Hartwick College is awarded a grant to develop a five-year strategic plan for the Robert R. Smith Environmental Field Station (Smith EFS), located on the Pine Lake Environmental Campus (PLEC). The funding expands opportunities for research and education in collaboration with state agencies responsible for the recently created Riddell State Park (RSP), which borders Pine Lake. The Smith EFS will produce a five-year strategic plan that will enable two specific goals, 1) create a unique partnership between the Smith EFS and New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Places (OPRHP) involving research and education focusing on the impact of recreation on the biological and ecological diversity of public lands, and 2) enhance the capacity of the Smith EFS to support the partnership and expand its role as a center for research, education, and training.
Understanding the effects of non-consumptive outdoor recreation on wildlife in different habitats will become increasingly important as the popularity of such activities continue to increase. To this end, Riddell State Park is an ideal location for establishing research on the impacts of recreation on ecosystems because plans to develop its public facilities have not yet begun. The collaborative partnership at RSP provides an opportunity for Hartwick science students and faculty to work with state agency biologists and external researchers to design thoughtful studies that investigate the potential long-term impacts of recreational use on public lands, including pre- and post-development comparisons of population abundances and distributions. The strategic management plan will greatly enhance the statewide profile of Smith EFS and enable the field station to meet the collaborative research and education initiatives planned for RSP. This project will advance discovery and understanding of ecological impacts of public lands use at the species, community, and ecosystem levels. The involvement of college and pre-college students, K-12 teachers, underrepresented populations, and the local public in Smith EFS educational initiatives will increase ecological literacy among the general population and enhance the participation of these stakeholders in the sustainable management of public lands via their connections to and influences on the greater community.
Hartwick College’s Pine Lake Environmental Campus, which includes the Robert R. Smith Environmental Field Laboratory, received an NSF strategic planning grant to assist in their efforts to expand collaborative research and education opportunities to protect biological diversity on public lands in New York. The Strategic Plan for Teaching, Research, and Collaboration will greatly enhance the capacity of the Pine Lake campus and Smith Lab to meet the growing needs of Hartwick College to support research and education. Through the planning process, Hartwick College has established an innovative and collaborative partnership with the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation as well as the New York Natural Heritage Program to research, document, and monitor biological and ecological diversity in Robert V. Riddell State Park, a recently created park adjacent to the Pine Lake campus. This collaborative effort will advance discovery and understanding of ecological change on public lands in the northeast through long-term studies at the species, community, and ecosystem levels. The strategic planning grant assisted Hartwick College and Pine Lake achieve two goals: 1) create the partnership with state park staff, and 2) assess the infrastructure, capacity, and management of Pine Lake to support the partnership and expand its role as a center for research, education, and programming. Collaborative research over the past two years by Hartwick faculty and students, supported by state parks staff, have has identified 18 different ecological communities in Riddell State Park as well as documentation of a dragonfly species listed as a species of special concern in New York State. In addition, a portion of the state park previously owned by Hartwick College has qualified for "invasive-free" species status. Research projects in the future will focus on the impact of hemlock woolly adelgid (currently not found in the park) and other invasive species on forest communities, biodiversity studies, and geochemical analyses of forest systems. In addition to drafting the strategic plan and launching the collaborative effort in Riddell State Park, the Pine Lake Environmental Campus produced a 10-minute video, a brochure, and an updated website that are being used to promote outreach on current teaching, research, and collaborative activities. Information can be found at www.hartwick.edu/pinelake.
