The Working Program
Continuous gauging at the lower weir; secondary measurement at the middle-reach station during the spring melt and the late-summer drawdown. Suspended solids, dissolved oxygen, temperature, and baseflow persistence are the principal indices. The record is reviewed each autumn by the senior hydrologist and abstracted for the Quarterly Review.
No commercial silviculture is practiced, nor contemplated. The forestry program consists almost entirely of observation, the removal of invasive taxa at a deliberate pace, and the maintenance of the narrow trail system used by the warden and by visiting researchers. The riparian margin is permitted its own recovery and is subject to particular protection.
A continuous, multi-year census of the parcel's flora and fauna, revised each autumn. The inventory is maintained in the archive and is the working document against which all observational claims in the Quarterly Review are checked. Graduate assistants contribute to the transect work under the supervision of the resident botanist.
The Trust's archive comprises the warden's logs since 1962, the minute book of the trustees, the complete run of the Quarterly Review since 1971, and the field notebooks of some forty visiting researchers. The archive is maintained in a dedicated reading room and is consulted by invitation.
Present mean suspended solids at the lower weir, down from 46 mg/L at the commencement of the program.
Native herbaceous species re-established along the eastern-draw transect since the third year of the program.
Recent years in which late-summer baseflow persistence at the lower station exceeded the program baseline.
Vessels permitted upon the cataract pool since 1968, in accordance with the founding covenant.
The Trust does not solicit new members, patrons, or correspondents. Membership is inherited or extended by unanimous vote of the standing trustees to individuals whose long association with the work has recommended them.
Researchers in the allied disciplines are occasionally invited, through the standing research compact, to undertake specific inquiries on the parcel. Such invitations are extended through existing institutional relationships and are not the subject of open application.
By appointment, by introduction. New engagements considered through existing relationships.