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Our Mission and Projects

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Our Mission
Our mission is to preserve and enhance the natural and landscaped resources of the Bard College campus and promote knowledge of and appreciation for ornamental horticulture and conservation. The Bard Arboretum aims to provide an environment rich in horticultural diversity and beauty that can be readily enjoyed by the College and surrounding community. Furthermore, we envision the Bard Arboretum as a place to understand and appreciate a nationally significant historical landscape in the Hudson Valley. 

Bard Arboretum 15th Anniversary Timeline

2007

  • Arboretum Dedication Ceremony and Tree Planting 
  • Tree Hazard Evaluation Begins
  • Bluebird Pilot Program Begins
  • Tree Identification Labels installed campus-wide
  • Getty Foundation Award Grant for Preservation Study
2008    
  • Campus mapping and labeling of Bard’s trees and plants begun
  • Quercus, Arboretum newsletter released
  • Preservation Master Plan completed
  • Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust Awards Arboretum 
  • Millbrook Garden Club Funds Arboretum Intern
  • Garden Conservancy Open Days Directory includes Bard Arboretum
2009    
  • New York Botanical Garden classes come to Bard
  • Arboretum awarded Tree Campus USA by Arbor Day Foundation
  • Hosted Doug Tallamy, Entomologist to talk about the Importance of Native Plants in Our Gardens
  • Benefit Luncheon and Falcon Show at Blithewood
  • Brick walk restored at Blithewood
  • Parliament of Reality completed
  • Blithewood: A History of Place by Bessina Harrar published
2010 
  • Monthly Arboretum walking tours begin
  • 350.org Day Celebration bulb planting at Reem Kayden Science Center
  • Bard Sites: A Look at Outdoor Campus Spaces & Furniture at Bard handbook published
2011
  • Restoration of Annandale Road stonewall completed
  • Arboretum and Blithewood in several publications including: Gardens of the Hudson Valley by Steve Gross and Susan Daley, Landscape Gardens of the Hudson River Valley by Robert Toole, Annandale-on-Hudson’s Historic Estates and their Landscapes by Amy B. Parrella, Hudson Valley Regional Review 2010
  • Arboretum calendar published 
  • Project Budbreak initiated on campus
  • Bard College is first campus is US to be a “bird-friendly” campus
  • Arboretum ranked among America’s most beautiful campuses in Travel and Leisure magazine (October 2011)
2012
  • Two students from the Class of 2012 created the Young Naturalist Initiative that used Bard Arboretum as a living classroom
  • Eastern Hemlock replacement program underway
  • Arboretum awarded $30,000 from the Zoos, Botanical Gardens and Aquarium Program of the Natural Heritage Trust, administered by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
  • Bard Arboretum and Blithewood Garden featured in Exploring Gardens & Green Spaces: From Connecticut to the Delaware Valley by Magda Salvesen
  • Bard’s beauty idealized in Matt Taibbi’s article in Town & Country magazine, “Is Bard the new Brown?”
2013
  • Bard’s own trees used in Mark Handforth’s Bard Bench (Oak-Black Walnut-Tulip Poplar), commissioned by the Center for Curatorial Studies 
  • Bard’s Floral Report Card published
  • Arboretum Walks with the Director started
2014
  • Rick Darke’s lecture on his book The Wild Garden (2009) was cosponsored by the Beatrix Farrand Garden Association 
  • Arboretum awarded $60,000 from the Zoos, Botanical Gardens and Aquarium Program of the Natural Heritage Trust, administered by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
  • David Horvitz MFA’11 donated Imprint Projects, Book with Seeds from the Trees in Zuccotti Park, which was planted on the grounds of the Center for Curatorial Studies
2015 
  • Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area Greenway grant awarded for Blithewood Garden interpretive signage
  • Blithewood’s vista was enhanced to better reflect AJ Davis’s watercolor of the view from Blithewood lawn in 1835. 
  • Blithewood’s garden fountain pool was restored
  • Arboretum takes part in Hudson Valley Garden Fair, hosted by the Hudson Valley Garden Association and held at Montgomery Place
  • Bard’s Stevenson Library showcases Arboretum Exhibit
  • Bard Arboretum is recognized in New York State’s Big Tree Register
  • Innovative plantings capture stormwater at Olin’s commuter parking lot
2016   
  • Arboretum expands to include Montgomery Place grounds, a 380-acre national historic landmark estate 
  • Making a New Generation: Propagating the Historic Blithewood Maple
  • Bard’s Arboretum has seven of the biggest trees in New York 
  • Blithewood’s iconic marble statue of a seated woman with dog and cat, carved by American neoclassical sculptor Joseph Mozier (1812-70), was conserved and a treatment plan was developed
  • New Arboretum seasonal self-guided walking tour brochure published
  • Garden tour of Montgomery Place grounds featured in Saw Kill Celebration: 175 Years of Scenic Preservation
2017  
  • Arboretum celebrates 10th anniversary with education series, Margie Rudick and CeCe Haydock
  • Arboretum receives $175,000 grant from the Zoos, Botanical Gardens and Aquarium Program of the Natural Heritage Trust, administered by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
  • Garden Conservancy joins forces with Bard Arboretum to rehabilitate Blithewood Garden
  • Friends of Blithewood Garden formed
  • $100,000 grant received from Burpee Foundation to restore 1929 Hitchings & Company Greenhouse at Montgomery Place campus
  • Stevenson library hosted Structured Beauty, an exhibition of historical documents about Blithewood Garden
2018
  • Blithewood Garden celebrates 115th anniversary with Fall Equinox Party and lecture entitled, "Architectural Gardens: Challenges of Preserving Formal Structures in the Landscape"
  • Arboretum launches You Tube film about the Bard Arboretum, mission, goals, and outreach
  • Bard Arboretum awarded with  Level II ArbNet Accreditation
  • New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) awards Bard College a three-year Invasive Species Rapid Response and Control Grant that supported a plan to use goats to clear invasive plant overgrowth from a 1.5-acre hillside near Blithewood Manor
  • Blithewood Engineering Assessment completed
2019
  • Blithewood Garden Historic Condition Report completed 
  • Tivoli South Bay Trail Sustainable Access Plan completed
  • New trailhead sign installed at Tivoli South Bay Trail near Blithewood 
  • Joins the American Chestnut Foundation and plants a block of American Chestnut trees in support of the restoration of the species 
  • Gilsonfest: The Exceptional Journey of Alexander Gilson exhibit in Red Hook, NY and Montgomery Place campus
  • Historic Garden Ornament Exhibition held at Montgomery Place
  • Steel and Scale Remarks, a spring student sculpture outdoor exhibit at Montgomery Place campus
  • New seasonal self-guided Arboretum brochure for winter published
2020
  • Hosts an outdoor exhibit called, The Gilded Garden - Historic Ornament in the Landscape at Montgomery Place
  • Fruiting Bodies: The Mycological Passions of John Cage (1912-92) and Violetta White Delafield (1875-1949), a conference and an exhibit on a historical look at mushrooms at Bard
  • Bard College adopts Land Acknowledgment
  • Garden Conservancy produced a short film to document the significance of Blithewood Garden
  • Bard’s Nursery School launches new Outdoor Adventure Program at Montgomery Place campus
  • Inside Out: Fall Sculpture Exhibition at Montgomery Place Campus
  • Bard awarded to grant to restore historic Blithewood vista by Hudson River Estuary Program of Cornell University and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
  • "Seasons of Blithewood Garden," musical composition by Ethan Isaac ‘18 wins competition and becomes Blithewood Garden’s theme song
2021 
  • The South Woods, located on the Montgomery Place campus was initiated into the Old-Growth Forest Network
  • Restored Blithewood vista featured in New York State handbook
  • Arboretum received Tree Campus USA award for 10 years in a row
  • Starts Bard Arboretum Native Nursery
  • Joins Pollinator Pathway Project
2022 and Beyond  - A Look Ahead…more to come!
  • #1 Priority: Revamping the Arboretum Education Program
  • #2 Priority: Continue Blithewood rehabilitation project 
  • #3 Priority: Bard’s Native Nursery Initiative

