Intelligent, agile, hardy, and with a steel-like stomach, goats may be the perfect animal. For people living with the intense invasive plants of the Lower Hudson, they can be a helpful tool for conservation. MRG uses innovative conservation methods to maintain its ecosystem – from controlled fire to tiny biocontrol insects. And goats. Invasive species, […]
Just off the trail, a small moss-covered building has sat secluded behind deer fencing and mostly un-noticed by visitors. The building has been used for storage for many years.The new Gateway to the Gorge project presented an opportunity to develop this building for our visitors. Enter Natalie Desforges of Pound Ridge, a scout from local […]
In the earliest days of the Mianus River Gorge, the founders were fascinated with the flora and fauna they found here. They contacted biologists, botanists and other professionals to help them catalog the biodiversity of the Mianus River Gorge. Beginning in the mid 1950s, Dr. Henry A. Gleason, Head Curator Emeritus of the New York […]
Landon Highbloom and Emily Valenti, students engaged in MRG’s College Internship in Suburban Ecology, are getting hands-on experience in trail stewardship and riparian corridor restoration at the same time. They are planting over 100 wetland plants along stream edges. The white turtlehead, cardinal flower, and blue lobelia were all grown in MRG’s restoration garden. MRG’s […]
Fire as a Control Method for Invasive Plants As our climate changes, plants and animals shift their distributions by colonizing and establishing new territory to find suitable microclimates that allow them to persist and producing offspring to continue the process. The problem is that this process takes time, often generations; and the process is complicated […]
Mianus River Gorge partners with conservation organizations throughout the region to survey breeding populations of box turtles and wood turtles. These species are on the special concern list for New York State. Populations in Westchester have been decimated by habitat loss and fragmentation; lack of protected nesting sites; and illegal collecting, much of it for […]
Meet Tim Morris, Fierke Lab, Department of Environmental and Forest Biology SUNY ESF In the summer of 2016, I was lucky to intern at MRG where I was exposed to the basics of conducting field experiments and hands-on research regarding invasive species. That experience helped shape my academic trajectory. The work with invasive species lead […]
Fall 2023 We put together a snapshot of some of the projects, partnerships, and new initiatives we have been working on. Click here.
MRG’s College Internship in Suburban Ecology hosts four college-age students for 10 weeks every summer. Here’s a synopsis of Sarah’s vernal pool project. Click here to view her video.
The College Internship in Suburban Ecology Program (CISE) offers summer internships to college students and recent graduates who are interested in learning about the unique challenges facing urban/suburban natural resource managers. Through a variety of research and land management projects, interns are trained in the skills needed to pursue a successful career in the environmental […]