From the Hudson to the Taconics : An Ecological and Cultural Field Guide to the Habitats of Columbia County, New York
Location: Columbia County
This richly illustrated and easy-to-use Field Guide is an invitation to explore the ecological and cultural fabric of a diverse Hudson Valley landscape. Informed by decades of original research by the Hawthorne Valley Farmscape Ecology Program and Hudsonia Ltd., it provides readers with the tools to recognize and get to know 36 distinct habitats and includes—
Information on how to identify and distinguish each habitat in the landscape
Maps of public areas where habitats can be experienced
What to look for, including lists of associated wild plants and animals
Stewardship ideas and considerations
Habitat history in the context of human history
Perspectives from people interacting with the habitats
Interactive suggestions for engaging with different habitats
From the Hudson to the Taconics is for anyone who inhabits, visits, or loves this landscape. Casual readers, naturalists, biologists, educators, policymakers, and land managers alike will find in it ample resources to deepen a personal relationship with this land and an understanding of the wild plants and animals who share it.
Farmscape Ecology Program, Hawthorne Valley
Location: Harlemville
The Farmscape Ecology Program was founded in 2003 as a small research and outreach program dedicated to encouraging an informed compassion for place.
We do this by exploring the relationship between human culture and the rural, semi-agricultural landscape of Columbia County.
Our Program includes a core staff comprised of a botanist, social scientist, and a wildlife ecologist. Together with technicians, interns and volunteers, we do participatory research on aspects of the County’s ecology, history and culture with the goal of stimulating their exploration and building love and knowledge of this area. We share our knowledge and findings widely through public ecology walks, presentations, local publications, electronic media, and a variety of facilitated discussions and gatherings.
Contact: 518-672-7994 or fep@hawthornevalleyfarm.org
Website: https://hvfarmscape.org/
The Nature Institute
Location: Harlemville
The Nature Institute, founded in 1998, is a small, independent not-for-profit organization in upstate New York with a proven track record for incisive and thoughtful research studies, publications, and education programs. The Institute serves as a local, national, and international forum for research, education, and the exchange of ideas about the re-visioning of science and technology in an effort to realign humanity with nature. Staff members and adjunct researchers/faculty have authored books and articles while also presenting at conferences, leading workshops, training teachers, and lecturing widely.
Contact: 518-672-0116 or info@natureinstitute.org
Website: https://www.natureinstitute.org/
Optimal Wellness Center
Location: West Stockbridge MA
Nestled in the heart of the Berkshires, our 1200 square foot center provides a tranquil and inviting environment for healing and rejuvenation.
Group classes, personal training, and private mobility sessions.
Services Offered: Massage, Specialty Bodywork, Neuromuscular Therapy, Movement and Mobility Therapy, Functional Nutrition and Pain Management
Contact: 413-822-7394 or hello@optimalwellnessma.com
Website: https://optimalwellnessma.com/
Wild Soul River, Abolitionist Herbal Healing
Location: Williamstown MA
We have an herbalist on-site and offer energy healing, one-on-one deep dive herbal consults, workshops, crystals, tarot decks and tarot readings, simple single origin coffee and herbal teas, and much more.
We believe in the collective. We believe in holding space and and lifting up other healers, herbalist, witches, farmers, writers, artists, anarchists, makers, and revolutionaries. We believe in community ability to sustain projects and benefit the collective. We believe in radical healing. We believe in radical education. We believe in making these things accessible. We believe in land acknowledgment and in reparations. We believe these acts of solidarity provide deep generational healing for all of us. We believe that there is abundance for all of us.
Contact 413-597-1172 or info@wildsoulriver.com
Website: https://wildsoulriver.com/
Essential Pelvic Health, Laura Rowan
Location: Old Chatham
Essential Pelvic Health provides an integrative whole person approach to pelvic health. Treating women, men, and all gender diversities to get to the root cause of persistent pain and developing personalized lifestyle strategies for optimal bladder, bowel, and sexual function. EPH is committed to providing professional continuing education and mentorship to support the growing demands of this emerging profession.
Contact: 413-591-0211 or info@essentialpelvichealth.com
Full Body Thermography -Patricia Bowden-Luccardi, CTT, CNMT
Location: Chatham, Clifton Park
Since 2012, Patricia has focused her expertise on the natural prevention of breast cancer. She is a professional advocate for the promotion of radiation-free thermography.
