"A medley of researchers and foresters have worked together to monitor the Clement Woodlot, with the help of Kevin Evans, Dartmouth College's forestry director. Their goals are twofold: to record the threatened ecosystem with the ash — a genus of tree that has long been an integral element of northern hardwood forests — and to develop the best strategies to manage a forest to be resilient.

"[Dartmouth Environmental Studies Research Assistant Professor David] Lutz said the sensors that he was wiring with Emma Hazard, an undergraduate research assistant, and Karin Rand, a UVM research technician, were a 'last shot' at memorializing an ash forest."

..."The sensors that Lutz, Hazard and Rand wired and turned on Aug. 27 will capture a wide range of data, ranging from air temperature, the water available to trees and plants, solar radiation, snow depth and the amount of carbon released from the soil into the air.

"These sensors will connect to nine stations that dot the forest. Each station has a solar panel, a battery and a computer mounted in a protective wooden box. Lutz and several of his students built these adaptable, 'do-it-yourself' stations in his garage with support of funding from organizations including the National Science Foundation (which is funding similar sensors in other New England forests) and the Neukom Institute for Computational Science at Dartmouth College.

"Hazard programmed the computers to record data from the sensors every 15 minutes."

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