Company Profile
Black Rock Forest Consortium
Company Overview
Black Rock Forest Consortium (www.blackrockforest.org) is an environmental education, research, and conservation organization with a membership of twenty-two prominent universities, schools, and research institutions from the New York metro area. Established in 1989 and located 50 miles north of Manhattan, the Consortium operates a biological field station and maintains Black Rock Forest, a 4,000-acre private preserve located in the scenic Hudson Highlands, a National Heritage Area. Since1989, Consortium scientists have published more than 425 scientific articles and papers, including 31 doctoral dissertations and master’s theses. The Consortium has built two award-winning green buildings, including a Center for Science and Education with laboratories and classrooms and a Forest Lodge with 60 beds and a lecture hall capacity of 140. In science education, the Consortium offers programs that increase science literacy and understanding of the natural world, incorporate field work in biology, chemistry, and earth and environmental sciences, and support original research. The Consortium’s education program volume has increased nearly 20 percent in the past two years, to more than 13,000 student visitor-days annually.
Company History
The nearly 4,000-acre Black Rock Forest preserve was established by Hudson Valley landowner Dr. Ernest G. Stillman in 1929. The Forest has been used for environmental research since that time, first under Dr. Stillman’s direction and later by his alma mater, Harvard University, which inherited the Forest. Black Rock Forest Consortium, a nonprofit organization, was formed in 1989 following the purchase of the Forest preserve by William T. Golden. Golden was a science policy advisor to President Truman, noted for his influence in the formation of the President’s Science Advisory Committee, the Atomic Energy Commission, and the National Science Foundation. Golden also advanced science through his philanthropy. His envisioned the Forest as a resource for science education and research. Today, the Consortium is an independent nonprofit organization that serves the general public as well as a thriving institutional membership of 21 universities, colleges, research institutions, independent schools and public school districts from the greater New York area.
Black Rock Forest Consortium’s mission is to advance scientific understanding through ecosystem research, science education, and conservation partnerships that ensure effective regional ecosystem management. The Consortium operates a biological field station and supports more than 13,000 student-visitor-days at the Forest annually. Current conservation programs include assessing the potential for native brook trout restoration in the Hudson Highlands, forest restoration and wildlife corridor protection initiatives, and management of local deer populations. Black Rock Forest Consortium also tests and incorporates a range of alternative energy and energy efficiency technologies into its facilities and field operations.