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Swamp thing: SUNY Purchase environmentalist, consortium work to preserve nature

There’s a bit of the bayou right here in New York state.

And thanks to UUPer James Utter, an associate professor of environmental sciences at SUNY Purchase, and a host of other supporters, it’s going to be preserved. The area is called the Great Swamp and it’s in the lower Hudson Valley, spanning 6,700 acres in Putnam and Dutchess counties.

Utter is chair of a local volunteer group, Friends of the Great Swamp (FrOGS). FrOGS and SUNY Purchase are part of a 14-member consortium of supporters that obtained grants of $970,000 from the North American Wetlands Conservation Council and $1.2 million from the New York State Depart-ment of Environmental Conservation. Other members of the consortium, including The Nature Conservancy and the Putnam County Land Trust, gave additional funds, for a total of more than $3 million to be used for preservation of the area through land purchases.

The Great Swamp is nothing less than an environmentalist’s dream. Utter describes it as a freshwater wetland, 20 miles long, with two separate watersheds. The watersheds flow in opposite directions — north to the Housatonic River and on to the Long Island Sound; and south, feeding into the New York City reservoir system. The swamp is also a unique ecosystem, home to several rare species of migratory birds, turtles and plant life, Utter said.

The consortium plans to use the grants to purchase wetland habitat and land adjacent to the swamp, to curb development along its perimeter. Preservation of the area would protect wildlife, promote water quality and would provide flood protection for the areas that border it, Utter said. Because the consortium will be unable to purchase all of the adjacent land, Utter said it hopes to work with other landowners to preserve an even greater portion of the area.

Utter has been studying the Great Swamp for more than 25 years. He has conducted extensive research on migratory birds in the area and uses the swamp as a basis for much of his teaching at Purchase.

Utter considers the Great Swamp an invaluable tool for instructing his students. “It’s a place where you can get students involved,” he said.

He often takes students on field trips to the swamp and also works with students conducting thesis research there. In fact, Utter said that data from some of those research activities was used to support the original proposal that FrOGS submitted for the grant.

The swamp enables him to teach his students about the role the landscape plays in the survival of wildlife and the effect environmental changes can have on animal habitats. He also uses it as a case study in the classroom, and to educate students about regulatory issues, community planning and the economics of environmental conservation.

Utter is quick to emphasize the value of the Great Swamp from both an academic and an ecological perspective. But his success in helping secure the grants has brought him tremendous personal satisfaction as well.

“If we’re successful in preserving this area, it will be a big achievement,” he said. “You dream about being able to protect something that’s really important.”

— Carey Smith