantations. It is located in a saddle near Okemo Mountain. The Bowen Memorial Forest was given to the School in 1924, and it is the only Yale Forest which we are obligated to retain forever: the deed for this forest states that it must be “kept as a forest”. Edward and Elma Bowen donated the Bowen Forest in memory of their son Joseph Brown Bowen. Joseph Bowen was a graduate of the Forestry School (MF, ‘17) and died in service during World War I. There has been active logging on the Bowen Forest since the late 1950’s. Most of the forest is in northern hardwoods (beech, sugar maple, yellow birch), with some spruce and fir as well.
Cross Woods is 103 acres (42 ha., 0.2 sq. hi.) in the town of West Windsor in Windsor County, Vermont. This parcel came under Yale ownership through a gift from Mr. Gorham L. Cross in December 1982. It is a young hardwood forest that established after the lot had been cleared for home development shortly before it was donated to Yale. Recently, the Yale Forests worked with the West Windsor Vermont Conservation Commission and added the entire forest to a large (almost 1,000 acres) multi-owner greenbelt surrounding Mount Ascutney. This large area is now fully protected against development in this rapidly growing region.
Crowell Ravine is 75 acres (31 ha., 0.1 sq. mi.) in the town Duxbury in Washington County, Vermont. Robert Crowell donated this tract in December 1983. It is a northern hardwood forest that was cut over about 50 years ago. The land surrounds a steep ravine with water cascades at the bottom.
Crowell Forest is 285 acres (117 ha., 0.4 sq. hi.) in Dummerston, Vermont in Windham County and consists of two tracts about one mile apart. Robert Crowell donated the first 200-acre tract in April 1985 and the second 85 acre parcel in October 1986. Both tracts are primarily
hardwood forests, with some stands of old-field white pine. In January 1996, Yale conveyed a conservation easement on the second 85 acre tract to the Vermont Land Trust.
Goss Woods is 185 acres (76 ha., 0.3 sq. mi.) in the town of Richmond in Cheshire County, New Hampshire. James H. Goss (Yale College, '30) donated the Goss Woods parcel to the School in December of 1986 in memory of his wife, Doris B. Goss. Most of the land has been cut over (selectively) in the last decade. This hardwood forest has a large hill (small mountain) at one end.