For more than 30 years the Calder Center has been providing educational and research opportunities for students and faculty who wish to study organisms and environmental processes. Our preserve is one of the few nationally-recognized field stations in close proximity to New York City, with a relatively undisturbed forest, old fields and aquatic habitats. We have a variety of terrestrial and aquatic communities available for study, as well as extensive laboratory facilities, classrooms, ecological library, field vehicles, and an instructional laboratory for field courses and independent research.

Our station collects continuous records of meteorological, aquatic, environmental, and aerial pollen monitoring   data that may be applied to ongoing research studies. The Calder Center is part of the multi-institutional Urban - Rural Gradient study, which has been examining the effects of urbanization on atmospheric deposition and forest ecosystems. We maintain large experimental aquatic mesocosms (5400 L each) that can be used for experimental studies on lake food webs, and large herbivore exclosures which are being used to evaluate the long-term effects of deer grazing on vegetation composition and soil processes. The Calder Center is also the site of the longest running study of deer tick populations and Lyme disease in the country.

These are a few of the   habitats,   activities, and   facilities that may be useful for a researcher or teacher in your department. We also a have a limited number of guest rooms for overnight users and modest User Fees. If you are interested in using the Calder Center for a scientific conference, as a teaching resource, or in your research, you can obtain Station Use Request Forms listed below:

• Meetings & Conferences - MS Word DOC or Rich Text format (rtf)
• Field Trips & Classes - MS Word DOC or Rich Text format (rtf)
• Research Projects - MS Word DOC or Rich Text format (rtf)

We are less than an hour's drive from Manhattan and accessible from several major highways. There is a Metro-North railway station which is a 5 minute drive from Calder, and White Plains airport (10 minute drive), which is serviced by United, USAir, Northwest, and several other major U.S. airlines. For details on our location see:   directions to the Louis Calder Center