Hawthorne Valley biodiversity trail expansion
Hawthorne Valley is a place to rediscover one’s connection to nature, to how our food is grown, and to ourselves as participants in a dynamic social and natural ecosystem. Through active food production, educational programs for children and adults, ongoing social and scientific research, and the cultivation of a vibrant artistic community, we pursue a modern way of living embedded deeply in the natural world. Our work emphasizes the social, ecological, and economic importance of agriculture in our daily lives. Our integrated learning campus sits on a 900-acre Demeter-certified Biodynamic® farm in Ghent, NY, centrally located in Hudson Valley’s Columbia County. Organized since 1971 as a 501(c)3 nonprofit, our initiatives include: pre-K - 12 Waldorf school; on-farm education programs; a full-line organic/natural foods and grocery store; a Biodynamic creamery and organic bakery; and social, ecological, and cultural research groups.
Project story
Hawthorne Valley’s Biodiversity Trail began with a desire to sustain biodiversity within a working farm landscape while helping people better understand the ecosystems around them. The trail moves through pasture, wet meadow, and forest edge habitats alive with pollinators, migratory birds, amphibians, and seasonal plant communities. The vision emerged through collaboration among farmers, ecologists from the Farmscape Ecology Program, and students from Hawthorne Valley Waldorf School’s Ecology Club, who helped map the trail and identify areas of ecological and agricultural significance.
In partnership with the youth conservation organization Greenagers, local students helped build the first stretch of the trail by laying stone paths, creating stream crossings, and shaping trails through wet meadow and forest hillside terrain. The trail now includes hand-painted interpretive signs and poetry-inscribed benches created through community collaboration.
Funding will support the next phase of the trail: expanding trail sections, coordinating volunteer stewardship days and public walks, creating additional signage and artistic installations, and building long-term systems for community involvement and care. Over the next year, the trail will continue evolving as a shared public space where agriculture, ecology, education, and art meet on the land itself.
Project updates
Team
Hawthorne Valley biodiversity trail expansion
Hawthorne Valley is a place to rediscover one’s connection to nature, to how our food is grown, and to ourselves as participants in a dynamic social and natural ecosystem. Through active food production, educational programs for children and adults, ongoing social and scientific research, and the cultivation of a vibrant artistic community, we pursue a modern way of living embedded deeply in the natural world. Our work emphasizes the social, ecological, and economic importance of agriculture in our daily lives. Our integrated learning campus sits on a 900-acre Demeter-certified Biodynamic® farm in Ghent, NY, centrally located in Hudson Valley’s Columbia County. Organized since 1971 as a 501(c)3 nonprofit, our initiatives include: pre-K - 12 Waldorf school; on-farm education programs; a full-line organic/natural foods and grocery store; a Biodynamic creamery and organic bakery; and social, ecological, and cultural research groups.
Project story
Hawthorne Valley’s Biodiversity Trail began with a desire to sustain biodiversity within a working farm landscape while helping people better understand the ecosystems around them. The trail moves through pasture, wet meadow, and forest edge habitats alive with pollinators, migratory birds, amphibians, and seasonal plant communities. The vision emerged through collaboration among farmers, ecologists from the Farmscape Ecology Program, and students from Hawthorne Valley Waldorf School’s Ecology Club, who helped map the trail and identify areas of ecological and agricultural significance.
In partnership with the youth conservation organization Greenagers, local students helped build the first stretch of the trail by laying stone paths, creating stream crossings, and shaping trails through wet meadow and forest hillside terrain. The trail now includes hand-painted interpretive signs and poetry-inscribed benches created through community collaboration.
Funding will support the next phase of the trail: expanding trail sections, coordinating volunteer stewardship days and public walks, creating additional signage and artistic installations, and building long-term systems for community involvement and care. Over the next year, the trail will continue evolving as a shared public space where agriculture, ecology, education, and art meet on the land itself.
Project updates
Team
Location
New York, United States
Round 3
Jul 1-21, 2026
Supporting community-led nature projects around the world.
Matching funds provided by