Her public seminars and lectures are designed to educate women about the serious health risks of environmental toxins and endocrinal disruptors. Her natural protocols, including diet, supplementation and lifestyle changes, have revealed extraordinary results that have been later visibly confirmed by thermographic imaging.
Contact: 518 929 7579 or patricialuccardi@gmail.com
Website: https://patricialuccardi.com/
Doula Odessa and Birth Services
Odessa Bates, MA,CD Certified Birth and Postpartum Doula
Location: Serving clients within 1.5 hours of Pittsfield MA
Hello! My name is Odessa Bates, owner of Doula Odessa & Birth Services. I’m based in Western Massachusetts and have been in the health and wellness field for over 20 years. I’m a Certified Birth Doula, Certified Postpartum Doula, Certified Placenta Encapsulation Specialist, Spinning Babies® Aware Practitioner, Evidence Based Birth Professional, Empty Arms Bereavement Professional, LGBTQ ally, Trauma informed, culturally informed, Substance Use informed, and a former counselor with a master’s degree in Women’s Studies.
Contact: 413-642-1165 or doula.odessa@yahoo.com
Website: https://www.doulaodessa.com/
Dr. Rachel Low ND - Naturopathic Physician
Location: Great Barrington MA
In addition to 1:1 naturopathic medical visits, I offer online body literacy courses centered around the various phases of reproductive health care — menstrual health, fertility & preconception care, holistic pregnancy support, postpartum wellness, and perimenopause.
My practice is grounded firmly in the naturopathic principles of addressing the root cause of disease and working to support the natural healing process. I strongly emphasize establishing good foundational health with diet and lifestyle, while using plant and energy medicines to stimulate the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems and gently direct the body towards homeostasis. As an integrative provider, I blend evidence-based medicine with traditional and energetic practices. Modalities that I frequently use include herbal medicine, homeopathy, biotherapeutic drainage, clinical nutrition, flower essences, and hydrotherapy.
Contact: 860-337-2331 or hello@rachellownd.com
Website: https://www.rachellownd.com/
Find Your Wild - Tes Reed
Location: Berkshire and Columbia Counties
“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.”
— Rachel Carson, The Sense of Wonder
Nature Education for Children and Adults - Offering a wide variety of retreats, workshops, individual consulting and wilderness mentoring.
Nature Event Planning, such sessions as:
• Learn Your Land – Your Forest or Mine
• Wild Campfire Cocktail Party
• Guided Hikes
• Foraging Wild Edibles and Primitive Cooking Workshop
• Solo Guided Retreats
• Wild Birthday Parties
Contact: 413-329-8563 or tesreed01230@gmail.com
Website: https://tesreed.com/
La Leche League - Columbia County
Location: Columbia County
La Leche League is an international, nonprofit, nonsectarian organization dedicated to providing education, information, support, and encouragement to nursing families. Online and in person meetings and support
Contact: 518-392-5854
Website: https://lalechecolumbia.weebly.com/
Bloom Project
Location: Hudson
Supporting the well-being of expecting and new parents and families during the transitions of the childbearing years.
Childbirth Preparation Classes, Lactation and Infant Feeding
Contact: 518-992-6241 or info@bloomprojectny.org
Website: https://bloomprojectny.org/
Eurythmy - Kate Reese Hurd
Kate Reese Hurd is resident of Philmont, a graduate of the program in eurythmy at Spring Valley NY and holds degrees in music and English literature. She has now established a website for easier access to her reports, articles and materials; and she is orienting toward making full use of this new foundation in speech and movement to prepare and present pieces in eurythmy.
Sanctuary Without Walls with Katherine Hauk
Women's Gatherings, Circles of Care
Are you seeking sanctuary in these chaotic times? A place to find rest and connection with other women and with the Earth? Do you live in Columbia County, NY, or nearby? Join us for one of our Circles.
'Creating Together' Bring whatever creative project you are working on, or come to dream up something new. Creating with our hands can be comforting and enlivening during anxious times. And creating together can light up our imaginations. Making can be a spiritual practice.
Spirit of the Wild Circle, Are you ready to take a deeper look at your kinship with the beings and outdoor places to which we belong? Please join me for this Earth-centered exploration of our spirituality. This event welcomes women from all religious and spiritual traditions, or none.
