Pollinator talk at Beatrix Farrand Garden at Bellefield
2026-06-20 10:30 - 23:30 (America/New_York) | New York
Saturday, June 20th, 10:30 -11:30 am in Hyde Park, NY
Follow this link to get tickets: https://www.viewcy.com/event/wild_pollinators_div
Wild Pollinators: Diversity, Natural History, and Conservation
Pollinator diversity and natural history are spectacular and easily observable wherever you find flowering plants. Join FEP biologist Kyle Bradford for a talk that provides an overview of some of our pollinating animals and offers a deeper dive into wild bees, their natural history, and conservation. Weather permitting, we will go out into the Beatrix Farrand Garden to observe bees and other pollinators up close.

The Understory Morning Coffee Webinar
2026-07-14 08:30 - 09:30 | New York
Ancient Forests of Columbia County, NY: Perspectives from Ants, Plants, and Fungi
Join Kyle to hear the latest on our ancient forest research. While not necessarily “old-growth,” ancient forests have never been completely cleared for agriculture or had their soils homogenized by the plow. In a largely forested landscape, it is not always easy to distinguish between an ancient forest and a younger, post-agricultural forest, making our oldest forests susceptible to logging, development, and loss. As a first step in ancient forest conservation, the Hawthorne Valley Farmscape Ecology Program has mapped ancient forest in Columbia County. Over the last two years, we have been studying the biodiversity and forest characteristics of ancient forests and post-agricultural forests. This talk will give an update on what we have found and discuss the potential conservation benefits of ancient forests and how you can be involved in their protection. Please register for the event here.

CANCELED: Kinderhook Pine Barren Walk
2026-07-18 | New York
This event is canceled, with hopes of rescheduling, because the Martin Van Buren National Historic Site is closed to allow ongoing clean-up from the July 2 storm that damaged many trees.

Meadow Walk at Overmountain Conservation Area
2026-07-20 15:00 - 17:00 | New York
We are excited to offer another opportunity to visit one of our favorite seeded wildflower meadows this year.
Pollinator Meadow Exploration at Overmountain Cons. Area
Monday, July 20, 3 to 5pm; 138 Cattalino Rd, Ancramdale, NY
Join researchers from the Farmscape Ecology Program for an exploration of a pollinator meadow seeded by volunteers in the autumn of 2019 on a former corn field at Overmountain Conservation Area in Ancram. Which native plants were seeded? Who are the native (and non-native) plants growing in the meadow now, during its 7th season? Which pollinators visit their flowers? What have we learned from monitoring the vegetation development and insects in the meadow over the years?
This free event is sponsored by the Columbia Land Conservancy. Please register with fep@hawthornevalleyfarm.org or call 518-672-7994 to reserve a space and receive directions. Rain date: Wednesday, July 22.

FEP Display at the Blueberry Festival in Austerlitz
2026-07-26 | Old Austerlitz, 11550 State Route 22, Austerlitz, NY, 12017
Please visit the Farmscape Ecology Program table at the 25th Annual Blueberry Festival at Old Austerlitz on Sunday, July 26th, 9am-3pm rain or shine. This is a large community event with early 19th century craft demonstrations, antiques, artists, wares, children’s activities, live music and blueberry pancakes. Our team will be there with interactive displays about nature in Columbia County. We are looking forward to seeing you there!

Farmscape Ecology Field Day at the Hudson Valley Farm Hub
2026-08-04 09:00 - 13:00 | Hudson Valley Farm Hub, 1875 Hurley Mountain Rd, Hurley, NY, 12443
Join us and our colleagues from the Applied Farmscape Ecology Research Collaborative to learn about and discuss the different research projects that occur at the Farm Hub. This event is for farmers, conservation professionals, land managers, and others interested in on-farm ecology to learn about the different research projects that occur at the Farm Hub and discuss their applications. We will host interactive stations, share insights into our projects, and discuss their potential applications for farms and land in the region. Come with your questions and engage!
Featuring Research on:

On-farm Insect Communities by Conrad Vispo, Hawthorne Valley Farmscape Ecology Program
Seeded Wildflower Meadows by Claudia Knab-Vispo, Hawthorne Valley Farmscape Ecology Program
Soil Invertebrates in Native Meadows by Laura Stark, Hawthorne Valley Farmscape Ecology Program
On-farm Birds and Their Year-Round Habitat Use by Anne Bloomfield, Hudson Valley Farm Hub
Soil Microbes in Relation to Agriculture by Gabriel Perron, Bard College
Wood Turtles on Farms by Jason Tesauro, Hudsonia
Bats on Farms by Amanda Bevan Zientek, Independent Researcher
Water Quality and Quantity in Agricultural Systems by Shafiul Chowdhury, SUNY New Paltz
Cover Crop as Habitat for Winter Birds by Will Yandik, Independent Researcher, Farmer

This event will be free but has limited capacity and will require registration with the Hudson Valley Farm Hub.
Rain Date is Wednesday, August 5, 2026

Slow Wood Talk by Brian Donahue
2026-08-14 18:30 - 20:00 | Hawthorne Valley Waldorf School, 330 County Route 21C, Ghent, NY, United States
Join us for a presentation from Brian Donahue, forest historian, farmer, and author. Brian is Brandeis professor emeritus of American Environmental Studies and co-author of the reports A New England Food Vision, Beyond the Illusion of Preservation, and Wildlands, Woodlands, Farmlands and Communities. He is also co-editor of the free e-journal, From the Ground Up. Brian has devoted much of his career to understanding the historical roots and future implications of human/nature interactions in New England. Specifically, he and his colleagues have explored the links among community well-being, sustainable natural resource use, and nature conservation, focusing particularly on agriculture and forestry.
In this talk, Brian will discuss his most recent book, Slow Wood: Greener Building from Local Forests (2024), which documents his experience building a timber frame home from the wood growing on his family farm through the stories of the trees he used while practicing “worst first” forestry. The book also explores the history of Americans’ relationship with their forests. Practicing ecological forestry produces a wide range of both low-grade and high-grade wood while maintaining ecological values in the forest, but it cannot easily compete with larger-scale plantation and short-rotation production and processing, which saturates the market. Brian will address some of the obstacles we face in increasing ecological, local wood use, and the opportunities and levers for overcoming those obstacles. Space is limited; please register by emailing lstark@hawthornevalley.org.

Historical Weather Day at Martin Van Buren National Historic Site
2026-08-29 10:00 - 15:00 | Martin Van Buren National Historic Site, 1013 Old Post Road, Kinderhook, NY, 12106, United States
Join the Farmscape Ecology Program as they set up their historical weather station display for an “historical weather day” at the Martin Van Buren National Historic Site. The weather station display will feature antique and replica weather instruments, predominantly from the 19th century. The event will be an opportunity to learn about and interact with these early weather instruments, many of which were manufactured and/or used locally. Some such tools were part of a 19th century meteorological network throughout New York State that included sites in Kinderhook, Hudson, New Lebanon, Chatham, and Spencertown. Slightly later instrumentation was used by the US Weather Bureau, the precursor of our current Weather Service.
Visitors will be invited to try their hand at reading the weather conditions on some of the still-functional instruments, and learn more about their history and use. A daily almanac derived from meteorological and seasonal observations made by 19th century observers in Kinderhook and nearby towns will be available for perusing, as well as historical weather maps. These historical weather observations provide a window into how weather and climate has changed since Martin Van Buren’s time, and some of the local effects of those changes.
