The Black Forest Consortium, a group of fifteen New Yorkarea academic institutions,seeks funds to construct a modern research and training facility at its Field Station, the 1500-hectare (3750-acre) Black Rock Forest. Black Rock Forest is located in the Hudson Highlands,80 km (50 miles) north of New York City, and possesses a wide variety of terrestrial and aquatic habitats for study. It has been carefully protected and managed for nearly a century, and has been utilized by the Black Rock Forest Consortium since 1989. The Forest has become a focal point for scientific field studies and education for thousands of faculty and students from Consortium institutions. Despite many natural features that makes it a logical location for scientific field work, the Black Rock Forest lacks suitable research and training facilities. An imminent increase in scientific activity is expected due to the creation of a new BRF Consortium member, the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC) at Columbia University. The CERC initiative will be enhanced by the creation of seven new faculty and three new postdoctoral positions in biology, ecology, and other conservation-related fields. A major component of CERC will be increased scientific focus on the Black Rock Forest and intensive field training. The Consortium has designed a new, integrated headquarters structure to b e constructed at the Forest in three phases. Phase I, the focus of this proposal, will contain research labs, student lab/classrooms, administrative offices, and a data control center at the hub of an extensive environmental monitoring network. It is expected that this facility will become a intensively used for scientific research and training.
