The
Know Your Place Project
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The
Know Your Place Project
(or
KYPP to friends)
"Care
for the land
comes from Knowing, Knowing comes from Asking, Asking comes from
Loving" - FEP Motto
Welcome
to the Know Your Place
Project
(KYPP). Click on any of the picture links below
to explore some of the
current KYPP offerings...we'll keep updating as we go...or read on
to learn more about KYPP.
The Know Your Place Project (KYPP) is
one of the newest endeavors at the Farmscape Ecology Program, though it
has been germinating for quite some time. As we explore the
diverse natural beauty and rich social and historical stories of the
County, we
are always aspiring to find new ways to share these experiences.
KYPP is our way of trying to explore the County together.
Our hope is that it becomes a portal for a variety of
information and activities
that invite you to consider, experience, and enjoy where you live in
ways that are new for you.
The
pictures above are links to some of the current KYPP activities in the
making, as well other ongoing FEP projects that may be of interest.
Click on the historic photo of a farmer to learn
more about the oral history project. Anna will be leading
this project. Oral history is a way of sharing our
community's
knowledge and stories, and celebrating our heritage. Anna
will
initially be seeking out stories from elders in our community who have
grown up with close personal or family ties to the agricultural
landscape, particularly through dairy and livestock. We hope to
collect stories from a wide variety of
elders from throughout Columbia County, and eventually share these
stories in informative and engaging ways. If you have ideas
or
questions about this project, please contact Anna by email
(anna@hawthornevalleyfarm.net).
The picture of the flowering bellwort plant above
links to the ongoing
Participatory Natural History Surveys currently being conducted on
three different sets of creatures: butterflies, mammals, and wild
plants. These facilitated
surveys offer an opportunity for people of all ages and
backgrounds to
experience hands-on ecological research and learn about the
wild
organisms in our farmscape, while also helping to build a database
about the spatial distribution of native plant and animal species in
Columbia County and to identify ecologically unique "special
places." These places might be special because they are home
to
plants or
animals rarely found somewhere else within the County or because they
are high quality examples of natural communities with large numbers of
native organisms. The Participatory Natural
History Surveys meet bi-monthly (June-October), alternating between the
Roeliff Jansen Park and other 'special places' in the
County. For more information, or to join in, please
contact Claudia Knab-Vispo
(fep@hawthornevalleyfarm.org or (518) 672-7994).
Click
on the picture of the map above to visit Our Changing
Landscape, a webpage with maps, photos and descriptions of ways in
which the landscape of Columbia County has changed over time.
There you will find our ongoing work on digitilizing aerial
photographs of the county and a recent report: Forest, Field, and
Freeway: A Summary of Statistics Describing Landscape, Land Use, and
Related Activities in Columbia County, NY. Also check out the
newly added indexed depository of Columbia County
historical maps and photos that we've collected over the
years.
You may have seen some of these in an FEP slideshow, or in
some
of the recent publications on the website, but we've gathered them here
in one place in our efforts to continue to make these resources easily
available.
Click
on the picture of the forest path to
learn more about our upcoming Hawthorne Valley Farm Ecology Walks,
co-sponsored by the Columbia Land Conservancy. All walks are
free, require no registration and will start in front of the Hawthorne
Valley Farmstore. For more information, contact Conrad Vispo or Claudia
Knab-Vispo (fep@hawthornevalleyfarm.org or (518) 672-7994).
Finally, stay tuned for a new KYPP
offering coming this Fall. We'll be sending out monthly "KYPP
nuggets" that weave together ecological and cultural research on
season-specific themes. If you would like to be on our email
list
to receive these KYPP nuggets, simply send an email to
anna@hawthornevalleyfarm.org with "subscribe" in the subject line.
Enjoy your explorations, and check back soon for new
KYPP updates.
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