Land Stewardship at Purchase College
May 31, 2024
Open gallery
Morgan DeMay
Major: Environmental Studies
Class of 2024
My first task as a Land Steward intern was to create a visionary board for the new native plant/vegetable garden that will hopefully be installed in the Fall 2024. This new area of campus is populated by students and is not under construction. It also receives ample daylight, which is a great plus! I then transitioned into a new project that I would work on for the rest of the semester which involved the establishment of a new walking trail on campus. The alumni trail is a trail that many people on campus know of and enjoy daily. The other Land Steward interns and I named this trail the “Blue Trail” with hopes that the new name and establishment of this trail would be inclusive to a wider range of people. During this project, I established the created a trail map using GIS (Geographic Internet Systems), I created educational signs discussing the importance of vernal pools and ecotones between forest and wetland ecosystems (both of which are present on the “Blue Trail”), and finally, another Land Steward intern and I installed official blue trail markers on the “Blue Trail”.
While working on the “Blue Trail” project, I attended a Liter Pickup event on April 21st and removed an entire bag of litter by the dorms, just myself! I also attended multiple volunteer garden sessions and helped prepare the native garden for spring by weeding and trimming the existing plants. I was also very happy to attend the final SAOC meeting of the semester. At this meeting, SAOC members along with sustainability interns and Purchase College board members to discuss the issue of plastics on campus.
I am very grateful to have been a sustainability intern and proud of the work that I accomplished during my final semester at Purchase College!