Urban-Rural Gradient at the Calder Center
The Louis Calder Center is the middle site along a 130 km (80-mile) urban-forest transect, the Urban-Rural Gradient Experiment (URGE), running from NYC to Western Connecticut, and supports the longest running ecological field study of Lyme Disease in the country. Today, the Calder Center is one of the most important assets in Fordham's educational program. The LCC’s mix of habitats in a largely suburban location has provided students at several levels (graduate, undergraduate, and high school) opportunities to conduct experiments in natural systems, test ecological theory, and quantify the impacts of human disturbance on the land.
The forest, 10-acre lake, and streams comprising the station are contiguous with a 3,400 hectare forested watershed (part of a larger 510,000 ha forest-watershed system), which supplies drinking water for the New York metropolitan region.
Support for research and education activities at the station have come from a wide variety of sources including:
- Hudson River Foundation
- National Institutes of Health (NIH)
- National Science Foundation (NSF)
- NOAA - Sea Grant
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
- Westchester County
- New York City Urban Parks Service
- NY Metropolitan Forest Council
- NY State Department of Education
- NY State Department of Health
- Richard King Mellon Foundation
- U.S. Department of Agriculture
- Putnam County
- Rockland County
- Routh Endowment Fund