Our crop fields, orchards, pastures, hayfields, and farmyards can be seen as the basis of our food production and as ecological components of our landscape. In their later role, they can provide habitat for various wild organisms such as grassland birds and wet meadow sedges. But those habitats and their wild residents can also, in turn, influence food production through their roles as pollinators, pests, pest predators, soil turners, etc. How does the ecology of the land interact with our forms of agriculture? That, to us, is agroecology.

For more information, please see the following:

Tomatoes in the Wilderness, Spiders in the Broccoli: An article for the Natural Farmer summarizing our conception of agroecology.

Profiles of On-farm Creatures : A report on some of the pests and beneficials we’ve found around the County.

Farms and Nature : A web page leading to more of our work on the interaction of wild creatures and agriculture.

Ponds have become part of our vision of the rural landscape. This was not always so. While buried ice blocks and geological dips did form natural ponds and lakes in the land, these were probably relatively few and far between. Time and the accumulation of natural debris have filled in many of them. Beaver were the great pond creators once they returned after glaciation, but the colonial fur trade meant that they were largely extinct in our area by 1700. Early mills also built ponds along creek flows. Isolated ponds were rarer until agriculture and, more recently, landscape fashion began to spread them. For example, we estimate that the number of ponds in the five-square mile area around Hawthorne Valley Farm has jumped from less than five to over thirty in the past 60 years. We ask, what life do you find in these proliferating ponds and how is a pond’s value to nature influenced by the way it’s managed?

Pond Report: The summary of our study of biodiversity and management effects in nearly 100 openland ponds in Columbia County.

Ponds in the Paper: A three-part series of newspaper articles summarizing our pond work.

Ponds: Our web page linking to these and other resources.

Fields are such regular parts of our landscape that we may usually think, to paraphrase the poet, that a Field is a Field is a Field. In fact, fields vary widely in their ecologies: some have structural similarities to Midwestern prairies; aspects of others resemble the wet meadows that follow beaver ponds; some host native grasses from thin-soiled hilltops; others sport the ‘Eastern Oldfield Complex’ of Goldenrod, Milkweed, Dogwood and other plants native and exotic that tumble into abandoned fields; some are but extensive lawns. Each of these flavors of field hosts not only different plants but, in turn, distinct animals. Because fields of one sort or another are so much part of what we paint onto the landscape, we’ve been curious to research the details of this variety, and the works summarized below can help you explore the array of fields around you.

Ecology in the Field of Time: Book chapter exploring the last 200 years of field history in the County.

Fields and Meadows: Our web page detailing the history of fields and introducing farmland plants.

Further explore the ecological significance of different types of fields: Mature Hayfields, Old Fields and Poor Meadows, Shrubby Fields, Wet Meadows

Butterflies of Openlands: A short report looking at the butterfly communities of different local field types.

Common field plants: Identification material for some of our common field grasses and legumes.

History is embedded in our landscape, not as some rusting historical marker, but rather as a modern, living picture of history’s current incarnation. In the 1500s, our landscape was probably at least 90% forested; by the mid 1800s, it was nearly three quarters open farmland; today it’s almost two thirds forested. We are still somewhere on that ecological rollercoaster. In other words, the trees, grasses, birds, bees, hillocks and rivulets are all hints of where we’ve been and suggestions about where we may be going. Thus, as we’ve tried to understand what a semi-agrarian landscape could potentially offer nature, one clue is to understand what it has offered nature in the past. Our pages on fields and forests include historical information.

For more information see our landscape history page and the following:

A Chronology of Columbia County Industry – A generalized outline of the evolution of Columbia County industry over the last 200+ years.

A Chronology of Columbia County Agriculture – A similar outline of the evolution of Columbia County agriculture over the past couple of centuries.

A Map of Industry in Columbia County around 1839 – A map derived from Burr’s map of the County and showing some early industries.

A Map of Industry in Columbia County ca. 1875 – A map derived from a variety of comtempory sources, including the Beers’ map which serves as the backdrop of the map.

“Ecology in the Field of Time” – A chapter we wrote for the book, Environmental History of the Hudson River, summarizing our understanding of the past 200 years of landscape history in Columbia County.

New Lebanon Shaker Land Use History: Preliminary work of land use research around Mt Lebanon Shaker Village.

We all enjoy and are part of stories. Understanding the larger biographies of people on the land helps us see where we fit in. Understanding the personal stories of people on the land lets us understand how others have lived and continue to live in our landscape. The power of these stories has influenced our own work and has led us to build more history into our presentations; it has directed our attention towards the collection of oral histories. As always, our work itself is an uncompleted story, but below you’ll find some of our tales, as well as upcoming opportunities to contribute your own stories of land relationships as part of our Living Land Project.

Current Story Requests:  Read more about our current requests for stories about places and land relationships of importance to you, as well as recollections from long-term residents, including favorite childhood places, family stories, and memories of how the landscape used to look.

New Farmer Narrative Project: The stories of 20 new farmers in Columbia County, documented through a multi-panel exhibit.

The Story of our Soil:  A Powerpoint project following the human story of our soils, in part through the writings of two Columbia County residents.

Human Nature: Ecology and Human History in Columbia County, NY – by Conrad Vispo.  Our upcoming book that explores the story of the County. It is forthcoming from Adonis Press, and supported by grants from Furthermore and the Bank of Greene County Charitable Foundation.  Stay tuned for more information on when it will be released and how you can get a copy.