A living laboratory
Since its establishment in 1931, generations of students and professors have used the Connecticut College Arboretum as a living laboratory to learn about the natural world. With a wide diversity of natural and managed habitats a few steps away from the lecture and residence halls, over 20 courses regularly use the Arboretum. Honors and master's thesis projects, as well as student individual study projects, commonly use the Arboretum as a field site for research.
The Arboretum supports a number of ongoing, long-term ecological research projects, including the Bolleswood Natural Area vegetation surveys begun in 1952 and the detailed bird breeding census begun in 1953. Both of these research projects were initiated by former botany professors and directors of the Arboretum, William Niering and Richard Goodwin.
The history of teaching and research in the Arboretum through 1990 is described in more detail in Arboretum Bulletins No. 28 and No. 32. Publications by faculty, staff, and students that report work done in whole or in part in the Connecticut College Arboretum are listed in this research bibliography.
Each Arboretum Annual Report, has a teaching and research section which details the classes, projects and publications for that year.