Join us on Wednesday, February 8 for a lecture on how the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s new Young Forest Initiative is at work in the Hudson Valley! We’ll explore the special features of this ephemeral habitat, and discover how the Young Forest Initiative will inform habitat management and restoration in Putnam County’s 1085-acre Cranberry Mountain Wildlife Management Area in Patterson, New York.

We’ll also hear about the New England Cottontail, an elusive and little-known rabbit that has lost four-fifths of its range in New England and New York State—but may be living in some of Bedford Audubon’s wildlife sanctuaries! Classified as a New York State Species of Greatest Conservation Need, the New England Cottontail depends on young forest habitat and may depend on this new initiative to bolster its population through improved forest management, including timber harvest.

Kevin Clarke is a Wildlife Biologist for Region 3 of the DEC, and is the head of the Young Forest Initiative. Kevin has worked on mute swan research, as well as deer and furbearer programs with the DEC for more than a dozen years. Kevin holds a BS in Environmental & Forest Biology from the College of Environmental Science & Forestry, and a MS in Zoology from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

The lecture will be held in the Garden Room of the Katonah Village Library. Please join us for refreshments at 7pm (and bring a reusable mug to help us reduce our ecological footprint), and the lecture begins at 7:30. No registration required.