The Hubbard Brook Research Foundation ("HBRF") was founded in 1993 to promote the understanding and stewardship of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems through scientific research, long-term monitoring and education.  Its goals are to sustain and expand long-term monitoring and research at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, to bridge the gap between ecosystem science and public policy by enhancing exchange of information among scientists, policymakers, land managers and the public, and to foster public understanding of the functions of ecosystems and their importance to society. 

The Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest is home to one of the longest running ecosystem studies in the world.  The Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study is a comprehensive study of forest and associated aquatic ecosystems conducted by a team of scientists from numerous institutions.  Acid rain in North America was first identified at Hubbard Brook in the mid-1960s.  Since then hundreds of scientists working at the 7,800-acre experimental forest have studied ecological patterns and processes that characterize forests in eastern North America, assembling a massive, uninterrupted data record of meteorology, hydrology, biogeochemistry, forest growth and population dynamics of key wildlife species.  This continuing ecological record has proven to be invaluable for identifying and better understanding vexing environmental problems and for pursuing significant new research questions. 

One outgrowth of this has been HBRF's Science Links project to connect ecosystem research with policy making in a timely, clear and widely available format.  The premises of this program are:

(1) environmental policy is more effective when it is grounded in environmental science;
(2) ecosystem science can be enriched by an awareness of current public policy issues and social concerns; and
(3) science serves the public best when it does not advocate specific policies, but instead provides scientific information about likely outcomes of policy choices.