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This fall, students from Tom O’Dowd’s Environmental and Urban Studies Practicum on Sustainable Trail Design teamed up with the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference Long Distance Trails Crew in Bear Mountain State Park, New York. The students helped with a relocation project of the Appalachian Trail on the southwest side of Bear Mountain.

By Sarah Wallock '19

In collaboration with Bob Fuller, Andrea Minoff, and Marty Costello
Photos by Andrea Minoff and members of the Long Distance Trails Crew

This past October, students from Tom O’Dowd’s Environmental and Urban Studies Practicum on Sustainable Trail Design teamed up with the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference (NYNJTC) Long Distance Trails Crew (LDTC) in Bear Mountain State Park, New York. The students helped with a relocation project of the Appalachian Trail on the southwest side of Bear Mountain.

In this EUS Practicum, the students study how to implement sustainable sidewalks, pathways, and trails into communities and the complications that may arise. The class spent the semester learning about the design of trails and the effects of proper and improper trail construction. The class works with Amy Parella, director of Bard’s Landscape and Arboretum program, and Laurie Husted, Bard’s sustainability manager, as well as local trail experts from Red Hook, the Winnakee Land Trust, and the National Park Service. They research and present on trails at a local and global level.
  
Usually the students work on the college’s trail system or nearby on the Tivoli Bays trail system, trails in Red Hook, and rail trails in Kingston, but they chose to travel 70 miles south for this project. Tom O’Dowd, executive administrator of Environmental and Urban Studies, instructed the class to elect somewhere where they could go and make a difference on a more regional level. The class came up with the idea to go to Bear Mountain and made all the arrangements. 

Bard students Evelyn Buse 16’, Isaiah Chisholm 16’, Hannah Conely 17’, Rock Delliquanti 16’, Clara Duman 18’,  Duncan Routh 17’, and Yuejiao Wan 17’, along with Caroline Francisco, a friend from Yale, worked closely with the LDTC. The LDTC is a collection of volunteers dedicated to the construction and rehabilitation of foot trails along the Appalachian Trail, Long Path, and Highlands Trail in New York, west of the Hudson. The LDTC crew leaders Chris Reyling, Erik Garnjost, and Bob Fuller instructed students how to design a sustainable, aesthetically pleasing, and natural-looking trail. They demonstrated the use of equipment so students could relocate rocks to clear the trail. They crushed rock with sledgehammers and dug dirt from a borrow pit to landscape the final trail.
 

Bob Fuller, Wendi Wan, Chris Reyling, and Duncan Routh work together to move a rock.

When asked about how this trip related to their EUS course Hannah Conely replied, “We spent a lot of time discussing how different methods of trail building and different design features could be applied to fit specific terrains, soil types, and other aspects of trails.” Rock Delliquanti added, “The section of the trail we were replacing had been washed out and eroded from foot traffic. We moved a several hundred pound rock with a system we learned about in class, and we saw how this trail was being laid out and how this problem was being worked through.”

The Environmental and Urban Studies students were impressed by the intricacies of trail construction and the hard work required to create safe and beautiful trails. Conely reflects, “It was an incredible day, the people who we worked with were fun and very knowledgeable. I was shocked at how much we could help. We were doing work that needed to get done and even though it was our first time we felt quite useful.” Delliquanti added, “It made me really appreciate how much effort goes into these things. And these guys were hilarious and made such a great team. Especially because it's all volunteer and they want to have fun and get the job done so their attitude was infectious.”

Bob Fuller demonstrates trail construction practices to students.

 

According to the LDTC, the Bard students’ work was greatly appreciated. The New York-New Jersey Trail Conference has partnered with parks to create, protect, and promote a network of more than 2,100 miles of public trails in the New York metropolitan region. This contribution not only helped the LDTC’s mission but it inspired the EUS students and brought together members of the campus community with their neighbors in the Hudson Valley.  

