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Ernst Mayr on an environmental curriculum in the Estabrook Woods

Famed evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr ( bio here), the recipient of the world's top three honors in biology, was the originator of the idea of a field station for Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) and sponsored its location in the Estabrook Woods. He regards its creation as one of the most important accomplishments of his tenure as Director of the MCZ. Since the 1960s, he has written, in a way Thoreau would have found sympathetic, about how how important it is to the wise conduct of human affairs to have a hands-on educational experience with nature:

"Since the investigation of diversity includes the study of relationships, organisms must be studied alive and in the field.....It is about time we realize that the future of mankind is not something 'written in the stars,' something controlled by external forces, but that it is we humans ourselves who hold the fate of the species in our hands. We now have a fairly good idea what the major ills of mankind are and it has become quite clear that only a few of them are susceptible to purely technological solutions. Instead, most of them are of a behavioral-sociological nature and require a change in our value systems, a change one is not likely to accept unless one has a far better understanding of nature, of the dynamics of populations, of the biological basis of behavior, and of other components of the biology of organisms, than most of those have who are responsible for policy decisions. It will require a deeper understanding [and] massive education."

[E. Mayr, "Museums and Biological Laboratories,"
Brevoria, 416:1-7 (MCZ, Dec. 28, 1973)]

Interesting new information has come to light about Ernst Mayr's reasons for creating a field station here for the benefit of not only Harvard but the biological study needs of the area's institutions: In his proposal to the Ford Foundation for a grant to purchase a site in Estabrook Woods, wrote:

"To preserve some relatively unspoiled remnants of nature for the benefit of future generations has become a sacred obligation...not just for esthetic and spiritual purposes, but in order to permit the study of living nature. We are in desperate need to know more about the dynamics of animal populations, about the turnover in plant communities, and about the replenishment of renewable resources....Intelligent conservation involves a knowledge of ecology--a knowledge of the relationship of plants and animals to their environment. And field work is the life blood of ecology....Why is field research needed?...[We] are still appallingly ignorant about the working of nature...."

(Mayr, E. [ca. 1965]. "Proposal for a 700 Acre Ecological Outdoor Laboratory
within 20 Miles of Cambridge at Concord, Massachusetts." Cambridge: MCZ.)

This proposal described the MCZ's criteria for a field station (a varied terrain, a tradition of careful public use, protection against human alteration for long periods, proximity to Cambridge, and a sufficient size to prevent edge disturbance). The Ford Foundation proposal continued,

"From the point of ecological diversity, the area [in Estabrook Woods] contains most of what is typically New England. There are open fields, and an orchard, fields 'going back' to woodland--young, old, and second-growth--and a few stands of large conifers. There is a small stream, a pond of about 15 acres, a smaller pond, and marshland....The wildlife is remarkably diverse and the flora is well represented. It should be emphasized, however, that its desirability stems not so much from its unique ecology, but from its being typical of a great deal of the land in New England and New York."

Dr. Mayr described the 670-acres in Estabrook Woods as "an almost ideal tract of land" (Report of the Museum Director, Annual Report: 1966-67, p. 6).

Thirty years later, on May 10, 1999, at an evening discussion at Concord Academy, Dr. Mayr, then 94 years of age, discussed the changing mix of wild species in the regional environment within a human lifetime, and the contining opportunity for challanging teaching in his Estabrook Woods:

"You have these turnovers [in populations of wild species]. Sometimes you can explain them. Henry Thoreau studied this phenomenon very carefully and he found out where the white pine forests were, where oak forests were, what happened if the white pine forest was cut down, what would grow up there. Finally, he had a long manuscript which was lying in the archives...for more than 100 years. Finally, somebody... published it...with the title Faith in a Seed. It is a wonderful book, in which he shows all these things. He describes how, for instance, he was sitting at the edge of a white pine forest, and not far from there were some oaks producing an abundant crop of acorns. He saw how the Blue Jays would go to those oak trees, pick up an acorn, fly inside the pine forest, and bury it....Then 5 or 10 years later, the owner of the white pine forest sold the lumber of this pine forest to a mill, the pines were all cut down, and, lo and behold, another year or two later, everywhere little oak trees grew up.

