Gene Likens

Gene Likens co-founded the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study in New Hampshire's White Mountains in 1963 with F. Herbert Bormann and others, measuring the chemistry of rain and stream water from small forested valleys week after week. The long record revealed acid rain in North America in the early 1970s and later showed how slowly forests recover even after pollution laws. The study continues under the US Forest Service and partner universities.