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Bard Office of Sustainability

Food, Water, and Land Use

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The Bard Campus: nearly 1,000 acres in the Hudson River Valley
The developed portion of campus occupies about 100 acres; the remainder comprises meadows, forests, wetlands, a tidal estuary, and the Saw Kill, a Hudson River tributary. The campus is bounded by the Hudson River to the west and is part of the Hudson River Direct Drainage area, Saw Kill Subwatershed. The Saw Kill provides the College with its drinking water. Wastewater is returned to the Saw Kill after it is treated at our sewer treatment plant. Bard seeks to continuously improve its practices related to water conservation, wastewater, and stormwater. The Bard Farm at the north end of campus has views of the Catskills. 

Land Acknowledgment for Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson

Developed in Cooperation with the Stockbridge-Munsee Community

In the spirit of truth and equity, it is with gratitude and humility that we acknowledge that we are gathered on the sacred homelands of the Munsee and Muhheaconneok people, who are the original stewards of the land. Today, due to forced removal, the community resides in Northeast Wisconsin and is known as the Stockbridge-Munsee Community. We honor and pay respect to their ancestors past and present, as well as to future generations, and we recognize their continuing presence in their homelands. We understand that our acknowledgment requires those of us who are settlers to recognize our own place in and responsibilities toward addressing inequity, and that this ongoing and challenging work requires that we commit to real engagement with the Munsee and Mohican communities to build an inclusive and equitable space for all.

This land acknowledgment, adopted in 2020, required establishing and maintaining long-term, and evolving, relationships with the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians. The Mellon Foundation's 2022 Humanities for All Times grant for “Rethinking Place: Bard-on-Mahicantuck” offers three years of support for developing a land acknowledgment–based curriculum, public-facing Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS) programming, and efforts to support the work of emerging NAIS scholars and tribally enrolled artists at Bard.

Food, Water, and Land Use Initiatives

  • Food and Farming on Campus
    The Bard Farm produces vegetables for Bard Dining and has a seasonal weekly farm stand. The Bard Farm Educator, Rebecca Yoshino, works to restore the carbon content of farm soil. Bard Dining is committed to improving the food system.  By 2019, more than 20% of food met the definition of real food according to the student-driven Real Food Challenge. Staff, students, and faculty collaborate through BardEATS.   Bard Farm  BardEATS
  • Stormwater and Wastewater
    Stormwater comes from rain or melting snow that doesn’t soak into the ground but runs off into waterways. Non–point source pollution from stormwater runoff is a leading cause of stream health degradation in New York State. Bard was awarded funding from New York State to implement a Regional Green Infrastructure Demonstration Project at the Olin parking lot that addressed stormwater runoff from a 9-acre drainage area on the Bard campus.

    Stormwater and Wastewater

    Stormwater comes from rain or melting snow that doesn’t soak into the ground but runs off into waterways. Non–point source pollution from stormwater runoff is a leading cause of stream health degradation in New York State. Bard was awarded funding from New York State to implement a Regional Green Infrastructure Demonstration Project at the Olin parking lot that addressed stormwater runoff from a 9-acre drainage area on the Bard campus.

    Olin Parking Lot
    The Bard Regional Green Infrastructure Demonstration Project at Olin addresses storm-water runoff from a 9-acre drainage area on the Bard campus. The project used permeable asphalt, porous paver walkways, a constructed wetland, bioretention and bioswales. The project ultimately cleans water before entering the Saw Kill, which is Bard’s drinking water source.  Does it work?  Professor Robyn Smyth's Environmental & Urban Studies students use the site as a living laboratory for their classwork.

    Low Impact Development / Green Infrastructure Features – how we slow down water and help clean it up:
    • 81-space permeable parking lot (asphalt); 25,500 square feet
    • Constructed wetland – walk around the path and find a frog
    • Permeable paver walkway
    • (2) small bioswales in the lawn south of Henderson computer lab
    • Native planting along east side of parking lot
    • Vegetated bioretention swale on the west side 
    Video Timeline:
    • Does it work? the Hose Test 
    • Installing at the north end
    • Rainy day drive into south end,
    • Bucket Demo
    • North end under construction (includes ponding on walkway, porous parking working at entrance)
  • Micro Hydropower Project
    In 2016, Bard received $1 million from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority's Energy to Lead Competition to evaluate and implement micro hydropower on existing small dams on the College's 1,000-acre campus. A dedicated website helps explain how this complicated, multidimensional, mutistakeholder project continues to take shape.
    microhydrony.org
  • Drinking Water and Water Conservation
    Water makes up more than 75 percent of the Earth's surface, yet only 2.8 percent of it is available for human consumption. The Bard Water Lab is a student-run community lab devoted to bringing water science to water communities. The lab is an initiative of the Bard Center for the Study of Land, Air, and Water in collaboration with the Saw Kill Watershed Community.
    Bard Water Lab

Maps and Trails

Dutchess County Parks and Trails Interactive Map

Food, Water, and Land Use Resources

Water Guidelines and Policies

Low-flow fixtures are plumbing fixtures that use significantly less water than conventional fixtures. They include toilets, urinals, showerheads, and faucets. That translates into measurable savings in both water expenses and sewage expenses, as well as a savings in the energy used to heat the water.  The College specifies low-flow toilets and shower heads, as well as aerators during building new construction as well as during renovation.

If you see a faucet that won't turn off (it drips), let B&G know - put in a Service Request.  Even a seemingly slow drip adds up very quickly to create water and energy waste. 

Bottled water coolers have been replaced by in-line filtration units. These water sources provide hot and cold water, but do so without the need to be refilled with five-gallon plastic bottles of water. They use our existing water supply, which comes from the Saw Kill Creek and is treated by our state-of-the-art drinking water plant (2009 upgrades made possible by the American Investment and Recovery Act).

Water Actions and Materials

Bard has decreased our "direct" use of water (gallons per person) by 30% since 2005 to about 40 gallons /person/day.  But that number does not account for water embodied in food. Did you know it takes about 2000 gallons of water per person per day to produce the average American diet? Producing 1 lb. of beef requires 1,799 gal. of water. Chicken requires 468 gal. (Read more in National Geographic)

  • Sustainability Report (STARS) Water reporting
  • We collaborate with the community
    • Saw Kill Watershed Community
    • Town of Red Hook Conservation Advisory Council 

Food and Land Use Guidelines and Policies

  • The 2014-2017 Sustainability Report (STARS) describes our Landscape Management (including Integrated Pest Management, native plants, wildlife management, Tree Campus USA status, snow and ice removal policies and compost program) as well as the Rainwater Management. 

Food and Land Use Actions and Materials

Bard Programs

  • Visit the Bard College Arboretum 
  • View a campus tree map
  • Visit the Center for Environmental Sciences and Humanities
Community Partners
  • Winnakee Land Trust
  • Amphibian Migration & Road Crossing Program - NYSDEC

Bard College
30 Campus Road
PO Box 5000
Annandale-on-Hudson, New York 12504-5000
Phone: 845-758-6822
Admission E-mail: [email protected]
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