Research Professor Gideon Eshel argues against the construction of high-voltage power towers across the Hudson Valley, citing environmental and economic concerns, as well as unproven need.

Eban Goodstein, director of Bard's Center for Environmental Policy and MBA in Sustainability, will speak from Paris for the National Climate Seminar, a biweekly, dial-in conversation and podcast.

A study authored by Bard professor Gidon Eshel shows that grass-fed cattle may be worse for the environment than cattle from industrial feedlots.

Bard senior and Environmental and Urban Studies major Nicole Leroy reviews Bard's remarkable, coordinated progress toward local, sustainable dining on campus.

Students who stop for a bite at Bard's Manor House Cafe look out the windows to a field where an ever-increasing amount of the produce being served on campus is sustainably grown by their peers.

Bard is among more than 200 colleges and universities that have signed President Obama's American Campus Act on Climate Pledge ahead of the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference in Paris.

Amy Parrella offers advice for putting gardens to bed for the winter, recommending a balance between a tidy yard and keeping plants protected in cold weather.

The Bard College Farm's cranberry bog is the only one in the Hudson Valley. With the harvest growing bigger every year, they're selling at farmer's markets and to local restaurants.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry began his Central Asian trip with a visit Saturday, October 31, to the University of Central Asia (AUCA) in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, to take part in the dedication of the University’s new green campus, which is being constructed in partnership with Bard College. AUCA is the region’s only university offering U.S.- and Kyrgyz-accredited degrees in liberal arts, through its partnership with Bard. Kerry praised the university as a “flagship institution that is transforming educational opportunities for students and for teachers all across the region.” As part of construction of the new campus, Bard has received a $850,000 grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance, Office of American Schools and Hospitals Abroad for the construction of AUCA’s first residence building.

Local activists walked across the Hudson River on Friday, October 23, to urge delegates to the UN conference in Paris to commit to carbon reductions. More than 30 Bard College students and staff members joined peers from Vassar, Marist, and SUNY New Paltz, as well as representatives from more than a dozen local organizations on the Walkway Over the Hudson between Highland and Poughkeepsie, New York. The Paris 2015 conference—also called COP 21—will take place November 30 to December 11. Delegates aim to create a new international agreement on climate with the aim of keeping global warming below 2°C.

Students who stop for a bite at Manor House Cafe on the Bard College campus look out the windows to a field where an ever-increasing amount of the produce being served on campus—greens, tomatoes, peppers, beets, squash, cranberries, and other fruits and vegetables—is being sustainably grown by their peers. Creating a connection between students, farm, and food is one of the central missions of the Bard College Farm, a 1.25-acre sustainable urban farm where Bard students organically grow fruit and vegetables to sell to Chartwells, the campus dining service. So far, during the 2015 growing season, Chartwells has purchased 16,000 pounds of fresh produce from the farm.

Guiding all of the Bard’s sustainable food initiatives is Bard EATS (Eating Awareness Transforms Society), a collaborative partnership among Bard students, dining services, faculty, and staff committed to increasing food purchasing transparency, reducing waste, decreasing the College’s carbon footprint, promoting food access, and supporting local farms and sustainable products. Their work has been so effective that Bard met its pledge to purchase 20 percent “real food” (local/community based, fair, ecologically sound, or humane as defined by the Real Food Challenge) five years ahead of schedule.

“Having local and sustainable menu options, as well as our own farm on campus, has positive cultural, economic, and environmental effects for Bard as well as for our greater community,” says Katrina Light, food sustainability advocate for Chartwells at Bard. “Students were instrumental in getting the school to sign on to the Real Food Challenge, the administration was supportive, and Chartwells was eager to make it happen. We are currently in the process of drafting a five-year food and agriculture Plan.”

