A ‘living laboratory’ of trees near Albany
Dennis O’leary slowly moved across a thick carpet of oak leaves, pausing to run a bare palm over the bark of a pair of gnarled, intertwined trees that had weathered centuries of the elements together.
“Look at how that white oak is embracing that red oak,” he said. “You can see the twists and turns from lightning strikes and freezethaw cycles. Our lives are a speck in their timelines.”
O’leary led a tour Friday afternoon through the last oldgrowth forest within shouting distance of downtown Albany. The 65-acre parcel, never logged or disrupted by human hand, contains dozens of trees on the former Corning family estate that are more than 150 years old, a designation of “oldgrowth” determined by an international consortium.
Specimens of American beech
trees here are believed to date to the 17th century, with crowns more than 80 feet high and trunks 4 feet in diameter.
“The forest is a living laboratory if you know how to observe and learn from it,” O’leary said.
O’leary is a tree whisperer, of sorts, the creator of The Bioreserve, a notfor-profit biological reserve of 68 acres of ravines, small streams, trails, tree platforms and a small lab where O’leary welcomes students and teachers for fieldwork and observation.
Researchers plan to study migratory birds in the newly acquired oldgrowth forest in Glenmont.
It appears to be an important stop for birds migrating up the Hudson River Valley before they navigate Albany’s urban core.
The old-growth forest doubles the size of The Bioreserve and O’leary’s naturalist realm. The acquisition caps a 12-year quest to convince the landowner, Westrock, a global forestry and paper products company with headquarters in Atlanta, to let go of the land. Although the 65-acre parcel had a valuation of nearly $1 million two decades ago, Westrock ended up donating the property at no cost. “We want to express our sincere appreciation for their generosity,” said Mark King, executive director of the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy, who dedicated years to brokering and closing the deal. “This property will allow The Bioreserve to expand their programs.”
The guiding spirit behind the project is O’leary, 76, proprietor since 1992 of Albany’s Indoor Rockgym, or A.I.R. He also is a microscopist, who studies objects and materials to determine their makeup and characteristics and repairs microscopes. O’leary has spent decades studying the natural world and he’s run and funded The Bioreseve since the late 1990s.
O’leary speaks of the elements of the forest like characters in an epic human drama and he is out to educate city youths about the natural world, one lichen at a time. In his work as a naturalist, he melds a childlike wonder with a poet’s soul.
“Dennis is a Winnie the Pooh with a science background and this is his 100-Acre Wood,” said Zack Davis, 26, who has a bachelor’s degree in biology from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. He is pursuing a master’s degree at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. He returned home to Colonie when his campus shut down due to COVID -19 and he’s been volunteering as an ecologist at The Bioreserve. Davis and caretaker Matt Kent, who lives on the property with his girlfriend in a yurt, are avid climbers who met O’leary at his rock-climbing gym.
“Dennis combines boundless energy with critical thinking and a commitment to education,” said Kent, 37, who grew up in Portland, Ore., and relocated to Clifton Park with his family. He graduated from Shenendehowa High School in 2001, earned an associate degree from Hudson Valley Community College and built custom aquariums. He earned a 100-ton master captain’s license and has sailed tall ships for the past decade, including the U.S. Brig Niagara, based in Erie, Pa.
The Corning estate, which totaled 700 acres, was split between brothers Parker and Edwin Corning, father of Mayor Erastus Corning 2nd. The property is laced with steep ravines, which prevented development, and stretched from the Hudson River up the Normanskill gorge to Route 9W. The Thruway, completed in the mid-1950s, hemmed in the western border of the property. Known as the upper and lower Corning Farm, it was home to generations of Cornings, descended from patriarch Erastus Corning, founder of the New York Central Railroad and one of New York’s wealthiest men in the 19th century. The family raised sheep, racehorses and orchids. The mayor’s children sold O’leary the property in 1998, five years after the death of their mother, Betty Corning, and 15 years after their father died.
“It’s great to see this land acquisition finally finished after years and years of work and waiting,” said Carrie Stickan, communications and outreach coordinator of the Hudson Mohawk Land Conservancy, which has about 7,500 constituents. The group has protected more than 12,500 acres of land in the Capital Region. The new acreage will be managed by O’leary and The Bioreserve team, accessible to the public only by appointment and prior approval.
The thrum of the Thruway and rumble of tractor-trailers, just 50 yards from the property’s western edge, are muted and replaced by the trill of songbirds deep in the forest. Less than an estimated 4 percent of America’s original forests remain, perhaps as little as 1 percent of old-growth forest in the eastern U.S.
“This parcel is particularly important because it’s just over a mile from downtown Albany and there are no other large forest blocks with this quality of trees nearby in the Hudson corridor,” King said.
O’leary, who had disappeared over a mossy ridge, let out a whoop of joy. “Woo-hoo!” he shouted. He had dropped to his hands and knees and probed the muck of a vernal pond with a stick, marveling at tadpoles and water striders rippling the surface.
To learn more or to arrange a tour, contact The Bioreserve at 518482-8200 or visit its website at www.thebioreserve.org.