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 […]
Wildlife Technician Program – Worms!
Yorktown H.S. graduate Sofia Natasi recently completed her three-year tenure in MRG’s award-winning Wildlife Technician Program (WTP). Sofia was mentored by Director of Research & Education Chris Nagy who has led the program for the past 10 years. Sofia studied the change in distribution of invasive earthworms of the genus Amynthas spp., which were introduced […]
Spotlight on Research and Education, Summer 2024
July 2024 MRG high-school researchers present their work at the 2024 Northeast Natural History Conference Two of our graduating seniors in our Wildlife Technician Program presented their completed research at the 2024 Northeast Natural History Conference in April. Alex Thompson (Blind Brook HS) gave a lecture on his study of frogs in several wetlands and […]
Board Spotlight – Meet John Needham
John and Leslie Needham moved to Bedford in 1990, attracted by the rural qualities they couldn’t believe existed so close to New York City. “We didn’t know at the time how much hard work it takes by dedicated people to prevent the overdevelopment that has ravaged other suburbs,” says John. “Nobody works harder than staff […]
Redevelopment of the Havemeyer Falls Spur Trail
Ever since Mianus River Gorge Preserve opened to the public, Havemeyer Falls has been a destination for hikers ambitious enough to put in the extra effort to visit it. Located approximately two miles from the trailhead, the beauty of Havemeyer Falls on a spring morning is rarely replicated in our region. However, the path leading […]
Bridging 70 years of wildflower monitoring to examine regional climate change
In the earliest days of the Mianus Gorge Conservation Committee, as Mianus River Gorge was originally known, 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. […]
A Visit to Hobby Hill Quarry
By the end of the 18th century, the quarry industry began to take off in Westchester County, providing stone for roads, lime, and iron production. As New York City continued to expand toward the end of the 19th century, the demand for granite increased and granite quarries began to open up across the southern parts […]
Celebrating 60 years as a Natural Natural Landmark While Looking to the Future
Mianus River Gorge was one of the first National Natural Landmark (NNL) sites, designated by then Secretary of the Interior Sewart Udall, on March 7, 1964. The other sites included Elder Creek and Rancho La Brea in California, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Florida, Fontenelle Forest in Nebraska, Bergen-Byron in New York, and Wissahickon Valley, Pennsylvania. […]
GORGE+ous
Mianus River Gorge was featured in Bedford New Canaan Magazine’s May / June issue. Read the article here. Photo by Bill Abranowicz
Fire as a Control Method for Invasive Plants
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 […]