Many of these efforts will be on display this weekend in celebration of National Food Day, with Bard EATS hosting a farmers market, featuring local vendors and farms, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Kline Commons and sponsoring an online real-food drive to benefit Caring Hands Soup Kitchen in Kingston. For more information, call 503-821-9750, e-mail [email protected], or visit www.facebook.com/EATBard. To support the food drive, please visit amplify.ampyourgood.com/user/campaigns/1911.

Since Bard College Farm was founded in 2012, more than 80 students have worked to produce more than 60,000 pounds of food, from basics like peppers, greens, and squash to specialty crops like honey, hops, maple syrup, cranberries, and shitake mushrooms, the latter grown in an abandoned pool converted into a mushroom-log farm. The farm also serves as an agricultural classroom and lab for Bard students and faculty and hosts tours for local school and community groups. From June through October, students, faculty, staff, and visitors to campus can purchase the farm’s produce at a weekly farmers market outside the campus center. While some of the crops, such as hops and cranberries, are sold off campus to help raise money to sustain the farm, nearly all of the rest is sold directly to Chartwells. John-Paul Sliva, founder and coordinator of Bard College Farm, says the farm’s cranberries are now on sale at Montgomery Place Orchards Farm Market, while hops grown at the farm were used by Crossroads Brewing Company in Athens, New York, to make an Octoberfest beer.

“The farm offers students a great opportunity to connect directly with their food,” says Sliva. “Our vegetables receive the highest ranking possible when judged under the Real Food Challenge criteria. You can taste the freshness and quality because of the way we farm and our location to the eaters. That is why the demand is overwhelming!”

Light says that one way Bard EATS has met its real food mission is by supporting Hudson Valley farms and business, which include, Bread Alone, Hudson Valley Fresh, Winter Sun Farms, Purdy & Sons, Feather Ridge, Wild Hive, and Red Barn Produce among many others. She stresses that Bard Dining continues to seek out local and sustainable products and providers, and, this fall, began purchasing fair trade tea, and gluten-free bagels and bread from the Gluten Free Bakery in Chatham, NY.

Having worked on a dairy co-op farm during high school in Vermont, sophomore Katherine Bonnie came to Bard with a strong interest in sustainable food efforts on campus.

“Working on the farm, getting my hands in the dirt, and taking time and space to comprehend the work that it takes to produce and harvest real food has been inspiring and has added to my perspective on the importance of local and sustainable food nutritionally, but also mentally as we think about the bigger picture,” said Bonnie, who interns with Light at Bard EATS, adding that she is looking forward to finding more ways to improve the campus’s relationship with food and food systems. “We are asking questions like, how do we continue to raise that percentage of ‘real food’ purchases? How can we work to eliminate waste and raise money and awareness to decrease throw-away materials and increase reusable plates and cups in the dining hall?”

Junior Amelia Leeya Goldstein, a sociology major from Massachusetts, is chair of the Bard EATS Committee, a new branch of student government that works with faculty and staff on food sustainability issues.

“The best thing about the farm is the model it sets for greater change,” said Goldstein. “The farm is a crucial part of our education as Bardians, as it helps us really hone in on the way our economy, our environment, and our society are linked.”

Chas Cerulli, Chartwells senior director of dining services at Bard, says that while there had been an interest in getting more food and products from local farms for years, the local-food movement took off on campus with the creation of the Bard College Farm.

“Partnering with the Bard College Farm to grow produce for the dining hall was a win-win for all,” says Cerulli. “This effort has really opened the door to the importance of locally sourced food, not only from the Bard College Farm, but from many other farms in the area that now provide food to the Bard dining population. We are committed to raising the bar in terms of what our community expects when they walk in for a meal. Not just with where the food comes from, but what oil it is cooked in and what happens with leftovers. Everyone eats—these are issues for everyone.”

For more information on Bard College Farm, please visit www.bardfarm.org or www.facebook.com/BardCollegeFarm. For more information about Bard EATS, visit, call 503-821-9750, e-mail [email protected] or visit https://www.facebook.com/EATBard.
 

