Keri VanCamp, Director of the Preserve at Vassar–in collaboration with Jen Rubbo, Director of the Environmental Cooperative; Dean Jaeger, Grounds Manager; Evan Lasher, Grounds Foreman; and Ethan Skuches, Vassar-Kenauk Conservation Fellow–was selected by the Partners for Climate Action (PCA) for an Ecological Restoration Grant. Funded through PCA’s fiscal sponsor, the New World Foundation (NWF), this grant will support creative and engaging ways to support pollinators through native meadow restoration in the Hudson Valley bioregion.

As part of a larger project aimed at reimagining the entrance to the Preserve, this project will focus on the restoration of 4.2 acres of degraded old field to a native meadow. The section of the old field that will be restored currently has a mix of native grasses and forbs, but there is a widespread population of spotted knapweed (Centaurea Stoebe). The site will be prepared using methods commonly used to deplete an undesirable seed bank, and the purchase of a tiller will ensure the capacity to do additional meadow restoration work in the future.

Following site preparation, the site will be drill seeded with the sunny dry native seed mix, supplemented with locally collected seed to improve the species and genetic diversity. The project team is currently collaborating with a number of local sites on seed collection for a native plant propagation program; they will collect seed on site and at partner organizations to improve the diversity of the seed mix and conduct outreach and education about restoration efforts.

By restoring the meadows at the entrance to the Preserve, the team is placing ecological restoration in a high-visibility area that has the potential for in-person engagement; signs along each pedestrian path will tell the story of the restoration to visitors entering the Preserve, and the restoration will be documented through the Chronolog, which was installed during a 2023 Riparian Buffer Restoration Project to help engage citizen scientists in the documentation of the restoration of the site through time lapse photography.