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Bard Office of Sustainability

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Sustainability News

Bard College Center for Environmental Sciences and Humanities Celebrates Launch of Saw Kill Watershed Community Database

Bard College Center for Environmental Sciences and Humanities Celebrates Launch of Saw Kill Watershed Community Database

The database is designed to expand in real time as the community surrounding the watershed continues to unearth historical information about the Saw Kill.

Bard College Center for Environmental Sciences and Humanities Celebrates Launch of Saw Kill Watershed Community Database

Bard College Center for Environmental Sciences and Humanities Celebrates Launch of Saw Kill Watershed Community Database
Community members and Bard staff and students taking Saw Kill water samples at the Annandale Bridge, 2016. Photo by Laurie Husted
On Tuesday, February 24, at 7 pm the Center for Environmental Sciences and Humanities at Bard College is presenting the first ever Saw Kill Watershed Community Database, a publicly accessible data tool housing datasets developed by community members, researchers, and Bard faculty and students since the late 1800s. Funded in part by the Hudson River Foundation, Bard Community Sciences Lab, and Hudson River Estuary Program of the DEC, the database is designed to expand in real time as the community surrounding the watershed continues to unearth historical information about the Saw Kill, and conducts community sciences in the watershed with efforts such as ongoing sampling.

The database will be launched at a celebration held at the Elmendorph Inn at 7562 N. Broadway, Red Hook, NY, at 7 pm on Tuesday, February 24. The event is free and open to the public, with refreshments provided.

“This project is like a love letter from Bard to the community we have been part of and served for over 100 years,” said Elias Dueker, associate professor of Environmental and Urban Studies at Bard. “Students, faculty, and staff are working side by side with community leaders to make the database as comprehensive as possible. We have found information in people’s closets, basements, paper files, art, photos, and stories. I don’t think there is anything like this project across the country, but I hope we can inspire other communities to rediscover how much they already know and study about their watersheds—just how much information is waiting there to help them step up to environmental challenges that seem at emergency-level today.”

The project—a collaboration between the Center for Experimental Humanities, Bard Biology and Environmental Studies, and community groups including the Saw Kill Watershed Community, Riverkeeper, and Hudson River Watershed Alliance—represents over 50 years of Bard's commitment in nurturing community efforts to provide meaningful stewardship of the Saw Kill Watershed, which provides drinking water and recreation for both Bard and the surrounding region. By compiling all available information and ongoing environmental research about the watershed in one accessible repository, the project is intended to serve as a versatile resource: as a teaching tool for local schools, for new residents wanting to learn about their surroundings, for community members who may have concerns about what they are observing in the watershed, and to provide meaningful data required to inform policy decisions that would affect the Saw Kill and its communities. For more information, please visit: cesh.bard.edu/csl/saw-kill-monitoring-program


Post Date: 02-24-2026
A man in a blue checked shirt smiles at the viewer.

Research by Bard Professor Gidon Eshel Featured in the New York Times

The article explored whether grass-fed beef was better for climate than grain-fed.

Research by Bard Professor Gidon Eshel Featured in the New York Times

A man in a blue checked shirt smiles at the viewer.
Gidon Eshel, research professor of environmental and urban studies at Bard.
A study led by Gidon Eshel, research professor of environmental and urban studies at Bard College, was featured in the New York Times in an article exploring whether grass-fed beef was better for climate. The study, published last March in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that grass-fed beef did not hold a carbon emissions benefit compared to grain-fed beef. While grazing can store carbon in the soil, the study showed that this did not outweigh the methane that cows produce. “We wanted to see exactly how the numbers add up,” Eshel told the Times. “The bottom line answer is that they mostly don’t.”

Students in all divisions of Bard College can concentrate in Environmental Studies. The program is based on the conviction that our planet’s most urgent problems—including climate change, biodiversity loss, and the inequities of our built environments—call for holistic knowledge of both human and natural systems. The curriculum offers a grounding in core topics in environmental studies alongside cross-listed courses on topics from nature writing to urban geography, from food systems to contemporary Indigenous art, and from planetary thinking to local community engagement.
Read more in the New York Times

Post Date: 01-13-2026
A group of students sitting at tables on a wooden patio.

Bard Earns Two Awards in Sustainability

The College earned a STARS Gold rating and the MBA in sustainability was ranked the best green MBA by the Princeton Review.

Bard Earns Two Awards in Sustainability

A group of students sitting at tables on a wooden patio.
Bard College has recently been recognized for its commitment to sustainability by two organizations. This July, the College earned a Gold rating from the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS). This nationwide group ranks colleges based on all aspects of sustainability on their campuses, from academic buildings to dining and events planning. Bard’s report included its participation in the Race 2 Zero Waste food scrap conservation program, where it placed first in the food organics Small College category.