ElderCircle, This gathering for Elders, women 70 years and over, is a safe and supportive place to share our hard-earned wisdom. We will share our grief, our joys, our strategies for living in these later years of our lives, including how to respond in creative, healing, regenerative ways to these turbulent times, personally and socially. The world needs our wisdom.
There is no charge to attend circles. Gifts are gratefully accepted but not necessary.
Camphill Ghent
Camphill Ghent is a vibrant residential community for elders that offers a meaningful life and a rich, active social program designed to support residents in maintaining their independence and joy of living. Our mission is to serve the needs of elders of all abilities through caring for the body, soul, and spirit in home settings within an inclusive community so that they may continue to live a life of wellness, dignity, joy, and fulfillment.
Website: https://www.camphillghent.org/
Quaker Intentional Village Canaan
Location: Canaan
Homes to Rent or Build, Rooms to Rent
Yearning to live in a close-knit community?
Seeking a more spiritually focused life?
Dreaming of living more simply and sustainably?
Come visit!
We are currently an intentional community of ten households and several others interested in membership, living close to the land on 135 acres of mixed woodland and pasture. We range in age from 4 to 91, with 17 adults, 6 children, and a number of young adult children who come and go. We strive to live spirit-focused lives that are simple, sustainable, and joyful, benefitting from and enjoying our close connections with each other and the land. We don't all need to identify explicitly as Quaker. We welcome diversity of all sorts.
Contact: info@qivc.org
Website: https://www.qivc.org/
Triform Camphill Community
Location: Hudson
Triform Camphill Community, in Hudson, New York, is a residential community with young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It also offers day programs.
It includes:
a dynamic mix of over 110 people spanning many generations, cultures and ranges of ability;
residents who live in extended family homes and work side-by-side with live-in volunteers on our Demeter certified biodynamic/organic farm or in our gardens and artisanal craft studios;
a community where young people with Autism, Down syndrome, and other developmental and neurological disabilities participate in dignified, purposeful work; share in warm, supportive relationships and make meaningful contributions to the well-being of all;
a special needs community offers an enriching social, intellectual and cultural life for its students.
Contact: 518-851-9320 or information@triform.org
Website: https://www.triform.org/
Camphill Village Copake
Location: Copake
Camphill Village Copake is a vibrant lifesharing community dedicated to being a modern and fulfilling life choice for adults with developmental differences, who are looking to make a real contribution and feel supported among friends.
On our 750 acres of wooded hills, gardens, and pastures in beautiful Columbia County, adults with developmental disabilities, students, and long- and short-term service volunteers live and work together as equals in extended family homes throughout our closely knit community. Through artisan crafts, biodynamic agriculture, and shared responsibilities within the household, we fill our days with meaningful activities that benefit all members of our integrated community.
Our Coffee Shop & Gift Shop are open to the public Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday form 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Contact: 518-329-4851 or info@camphillvillage.org
Website: https://camphillvillage.org/
Lichen Bike Tours
Location: Hudson
Traveling on a bike is the greatest way to get around, and Lichen Bike Tours is here to bring people together on bicycles and to bring people closer to nature. We love the feeling of waking up in a shelter, dry, in a forest, and knowing the entire day will be dedicated to outdoors adventuring. Based in Hudson, NY, we offer guided bikepacking trips through the Catskill Mountains that are as short as an overnighter and as long as 5 days. Camping not your thing? Expect inn-to-inn trips in 2026, and maybe we saw you on June 28th 2025 at our first-ever Beebe & Beyond Gravel Ramble in Hillsdale, NY.
Contact: https://lichenbiketours.com/pages/contact
Website: https://lichenbiketours.com/
My Everyday Posture - Alexander Technique
Location: Hudson
The Alexander Technique (AT) was developed by F.M. Alexander over a hundred years ago, and has been practiced ever since by musicians, actors, vocalists and everyday people seeking non-invasive pain relief and improved posture, balance, and well-being. It is an educational discipline based on Alexander’s idea that the relationship between your head and your spine directly affects your overall health. AT teaches self awareness skills so you can recognize where you hold too much tension and how this tension translates into habits that you may think are just part of who you are.
BECKY SANDLER, M.AmSAT, teaches private and group Alexander Technique lessons in midtown Manhattan, Hudson, NY, and online. On faculty at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, she teaches Alexander Technique as part of the 1st year core curriculum to actors.
Contact: 518-241-3987 or becky@myeverydayposture.com
Website: https://myeverydayposture.com/