Black Rock Forest Consortium

Black Rock Forest Consortium 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.