Bard College Awarded $26,532 Grant from New World Foundation and Partners for Climate Action Hudson Valley for Sustainability Project

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.— Bard College is pleased to announce that it has received a $26,532 grant from the New World Foundation and the Partners for Climate Action Hudson Valley for the project "Bard Bee-Lives: Making Space for At-Risk Pollinators.” Managed by Laurie Husted, Chief Sustainability Officer at Bard, the project was the result of a student proposal by Quincy Ross and Masha Kazanstev and developed in the spring of 2022 in an Open Society University Network (OSUN) social entrepreneurship practicum: Leading Change in Organizations.

The project will transform a twelve-acre cornfield into a pollinator habitat on Bard’s Montgomery Place Campus, and will support pollinator health, cultivate biodiversity, support sourcing and propagating native seeds, build soil health, and manage invasive species. It is a critical early step in the “Pollinate Now” initiative, a bioregional strategy for habitat restoration in the Hudson River Estuary Watershed, developed by Partners for Climate Action Hudson Valley together with Landscape Interactions. 

The “Bard Bee-Lives” project is designed to attract and sustain a wide range of native bee, butterfly, and moth species that are currently at risk of local extinction in the Hudson Valley. Bard is committed to properly implementing the site-specific design and to continue the long-term habitat management required of this effort, with the hope that the varied habitat meadow will eventually be self-sustaining with limited intervention. The list of native plants and the site design developed during the project will be publicly shared, allowing for it to be replicated throughout the region at different scales.

“This new pollen, nectar, and habitat-rich plant community will support more than 100 species of pollinators and will strengthen the ecosystem services this plot of land had previously lost as a cornfield,” said Amy Parrella, Director of Horticulture and Arboretum at Bard. “This will also be a native planting and bee nesting demonstration site for residential homeowners, landscape professionals, and farmers.”

The New World Foundation is rooted in a long tradition of advancing ever-compelling challenges to economic equity, democratic rights, and civic participation in the United States. As a national community foundation, it aims to strengthen community-based organizations and local leadership, working from the bottom up to build coalitions around issues that converge in place, creating alliances locally and building movements nationally. Partners for Climate Action Hudson Valley is an organization which develops programs, gives grants, and offers strategic and operational consulting in order to combat barriers to local ecological action. 
About Bard College
Founded in 1860, Bard College is a four-year residential college of the liberal arts and sciences located 90 miles north of New York City. With the addition of the Montgomery Place estate, Bard’s campus consists of nearly 1,000 parklike acres in the Hudson River Valley. It offers bachelor of arts, bachelor of science, and bachelor of music degrees, with majors in nearly 40 academic programs; graduate degrees in 11 programs; eight early colleges; and numerous dual-degree programs nationally and internationally. Building on its 160-year history as a competitive and innovative undergraduate institution, Bard College has expanded its mission as a private institution acting in the public interest across the country and around the world to meet broader student needs and increase access to liberal arts education. The undergraduate program at our main campus in upstate New York has a reputation for scholarly excellence, a focus on the arts, and civic engagement. Bard is committed to enriching culture, public life, and democratic discourse by training tomorrow’s thought leaders. For more information about Bard College, visit bard.edu.

This event was last updated on 02-21-2023

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