J. p. Lawrence '14 interviews Bard biologist Felicia Keesing and other experts about the potential increase in the number of rodents and ticks brought about by a local abundance of acorns.

"The Pope’s visit to the U.S. last week focused the nation on a moral challenge of biblical scale," writes Goodstein, "Like Noah, we are called now to build an ark."

"I had found that birds were the perfect antidote to gloomy thoughts about the passage of time," writes Rogers, "and to the low-level but constant fury about how messed up the world is."

In an effort to improve and protect regional water quality, Bard College recently completed work on a green parking lot with a new stormwater management system. Funded by a $732,738 grant from New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation’s (EFC) Green Innovation Grant Program (GIGP), the Bard Regional Green Infrastructure Demonstration Project retrofits a heavily used parking lot near Olin Hall by using green infrastructure practices to mimic a natural ecosystem. Bioretention areas, a constructed wetland and permeable pavement were installed at the site to capture, treat, and infiltrate stormwater before it enters local waterways or the existing stormwater drainage system. Runoff from the existing lot at the main instructional building on campus currently enters a small tributary of the Saw Kill Creek, which supplies the drinking water for the College before flowing into the Hudson River.

“This project turns a problem area into an asset,” said Laurie B. Husted, sustainability manager at Bard. “Eliminating an impervious area and transforming it into a permeable one in the most heavily trafficked sections of the campus will provide both environmental and educational benefits.”

“EFC’s award-winning Green Innovation Grant Program has been the catalyst for dozens of unique, eco-friendly projects across the state and this regional demonstration project at Bard College is no exception,” said EFC Executive Vice President Sabrina M. Ty. “This project not only protects and improves the water quality of the Saw Kill Creek but serves as a model for the entire Mid-Hudson Region, as communities seek to leverage the multiple benefits of green infrastructure.”

The project’s goal is to create a linked series of green stormwater infrastructure practices, which will be monitored and studied to demonstrate performance. Bioretention practices help slow the speed of stormwater runoff and treats it, while porous asphalt allows water to drain through the pavement surface into a stone recharge bed, which facilitates infiltration. Working as a system, these practices will help recharge groundwater and improve and protect regional water quality. The project, completed on budget and ahead of schedule will help improve water quality and biodiversity while promoting a healthier, more resilient watershed.

As part of EFC’s Green Infrastructure Summit 2015 at Bard earlier this month, Dutchess County Executive Marcus J. Molinaro, Dutchess County Tourism President & CEO Mary Kay Vrba, and Dutchess County Legislator Micki Strawinski and other local community leaders joined representatives from municipalities across New York and Bard officials at the parking lot for a demonstration and dedication of the project.

EFC’s award-winning GIGP will have $14.8 million in grants available this year for green stormwater projects through Governor Cuomo’s Regional Economic Development Council and New York State’s Consolidated Funding Application. For more information, visit www.efc.ny.gov/GIGP.

A study led by Lydia Meyer ’14 and Bard biology professor Bruce Robertson finds that nesting in non-native shrubs does not negatively impact the nesting success of veery thrushes. When birds or other animals make choices that are harmful for themselves—by reducing their lifespan or reproductive success, for example—this is known as an “evolutionary trap.” While there is concern that birds that prefer to build their nests in non-native plant species will have less successful nests and risk falling into such a trap, the new study—published in The Condor: Ornithological Advances—found that not to be the case for veery thrushes (Catharus fuscescens) who preferred to nest in invasive shrubs in the forests of New York. Their nesting success was not adversely affected at all.

Bard’s Mariana Souza and Stephanie Milbergs discuss sourcing better burgers with Shake Shack's supply chain guru Jeffery Amoscato. 

Gidon Eshel, a research professor at Bard College and his two colleagues estimated that beef production generated five times more greenhouse gases, needed six times more fertiliser and 11 times more irrigation water, and used 28 times the land as compared to dairy, poultry, pork, and eggs.