Columbia University
OP-T2-20: Wildlife Habitat

The new Campbell Sports Center, which began construction at Baker Athletics Complex this spring, plans to incorporate conservation as an essential element of the project. At the other end of the lot stretches the banks of the Harlem River, where Columbia is working to restore the onetime marshland adjacent to Inwood Hill Park for public use. The 40,000-square-foot Boathouse Marsh park will recreate a habitat for native wetland plants and birds, as well as a dramatic setting for seasonal changes in flora and fauna. The site will be organized in three tiers that progressively receive, treat and slow down storm water runoff before it enters the tidal system, improving water quality in the river. The University will also establish environmental education programs at the Inwood site, as well as formalize community access to facilities at Baker Athletics Complex. The Nevis campus has a habitat of 65 acres purchased by Alexander Hamilton son’s estate that houses a physics department building but the rest of the space is meadows, forest and unaltered natural landscape. Throughout the property the Audubon Society installed bird houses to attract and house native blue birds In addition, we participate in the The Black Rock Forest Consortium an alliance of colleges and universities, public and independent K-12 schools, and leading scientific and cultural institutions that operates the nearly 4000-acre Black Rock Forest. BRF hosts a field station for scientific research, education, and conservation that also hosts. BRF has green buildings, with sustainable design features that reduce their impact on the forest that include geothermal heating and cooling, solar panels, composting toilets, and materials from the Forest itself. Additional information about Black Rock Forest: http://www.blackrockforest.org/docs/about-the-forest/index.html http://www.blackrockforest.org/docs/about-the-forest/the-consortium/members.html http://www.blackrockforest.org/docs/about-the-forest/GreenBuildings/index.html