Landscape Master Plan
Photo by Karl Rabe

Landscape Master Plan

Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, a research-based design firm, will lead Bard College's comprehensive planning process for its 930-acre campus. The firm will develop the College’s first comprehensive campus landscape plan since 1988 to bring harmony among its many cultural landscapes and ecological assets and develop the tools needed to make sensitive and thoughtful planning decisions. 

Landscape Master Plan

The plan will engage the Bard community to develop a long-term vision for the campus and provide concrete steps on how to achieve that vision. Increasing the level and quality of the physical and aesthetic connections between old, new, and future facilities will be a key goal, while recalibrating the relationship between humans and their environment, to reflect a campus that is inclusive, adaptive, educational, and connected.

Blithewood Garden Rehabilitation Project

Blithewood Garden Rehabilitation Project

Bard College and the Garden Conservancy, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to saving and sharing outstanding America gardens, are working together on repairs to the historic garden’s structures and hardscape.

Learn more about Blithewood Garden

Ongoing Projects

  • Horticultural Labels and Signage
    There is an ongoing effort to install identification and interpretive labels and signs for significant specimen trees and ornamental plantings and gardens. Such signage is critical in promoting a campus-wide ecological literacy and appreciation for horticultural assets.
  • Plant Inventory Database
    The Arboretum has begun to systematically catalog Bard's horticultural assets with a plant management software called BG BASE Collections and Management System. This software allows the cataloging and routine monitoring of Bard's horticultural resources. It also serves as a historical record of the Arboretum.
  • Landscape Maintenance and Tree Care
    An essential ongoing activity of the Horticulture and Grounds staff is the upkeep of the grounds. This includes the preservation of ornamental, specimen, and historic trees and gardens, such as Blithewood Gardens and other historic landscape features.
  • Preservation Master Plan
    The historic landscape at Bard is actively being preserved, maintained, and restored under Bard's Preservation Master Plan (2008). This plan includes an inventory, assessment, and recommendations for Bard's historic landscapes and architecture.
Contact
Bard Arboretum
Physical Plant
PO Box 5000
30 Campus Road
Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504-5000

E-mail: [email protected] 
Phone: 845-752-LEAF (5323)
 
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Arboretum Hours: 
The Bard Arboretum is open to the public from sunrise
to sunset every day. 

Office Hours:
Monday – Friday, 7:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.