Mianus River Gorge Mission: To protect irreplaceable natural habitats for our community, wildlife, and future generations.

Since its founding in 1953, The Mianus River Gorge, Inc. (MRG) has been a leader in land conservation, ecological stewardship, applied scientific research, and environmental education. As the first land project of The Nature Conservancy and designated as America’s first National Natural Landmark by the U.S. Department of the Interior, MRG has made notable contributions to the modern conservation movement.

Today, MRG is an independent 501(c)(3) organization that protects and manages more than 1,200 acres within the Mianus River Watershed — less than 50 miles from New York City. In a region defined by intense development pressure, the Gorge safeguards one of the most ecologically significant forest blocks in the Northeastern United States. 

Across our main preserve, visitors encounter a rare old-growth hemlock forest, mature oak and maple uplands, wetlands, vernal pools, and cold-water streams. These habitats support a remarkable diversity of life, including black bear, bobcat, eastern coyote, red fox, barred owl, pileated woodpecker, wood thrush, spring peeper, spotted salamander, and native brook trout. Protecting these lands ensures that complex forest ecosystems, and the wildlife that depend on them, continue to thrive in close proximity to one of the world’s largest metropolitan areas.

Flowing through the preserve is the 22-mile Mianus River, a critical regional resource and source of clean drinking water for more than 130,000 residents in Connecticut and New York. The river is rated Class AA-Special, the highest classification for a drinking water supply. MRG works with academic institutions and partner organizations to protect the Mianus River Watershed from its headwaters in northern Greenwich, Connecticut, to its terminus at Long Island Sound.

Our work also work extends far beyond the Gorge. MRG is a founding partner of the Hudson to Housatonic (H2H) Regional Conservation Partnership, an interstate collaboration working across Connecticut and New York to improve water quality and promote sound stewardship for the health of people, plants, and wildlife. We are also a partner of the Lower Hudson PRISM, coordinating invasive species monitoring and management across the region. Through these and other collaborations, MRG advances conservation practices well beyond our own preserve.

Research is central to everything we do. MRG conducts applied ecological research designed to inform better stewardship, on our lands and across the broader region. As a founding member of the Environmental Monitoring and Management Alliance (EMMA) and a founding partner of the Gotham Coyote Project, we work with regional organizations and academic institutions to address major conservation challenges, from forest health and freshwater protection to invasive species control and human-wildlife interactions along the urban-rural gradient.

Our six Areas of Inquiry guide this work: forest health and restoration, freshwater and wetland protection, invasive species management, ecology across the urban-rural gradient, human-wildlife dynamics, and training the next generation of scientists. Since 2005, MRG staff and students have conducted long-term, large-scale studies, published peer-reviewed research, presented regularly at professional conferences, and provided expertise to conservation practitioners, policymakers, and the public.

MRG is both a preserve and a living laboratory. Through its three, inter-related programs, Mianus Graduate Fellowship in Ecology for graduate students, Mianus College Internship in Ecology, and Mianus High School Mentorship in Ecology for high school students, we cultivate a multi-year scientific learning community focused on solving real-world conservation problems. This mentor-driven model strengthens ecological science while building the next generation of conservation leaders.

Walking deep into our preserve offers a glimpse of what this landscape was like before widespread forest clearing by European settlers and during the time Indigenous Peoples stewarded this land. We acknowledge that Mianus River Gorge lies within the ancestral homelands of the Wappinger, Siwanoy, Mohican, and Munsee Lenape peoples. We honor the deep and enduring relationship Indigenous communities have with these forests, waters, and wildlife — a connection that continues today. We express our gratitude as we protect this place for future generations.