Major Reforestation Grant Benefits Campus and Students
Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Allyson Jackson secured close to $500,000 from New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation.
The $499,943 grant will help restore and reforest a nearly three-acre plot on campus as part of the 2024 State of the State “25 Million Trees Initiative.”
As part of this project, students will have the valuable educational and research opportunity to study comparative planting practices among three different sites.
“I’m very excited to be awarded this DEC Community Reforestation grant, which will enable us to turn an area that is dominated by invasive plants and has very little ecological value into a forest that will benefit both the environment and our students,” says Jackson.
“This work unites my three passions—conservation, teaching, and research. For conservation, we will be planting 1,800 trees in this area, which helps provide wildlife habitat along with carbon capture and heat-reducing effects.
“For teaching, the majority of the work will be accomplished by paid student technicians and interns under my mentorship. This sort of real-world teaching is so important to prepare students for their future careers.
“Perhaps most exciting for me as a scientist—we will be using three different strategies for planting, which will allow us to study how the forest regenerates for decades to come, providing research opportunities for generations of Purchase College students.”
Director of the School of Natural and Social Sciences Meagan Curtis adds she’s thrilled with the extraordinary work Professor Jackson and her students are doing to transform the campus and create healther ecosystems.
“Their efforts will impact campus wildlife for centuries! Beyond that, this grant will support the creation of a three-acre laboratory, and with it, limitless opportunities for our students to conduct research on reforestation and its ecological impact,” says Curtis.
It’s perfect preparation for whatever lies ahead for students.
“This type of hands-on research experience and skill training translates to long-term success for our students, preparing them for graduate school and future careers.”
This afforestation project will restore a degraded and invasive species dominated 2.8-acre plot of land on Purchase College’s campus, along with installing deer fences to protect the most densely planted seedlings. Purchase College’s Environmental Studies department, with help from the grounds department, will maintain this landscape, which is part of the overall 500-acre Purchase campus, 30 miles north of New York City.
The team plans to densely afforest 2.3 acres of the larger 2.8 acre-area, leaving some areas open for trails and educational spaces, resulting in planting 1,800 trees. These types of invasive landscapes are some of the most difficult to restore so it is best to concentrate resources in this relatively small area, in order to ensure success. The addition of this forest will help with the college’s overall carbon capture goals, along with reducing heat effects from the large residential complex and parking lots that are nearby.
As part of Dr. Jackson and the Environmental Studies department’s education mission, the team will not only plant trees but design the planting in such a way that faculty and students can ask interesting research questions. Trees will be planted in three different densities, allowing for studies of comparative regeneration by generations of Purchase College students.
This area will be planted using both traditional forestry methods and an innovative MicroForest method designed after the Miyawaki Forest model. In the Miyawaki forest method, trees, shrubs, and groundcover are planted at very high densities to encourage competition, which makes the forest fragment grow faster and return to steady state sooner. The Miyawaki method is known for its ability to restore small-scale landscapes across the region. It does this with high density planting that spurs rapid plant establishment which can resist invasive plants and can quickly provide environmental benefits such as carbon capture, stormwater retention, shade and cooling effects, and increased biodiversity.
This project was announced by New York State Governor Kathy Hochul through the new Community Reforestation (CoRe) program. Sixteen projects, including the one at Purchase College, will establish and expand resilient forests in and near New York’s urban communities, contributing to the 2024 State of the State “25 Million Trees Initiative” launched by Governor Hochul to recognize the importance of trees and forests for climate resiliency and community health. Funding for this round of the CoRe grant program was allocated by the Governor in her 2024-2025 Executive Budget. The Purchase College project is one of three in Westchester County with the other two projects contributing to reforestation in the Village of Irvington and the Village of Hastings on Hudson.
