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Our Latest Newsletter:
The
Fritillary
& Bluestem.
An
Occasional Newsletter of Program
Activities
Dear Friends:
One should think that winter is a quiet time for the
Farmscape Ecology Program – well, not really...
We were busy analyzing the information gathered during the
last field season, planning the activities of the upcoming season, doing
library research, writing reports (e.g., “Roxbury Farm Biodiversity:
Conservation and Agroecological Considerations”, which is posted under Farm Manuals
at www.roxburyfarm.com) and articles
(e.g., “The Secret World of Wildlife” in Our Town, #14, Winter 2008; also
posted on our web-site under Field Notes – Musings “The more you learn”), giving
presentations, taking you on Winter
Exploration Walks and reorganizing our web-site. Please have a peek at the
new web-site (www.hawthornevalleyfarm.org/fep), which, we hope, has become much
easier to navigate and more informative.
Soon, you will find a Community
Spring Phenology List in the café corner of the Hawthorne Valley Farmstore.
Please participate by noting down your observations as nature around us begins
the next season of growth and reproduction - or just come and browse through
the observations others have noted.
Springflower Walks
(co-sponsored by the Columbia Land Conservancy) are scheduled for:
- Sunday,
April 20th, 1pm:
Floodplain Forest of Kinderhook Creek on private land in Old Chatham
- Sunday,
May 4th, 1pm:
Round Ball Public Conservation Area in Ancram
- Saturday,
May 10th, 9:30am:
Hawthorne Valley – Phudd Hill in Ghent
- Sunday,
May 18th, 1pm:
No-Bottom-Pond in Beebe
State Forest
in Austerlitz
These walks give you a chance to really become familiar with
the spring flowers of our County. If you attend a series of them, you will see
the same species at different stages of development and get a sense for the
different species assemblages in different habitats. We also share lots of
interesting information about the ecology and lore of these wonderful early
“harbingers of spring”. Please check our web-site during the week before each
walk for directions (www.hawthornevalleyfarm.org/fep).
Hawthorne Valley Farm Ecology Walks (co-sponsored by
the Columbia Land Conservancy) are scheduled for:
- Saturday,
June 7th, 2pm:
“A Scattering of Wings: Butterflies and Birds”
- Saturday,
July 5th, 2pm:
“Under Foot & Under Hoof: Plants of Pastures and Hayfields”
- Saturday,
August 2nd, 2pm:
“Getting Your Feet Wet: Aquatic Life”
- Saturday,
September 6th, 2pm:
“The Stars of Fall: Asters and Goldenrods”
- Saturday,
October 4th, 2pm:
“Color of the Wood: Forest Trees”
All Hawthorne Valley Farm Ecology Walks will start in front
of the Farmstore.
Please also visit our Farmscape
Ecology Program Info Table in front of the Farmstore on each first Saturday
of the month from June – October (same days as the Farm Ecology Walks) from 10am – 2pm. We will display seasonal
hands-on natural history materials, answer your natural history questions, and
update you on our research and other activities.
We are going to share our insight into the Ecology of Ponds
in Columbia County with the scientific community at a lunch-time seminar at
the Harvard Forest and a talk at the
Northeast Natural History Conference in
Albany, where Martin Holdrege, our long-term volunteer co-researcher will
also present a poster about his research into Native Bees as Pollinators on
Columbia County Farms.
We were awarded a new research
grant from the Hudson River Estuary
Program to expand our study of riparian corridors around the County and
into Dutchess County in collaboration with Hudsonia
Ltd. in 2009.
Our team of local participatory
researchers, Martin Holdrege, Otis Denner, and Leo Prechell
has been going strong through the winter and will be joined in early summer by at
least two summer interns: Tim
Biello (a graduate student of rural sociology at the University of
Missouri, who is planning to do his thesis research during his internship with
us) and Victoria Shelley (a biologist and environmental educator from
California).
If you are interested in joining our team of volunteers to participate in biodiversity research
in floodplain forests or on agricultural lands during the upcoming season, now
is the time to contact us! We can accommodate a range of different skill levels
and schedules. The important thing is that you enjoy being outdoors and are
willing to learn!
We are also looking
for volunteers in our effort to control
the invasive plant Japanese Knotweed (or “Mexican Bamboo”) along the
Agawamuck Creek in Hawthorne
Valley. You, or your
group, may “adopt” a patch of this vigorous weed and visit it every two weeks
throughout the summer to cut or break the stems back to ground-level. With
that, we hope to be able to avoid the spread of this invasive plant which,
unchecked, would likely cover most of the sunny banks of the Agawamuck within
the next decade. Please contact us by e-mail (fep@hawthornevalley.org) or phone (518
781-0243) if you might be interested in having a reason for a regular walk
along our beautiful stream throughout the summer.
In the coming season, our research will focus on
- - documentation
of the plants and animals of fifteen high quality Floodplain Forest Sites in Columbia County
- - on-farm
biodiversity documentation and management recommendations for Columbia County Farms
- - description
of the ecology and agricultural potential (with the help of Steffen
Schneider, the head farmer here at Hawthorne Valley Farm) of five large
properties that carry agricultural easements and have owners who wish to
encourage/intensify farming on their land as part of Glynwood’s Conservation Landowners Program
- - applied
agricultural research with the Farmers’
Research Group
- - biodiversity
inventory of Round Ball Public
Conservation Area.
We will also continue our consulting work with the citizens’
group investigating the ecology and history of Shaker Swamp and with Hotchkiss School
for the implementation of a guided nature trail on Blum Farm.
In spite of a full plate of research, education and
consulting activities, the consulting fees and research grants only cover
approximately two thirds of the Farmscape Ecology Program’s budget. The nature
of our Program (it is local, serves people who can and cannot pay for our
services, as well as the native plants and animals, who don’t pay in $$$...)
depends on private donations to cover the gap. Luckily, a very supportive
anonymous donor has offered a challenge
grant and is willing to match private donations to the Farmscape Ecology
Program 1:1 up to $ 15,000! So, if you like what we are doing and have been
thinking of donating to the Program but haven’t done so recently, now would be
an excellent time to make your money go twice as far!!! For your tax-deductable contribution, you may donate
on-line at www.hawthornevalleyfarm.org
(make sure to designate the donation to “HV Farmscape Ecology Program”) or send
a check to the Farmscape Ecology Program, Hawthorne
Valley Farm, 327 Rte. 21C, Ghent NY 12075.
We gratefully
acknowledge the recent donations by Olaf Anderson, Bradford Barr, Mary Gail
Biebel, Ben Borkovitz, Mike Brenner and Joanne Klein, Jim and Meg Cashen,
Rodney Dow, Joe and Diane Haley, Jay and Lea Iselin, Karen Kazzmar, Josia Macy
Jr. Foundation, Martin and Janene Ping, Michael and Barbara Polemis, Nati Rao,
Elizabeth Savory, Steffen and Rachel Schneider, Ted Timreck, and Richard Trachtman.
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