"Now, that is the kind of turnover we get everywhere. Sometimes we don't know why. We have to think of the ecosystem not as something fixed for all times. (In fact, there are many ecologists who deny there is such a thing as an ecosystem.) But it is a dynamic balance between species. Some increase. Some decrease. If there is a change in climate, if we really have warming of the climate, as is now stated by virtually everybody who is a good student of these things, we are bound to have a considerable change in our vegetation. That's one of the reasons why I am so interested in Estabrook Woods. There is an ideal area. It is close to several schools of the middle level. It is within 35 minutes driving distance from Harvard University. In these Estabrook Woods, very definite plots should be staked out and marked with very careful censuses of what occurs. Now, work like this is being done in the tropics in several places....The Smithsonian Tropical Institute is doing that and making the most fascinating discoveries. We know comparatively little about the dynamics of our temperate forests in New England, and I think Estabrook Woods would be the ideal place. It wouldn't change the Woods at all; just record what's happening. Of course, on certain small plots, one could have experiments and remove one particular species of trees and see what effect it has on the fauna and flora of that plot. So I think these dynamic movements of ecosystems is one of the most fascinating things to study. It is relatively easy to study but somebody has to take the leadership and start-'Now we are going to get going on this sort of thing.'...

"I'm sure if somebody made a thorough study of the vegetation of Estabrook Woods, we would find unexpected discoveries. It needs a little imagination and needs leadership, that's all I want to say.

"To think all the problems have been solved is a great mistake. I do think our basic theories--the evolutionary theories that we now have--are by and large correct but when it comes to details--I was just utterly surprised that in a crater lake only a mile in diameter seven species of fish could develop without getting all mixed up with cross breeding. Just to show you how sometimes one has to abandon old fixed ideas. This will happen all the time....There's a lot in nature that is unexpected, and a lot that still needs to be done."

In 1998, Dr. Mayr had written to a former chair of the Middlesex trustees, with whom he had worked during the creation of the Field Station: Dr. Mayr recollected that

"It was an accomplishment that promised long-term educational benefits for both the Museum and its soon-to-be neighbor, the Middlesex School, who had long held their land as a nature preserve. The creation of the Field Station was enthusiastically supported by [the Middlesex headmaster and] the Middlesex trustees. . . . I had hoped, however, and I still hope, that the leadership of the School will continue to agree that what will be of enduring educational value to both institutions is to preserve the core of the Woods as a teaching and research preserve, and to act consistently with those purposes on buffering land. I acknowledge that Middlesex School has recently offered to place other (though somewhat peripheral) land under restriction by way of mitigation, but I fear that the phased development into the core will not only itself do harm but also will encourage others to increase the intensity of development."

A few months later, at a 1999 gathering of some of Estabrook's friends, Professor Mayr smiled as he read aloud the final paragraph of is 1960s proposal to create an ecology study area--a Field Station--in Estabrook Woods. He remarked that the paragraph was just as true in 1999 as it had been when he wrote it thirty years before. It reads as follows:

"The [Estabrook Woods] would serve ideally as a natural area where Harvard's scientists can carry on ecological researches. The special significance to society of preserving this unspoiled area is that it will not only enhance the value of historical Concord, one of the finest heritages of America's colonial past, but that it will also greatly benefit future generations of students and teachers whose work is vital to the general welfare."

[Note: It was a pleasure to read, in the December 16, 2001 Sunday New York Times Book Review (page 11) a full-page review of Ernst Mayr's most recent book What Evolution Is (NY: Basic Books, 2001). The reviewer notes that Mayr, now 96, has held the honorary title "the greatest living evolutionary biologist" for more than a half century. He continues to be hard at work: also published in 2001 was a 500-page scholarly work on the birds of Melanesia, written with Jared M. Diamond. The author of this Estabrook web site was honored to receive a call from Dr. Mayr this fall, expressing his continued interest in the protection of Estabrook Woods. When I answered the phone one evening, a familiar voice asked with characteristic directness, "Good evening, Mr. Ells, what is happening with Middlesex School?"]

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