Developing a Collaborative and Strategic Vision for Mohonk Preserve's Daniel Smiley Research Center

Cary Institute Of Ecosystem Studies, Inc., Millbrook NY

Investigators

Abstract

Mohonk Preserve is New York State's largest non-profit nature preserve with outdoor recreational and educational activities. Located 90 miles northwest of New York City on the Shawangunk Ridge in the Mid-Hudson Valley, the Preserve serves a regional and international set of researchers, educators, students, and recreationalists. The Preserve's research collection includes a unique body of materials spanning natural and cultural history, geology, archaeology, climatology, ecology, and land-use history in the Hudson Valley. Long-term datasets comprise one of the most extensive natural history (phenology), weather, and lake sampling records in North America. Mohonk Preserve, in partnership with The Cary Institute and the State University of New York at New Paltz, will lead a community strategic visioning process for Mohonk Preserve's Daniel Smiley Research Center for the benefit of science, education, and outreach. The planning process will draw regional as well as international scientists, students, and citizens to participate in four workshops to explore ideas and methods by which the Preserve can build on the successes of its long-term data monitoring and collecting program to better serve an ever-expanding and more diverse network of research and educational stakeholders. This process will catalyze new collaborations, syntheses, curricula, sharing of resources, and infrastructure investments in alignment with mission and strategic goals of Mohonk Preserve and partner institutions. The resulting expansion of research activities will benefit researchers of all academic levels, extend the scope of the Preserve's Daniel Smiley Research Center from local to regional and global, provide new learning opportunities for K-12 and undergraduate students, community recreationists, and citizen scientists, and increase outreach to visiting recreationalists.