Purchase College, SUNY, is pleased to announce that Dr. Allyson Jackson, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, has been awarded a major grant in the amount of $499,943 by New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation to restore and reforest close to a three-acre plot on the Purchase College campus. As part of this project, students will have the valuable educational and research opportunity to study comparative planting practices among three different sites.

Dr. Jackson said, “I’m very excited to be awarded this DEC Community Reforestation grant which will enable us to turn an area that is dominated by invasive plants and has very little ecological value into a forest that will benefit both the environment and our students. This work unites my three passions – conservation, teaching, and research. For conservation, we will be planting 1,800 trees in this area, which helps provide wildlife habitat along with carbon capture and heat-reducing effects. For teaching, the majority of the work will be accomplished by paid student technicians and interns under my mentorship. This sort of real-world teaching is so important to prepare students for their future careers. Perhaps most exciting for me as a scientist — we will be using three different strategies for planting, which will allow us to study how the forest regenerates for decades to come, providing research opportunities for generations of Purchase College students.”

Dr. Meagan Curtis, Director of the School of Natural and Social Sciences at Purchase said, “Professor Jackson and her students are doing extraordinary work to transform our campus and create healthier ecosystems. Their efforts will impact campus wildlife for centuries! Beyond that, this grant will support the creation of a 3-acre laboratory, and with that, limitless opportunities for our students to conduct research on reforestation and its ecological impact. This type of hands-on research experience and skill training translates to long-term success for our students, preparing them for graduate school and future careers.”

About the project

This afforestation project will restore a degraded and invasive species dominated 2.8-acre plot of land on Purchase College’s campus, along with installing deer fences to protect the most densely planted seedlings. Purchase College’s Environmental Studies department, with help from the grounds department, will maintain this landscape, which is part of the overall 500-acre Purchase campus, 30 miles north of New York City.

The team plans to densely afforest 2.3 acres of the larger 2.8 acre-area, leaving some areas open for trails and educational spaces, resulting in planting 1,800 trees. These types of invasive landscapes are some of the most difficult to restore so it is best to concentrate resources in this relatively small area, in order to ensure success. The addition of this forest will help with the college’s overall carbon capture goals, along with reducing heat effects from the large residential complex and parking lots that are nearby.

As part of Dr. Jackson and the Environmental Studies department’s education mission, the team will not only plant trees but design the planting in such a way that faculty and students can ask interesting research questions. Trees will be planted in three different densities, allowing for studies of comparative regeneration by generations of Purchase College students.

This area will be planted using both traditional forestry methods and an innovative MicroForest method designed after the Miyawaki Forest model. In the Miyawaki forest method, trees, shrubs, and groundcover are planted at very high densities to encourage competition, which makes the forest fragment grow faster and return to steady state sooner. The Miyawaki method is known for its ability to restore small-scale landscapes across the region. It does this with high density planting that spurs rapid plant establishment which can resist invasive plants and can quickly provide environmental benefits such as carbon capture, stormwater retention, shade and cooling effects, and increased biodiversity.

This project was announced by New York State Governor Kathy Hochul through the new Community Reforestation (CoRe) program. Sixteen projects, including the one at Purchase College, will establish and expand resilient forests in and near New York’s urban communities, contributing to the 2024 State of the State “25 Million Trees Initiative” launched by Governor Hochul to recognize the importance of trees and forests for climate resiliency and community health. Funding for this round of the CoRe grant program was allocated by the Governor in her 2024-2025 Executive Budget. The Purchase College project is one of three in Westchester County with the other two projects contributing to reforestation in the Village of Irvington and the Village of Hastings on Hudson.

About Purchase College, SUNY

Purchase College, part of the State University of New York (SUNY) network of 64 universities and colleges, was founded in 1967 by Governor Nelson Rockefeller. His aspiration for Purchase was to create a dynamic campus that combined conservatory training in the visual and performing arts with programs in the liberal arts and sciences, in order to inspire an appreciation for both intellectual and artistic talents in all students. Today, Purchase College, SUNY is a community of students, faculty, and friends where open-minded engagement with the creative process leads to a lifetime of intellectual growth and professional opportunity. For more information about the college, visit www.purchase.edu.

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