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Welcome to the site of our recently launched Participatory Natural History Surveys. Since the beginning of June we have been facilitating bi-monthly outings with three groups of enthusiastic citizen naturalists, each conducting surveys on a different set of creatures: wild plants, butterflies, and mammals. To learn more about what we are discovering in these surveys, click on the links above (currently only the butterfly and plant pages are available, but check back soon for mammals). It is also not too late to participate in one of the survey groups if you are interested. You can read more about this opportunity below, or contact Claudia Knab-Vispo to find out how to join in (fep@hawthornevalleyfarm.org or (518) 672-7994).

The Participatory Natural History Surveys are an exciting way for us to share our continuing efforts to document the wild plants and animals that live in the different habitats (e.g. upland forests, plowed fields, meadows, ponds, streams, floodplain forests) of Columbia County's agricultural landscape or "farmscape." We also hope it is an opportunity for interested citizens to learn about their landscape in new ways.

One goal of the Natural History Survey is to continue the building of a database about the spatial distribution of native plant and animal species in Columbia County and the identification of 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. Such information could make us better stewards of the land at the scale of individual properties, of towns, and of the County.

The other goal of the Survey is to facilitate dedicated groups of local naturalists who might share the natural history knowledge they already have while deepening their own familiarity with select sets of organisms and joining a collective effort to better know our County.

The surveys consist of two facilitated weekend outings per month (June-October), with one monthly outing to the Roeliff Jansen Park and the other to a different “special place” in the County.  Each outing takes approximately three hours.  The intensive surveys of the Roeliff Jansen Park will allow participants to develop an in-depth knowledge of the ecology of one place and will provide the Park with useful information on the local flora and fauna. The one-time visits to other sites throughout the County will broaden the geographical experience of the participants and provide snapshots of a number of other places of ecological interest. The group leaders will attend these outings and help with data collection and interpretation, but participants are expected to be self-motivated and to spend part of those outings collecting their own observations (the more active eyes, the more complete the overall survey!). At the end of each outing, we’ll gather to review our findings for the day.  Our results will be shared with the larger community through a regularly-updated web site and a printed update that will be available at the Park.

The three survey groups are being coordinated by Claudia Knab-Vispo, Conrad Vispo, and Michael Pewtherer respectively. Claudia is a botanist experienced with the local and tropical flora; Conrad is a wildlife biologist who has been looking at butterflies and dragonflies in the County for the past three years; and Mike Pewtherer is a tracker, naturalist and author of Wilderness Survival.

People who are interested in participating are asked to consider committing to attend the majority of outings, so that we can build an active, learning group that can explore the County together.

For further information please contact Claudia Knab-Vispo (fep@hawthornevalleyfarm.org or (518) 672-7994).