Community reforestation intern. by Parker Bowden
May 11, 2026
Open gallery
From March 23 to May 30, 2026, I worked as a community reforestation intern under a grant funded by the DEC for restoring a forest on campus. The goal of the community forestation project is to reforest part of the Common’s forest which is currently being taken over by invasive vines and multiflora rose. In the beginning I learned about the grant specifics and created a storymap to help communicate the project to other people on campus or anyone curious. In the Commons forest I spent time freeing trees from invasive vines, which I learned to identify and me and the other interns marked out a proposed trail and eventually created a map of the forest including the trail, rockwalls, and a stream after we discovered its pathway. Another big part of my job was working in the grow room where we grew plants for the native plant garden. They required lots of monitoring and I learned a lot about growing plants and being observant to how they respond to their environment. My work directly related to my environmental studies classes and I learned a lot about what makes a forest thrive as well as the importance of science communication especially in a community like Purchase