Environmental Studies

Located between the Dance building and the Commons Apartments, the Native Plant Garden is open for anyone to explore, relax, and learn more about native plants. It’s a quiet spot away from the busy center of campus where you can watch bumblebees and monarchs enjoying the flowers. In 2025, a meditation labyrinth was added adjacent to the garden to help everyone practice mindfulness.

Read about the history of the garden and how many different years of students have made their mark. 

The Native Plant Nursery, next to the Native Plant Garden, serves as a place where we can grow restoration plantings for land stewardship across campus. Student interns and technicians work to germinate native seeds and care for the potted plants until they are ready to be planted in the wild. 

Alumni Woods has an approximate 1 mile loop hike that takes you through some of the oldest forest on our campus. The Environmental Studies department is working hard with interns and student groups to keep this area free of trash and invasive plants. 

Funded by a NYSDEC Invasive Species Grant (2024-2026), we are targeting invasive species removal and restoration on our campus in an area of old growth forest where a corridor was recently cleared. The forest is of conservation concern because it is a rare contiguous bottomland forest along Blind Brook, which feeds into the Long Island Sound.

Before the disturbance, we saw relatively little invasive species pressure in the interior of the forest, as it has been intact and undisturbed for nearly 100 years. In 2021, a linear corridor (area of approximately 150m by 25m) was cut into the forest and was excavated to bare soil to install a sewer line. The area that was cut is now able to be restored to forest but we need to address active invasive plant management and restoration in the area.

Because of high invasive propagule pressure from the rest of campus, without management, the corridor cut into the intact forest creates an easy pathway for continued invasion and eventual damage to the forest.

Funded through a NYSDEC Community Reforestation Grant (2026-2031), we will transform a 2.8-acre area, currently overrun by invasive plants, into a thriving young forest filled with 1,800 native trees. Most of the site will be planted, while trails and gathering spaces will remain open for students, faculty, and visitors to enjoy.

This project will bring many benefits: cooler air around nearby dorms and parking lots, cleaner water, better carbon capture, and more wildlife habitat. To give the forest its best chance, we’ll use protective fencing and plant in different densities—some areas in traditional tree spacing and others as dense “MicroForests” inspired by the Miyawaki method. This approach helps trees grow faster, block invasives, and provide shade and biodiversity more quickly.