Bard’s MBA in sustainability was also ranked the best green MBA by the Princeton Review for the fifth year in a row. The list is based on student ratings of how well their MBA “prepares them to address environmental, sustainability, and responsibility issues in their careers.” Bard’s MBA is based in New York City and utilizes a hybrid curriculum to prepare students for critical social and environmental challenges. “At a time when clean energy and climate change action, organizational justice, reducing plastics and toxic pollution, and enhancing the planet’s biodiversity are all under political attack, Bard remains the leading MBA focused on embedding sustainability as simply good business,” said MBA Director Dr. Eban Goodstein.
Bard Ranked Best Green MBA for 2025

Post Date: 08-13-2025

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February 2017

02-26-2017
"When Gidon Eshel sits down for a meal, his plate holds a full agenda ... a cornucopia of environmental, social, and political considerations."
Read More

Meta: Type(s): Faculty | Subject(s): Division of Science, Math, and Computing,Environmental/Sustainability,Wellness | Institutes(s): Bard Undergraduate Programs |
02-14-2017
The Landscape and Arboretum Program at Bard College is presenting two lectures on landscaping design this spring. On Tuesday, February 28, landscape architect Margie Ruddick will present “Wild by Design: Strategies for Creating Life-Enhancing Landscapes.” The lecture, cosponsored by the Bard Environmental and Urban Studies Program, is free and open to the public and takes place at 4:45 p.m. in Weis Cinema in the Bertelsmann Campus Center. For more information about Ruddick, visit http://www.margieruddick.com/.
 
On Tuesday, March 28, landscape architect and historian CeCe Haydock will present an illustrated talk, “Edith Wharton and the Villas of Rome,” presenting images of eight Roman villas described by Wharton in her book, Italian Villas and Their Gardens, first published in 1904, which remains a scholarly resource on the subject to this day. Learn about the influence of the villas on Wharton’s own houses and her novels. The lecture, presented in partnership with the Garden Conservancy, takes place at 7 p.m. in Weis Cinema in the Bertelsmann Campus Center and will be followed by a reception. The lecture is open to the public; there is a $25 registration fee ($20 for Garden Conservancy members). Complimentary tickets available for Bard students, faculty, and staff (ID required). For more information or to register, please call Jennifer Hausler at 845.424.6500, ext. 212 or e-mail [email protected].
 
The Landscape and Arboretum Program and the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) also are offering noncredit continuing education classes on gardening at Bard College this spring. Open to the public, these classes feature some of the top names in the horticulture industry and cover a wide array of topics. To register, visit www.nybg.org/adulted/ or call 1-800-322-NYBG. All classes are held in room 202 of the Olin Humanities Building at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.
 
NYBG COURSES AT BARD
SPRING 2017
CONTAINER GARDENING
Container gardening know-how is in high demand. Learn how to create a container garden for your patio, terrace, or entryway that is at once functional and gorgeous—and discover techniques for ensuring that your plants thrive in all four seasons. Please bring lunch to class.
2 Saturdays, 5/6 & 5/13, 10 a.m.–2:30 p.m.
Erika Hanson | Bard | 174GAR327C
$229*/$249
GARDENING WITH NATIVE PLANTS
Learn how native plants enhance gardens and augment biodiversity. Study native herbaceous and woody plants: their identification, habitat, and culture. Hear about the significance of woodland soils, and how to promote a healthy environment to support spring ephemerals, summer perennials, shrubs, and trees.
2 Saturdays, 4/22 & 4/29, 10 a.m.–3 p.m.
Brad Roeller | Bard | 174GAR315A
$215*/$239
 
 
SPRING EPHEMERAL PAPERCUTTING
Capture the fleeting magic of woodland spring flowers with the delicate art of papercutting. You will learn basic papercutting techniques from silhouette artist Jenny Lee Fowler—whose work has been featured in Martha Stewart Living, House Beautiful, and Better Homes and Gardens—and use her one-of-a-kind patterns to create a piece of 8˝ x 10˝ art to frame and hang in your home. No previous art experience is required.
Saturday, 4/8, 10 a.m.–12 p.m.
Jenny Lee Fowler | Bard | 174CRF153A
$89*/95
 
POLLINATOR PAPERCUTTINGS
Use the ancient tradition of papercutting to “draw in silhouette” and celebrate the role of pollinators—birds, bats, beetles, bees, and butterflies—and their connections with plants. You will choose a pollinator and plant pairing to inspire your own original design that you will turn into a work of art with the help of Hudson-based paper artist Jenny Lee Fowler. No previous art experience is required.
Saturday, 4/15, 10 a.m.–12 p.m.
Jenny Lee Fowler | Bard | 174CRF165A
$89*/$95
 
*Reduced price for members of the New York Botanical Garden; Friends of the Landscape and Arboretum Program; and Bard faculty, staff, and students.

Meta: Subject(s): Arboretum and Horticulture,Education,Environmental/Sustainability |
02-09-2017
Historian and Rachel Carson biographer Mark Lytle is a significant voice in a new documentary on the famous conservationist and author of the highly influential book Silent Spring.
Read More

Meta: Type(s): Faculty | Subject(s): Division of Social Studies,Environmental/Sustainability | Institutes(s): Bard Undergraduate Programs |
Results 1-3 of 3
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