As the trails rest for the winter in the Mianus River Gorge Preserve and Taylor Preserve, MRG staff continue their work to advance important land and water protection efforts throughout the region.
Mianus River Gorge staff have temporarily relocated to office space at 2 Depot Plaza in Bedford Hills, NY, as work begins on our office extension project. We’re all still available by email or info@mianus.org. The website is the best place to keep up with upcoming events, news, and information. Visit us there at mianus.org.
Aside from the building project, all of our usual work continues—even out of doors in the snow!
MRG staff is selecting a new class of High School Mentorship Program students who will begin a three-year course of ecology study. Mentored by MRG wildlife biologists, these students will engage in hands-on fieldwork, data collection and analysis, and, in their senior year, present their findings at the Northeast Natural History Conference and other science fairs.
We currently have 12 students in the program who are working on high-level projects to study an array of ecology topics that help further MRG’s goals at the same time. Current projects include a comparison of two census methods for measuring the size of the Gorge’s deer herd; survival and dispersal of hemlock woolly adelgid controls; and resident and migratory owl distribution, just to name a few. The new class of high school students will work on a hemlock project (looking at hemlock genetics for resistance to pests), an invasive species burning project, a salamander survey, and a fisher survey.
Executive Director Rod Christie has been pretty much consumed with the permitting process for the building project and working with the architect, engineer, and general contractor. At the same time, Rod is working with donors and community partners throughout the region to facilitate the purchase or gift of land and/or conservation easements. He’s preparing to share his knowledge and expertise at an upcoming installment of the 2026 Bedford Field Notes speakers series.
The main task that we work on when indoors is identifying coyotes (date, time, location) on the array of wildlife cameras deployed across Westchester, Bronx, and New York City. Gotham Coyote Project co-founder and Director of Research & Education Chris Nagy, Ph.D., is monitoring coyote populations and behavior in urban environments. In another project involving wildlife cameras, Preserve Steward Jean-Luc Plante is mentoring two high school students to identify black bears and study how building density affects their movements throughout the region.
Budd and Jean-Luc are outside as much as possible no matter what the weather. They’re checking property boundaries, cutting woody stemmed invasive shrubs and vines, and repairing deer exclosures (fencing to keep deer out) within the Preserve. They are also quick to remove from the trails trees and limbs downed by winter storms both in the main Preserve and at the Taylor Preserve in Stamford, CT.
We recently published the 2026 Calendar of Events, which is available here on our web site. MRG’s popular walks feature the ecology and natural history of habitats throughout the area and their importance to the health and resilience of the Mianus River Watershed. Other events include the ever-popular Bird Walk, Owl Walk, and Winter Tree ID.
We look forward to seeing you very soon!
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