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Lake Placid, N.Y. – Paul Smith’s College has partnered with the Northwood School to bring Natural History of the Adirondacks to downtown Lake Placid at the Innovation Hub. Beginning July 28 through August 25, 2023, Paul Smith’s College professors will introduce the community to the plants and animals that live here. Through interactive presentations, faculty will share more information about mammals, amphibians, and other living organisms of the Adirondacks. Community members and visitors alike will learn something new!
The Northwood School’s Innovation Hub, located at 2495 Main St., Lake Placid, NY 12946, opened in 2020 and is committed to promoting collaboration, engagement, and partnerships, capitalizing on the shared knowledge, innovation, and creativity within our community.
“This partnership with the Northwood School allows us to showcase the power of collaboration and the collective efforts we must take to protect the place we call home, the beautiful Adirondacks. We pride ourselves on research and advocacy on issues that improve our planet and the lives of the people who inhabit it” Interim President Dan Kelting said.
“We are delighted to host Paul Smith’s College faculty members who are exemplary researchers and scholars in fields that directly impact the future of the Adirondacks. Both the Northwood School and Paul Smith’s College share a commitment to place-based learning and welcome the opportunity to showcase our shared commitment in downtown Lake Placid with our entire community” said Thomas P Broderick Associate Head of School for External Affairs.
The public is welcome to join us every Friday night at 7pm for a free presentation that is open to all ages. A full schedule of presentations is below.
Full Schedule
July 28, 2023
Ticks in the Adirondacks?
Dr. Lee Ann Sporn, Environmental Biologist, Paul Smith’s College
August 4, 2023
What is that in my backyard? An overview of some of the Adirondacks most interesting wildlife.
Dr. Lizz Schuyler, Wildlife Biologist, Paul Smith’s College
August 11, 2023
Carnivores of the Northern Forest: past, present, and an uncertain future
Dr. Paul Jensen, Carnivore Biologist, Research Fellow, Paul Smith’s College
August 18, 2023
The Importance of Moths
Dr. Janet Mihuc, Entomologist, Paul Smith’s College
August 25, 2023
Ecotourism and amphibian diseases: is our love of nature making us a vector?
Dr. Val Titus, Herpetologist, Paul Smith’s College
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Back in the day, 200 years ago, ‘Natural History’ was par for the course in the common schools, or the one-room schoolhouses in New England/New York. One of our most famous governors, De Witt Clinton, was not only a politician but he knew biota also, he could spy some plant from fifty feet away and begin to go into what it’s advantages, or disadvantages, were. They don’t sprout politicians like that anymore! Nowadays the only thing a politician needs to know is where their money is coming from. Clinton’s 1810 journal is one of the most fascinating reads so far as journals go. Not only did he give eloquent descriptive accounts of social scenes, he noted what plants and animals he happened upon way back then also (he was not unique in this regard.) He noted plant species by their scientific name way back then as he traveled through rural New York as a commissioner to explore the route for the proposed Erie Canal. New York was wild country back in them days…..
Reading this story I thought of Clinton, and I thought of how so disengaged we are as a society from the natural world which surrounds us. I think it’s a good thing what Paul Smith’s & Northwood School are doing to get the community to see some ‘thing’ other than plastic for a change. Back in them days 200 years ago, the children’s books were geared towards educating the scholars on plant and animal species, on science, philosophy….. Matter of fact, it would require considerable effort to not find stories relative to natural history, and science, in seemingly all of the major publications back in them rural days when our early ancestors got by on so little.
Surely there was much disinterest 200 years ago as there is now, but the difference is, they tried hard, which the old literature proves, to plant that seed ‘Natural History’ and ‘Science’ into the psyche of the population back then. I suppose they realized all of the damage they had done in their homeland’s up to that point and, enlightened futurists that they were, did not wish to do the same here in this once great, but never perfect, country of ours!