The 113-acre biological field station allows Fordham students, both graduate and undergraduate, to conduct hands-on research with faculty, said director Tom Daniels, Ph.D., during a virtual tour for parents, alumni, students, and friends held in November.

“We’re one of the few field stations in the country this close to an urban center,” Daniels said. “The mission of the Calder Center, in terms of what studies [are done or not]is entirely at the discretion of our faculty. Their interests are what drives that work here, both in terms of the focus their labs take and in the research projects that the students are working on.”

The tour took the viewers through the Calder Center property, showing off photos of the research facilities, natural beauty, and office space. Daniels narrated to tell those in attendance about the facility’s history, how it’s currently used, what research is ongoing, and what wildlife lives on site.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has put some of their work on hold, Daniels said that the center is hoping to re-engage with volunteers in 2021 to conduct new initiatives, including a “bioblitz,” which will help identify the many different species of plants and wildlife on the property, and a phenology trail, which would help record the life cycle of various species of plants.

At a luncheon held on the front porch of Calder Hall, the Gatsby-esque mansion perched on a 680-foot-high bluff just 25 miles north of New York City, students, faculty, and staff took stock of all the scientific research that has been conducted at the center since its founding in August, 1967. The afternoon celebration also honored the legacy of the Calder family, which was represented by Louis Calder’s grandson Peter Calder.

A Shared Commitment to the Natural World

A year before the center was established, the estate of paper magnate Louis Calder deeded the property—then known as Rockmoor Estate—to Fordham, with the understanding that the “premises will be used primarily as a reserve for the study of the natural environment and other fields of ecology.”

Speaking to the group of about 50 faculty members, students and staff, Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, said the research conducted at Calder—more than 200 Ph.D.s and master’s degrees have been awarded to students whose work was based there—is crucial to solving some of the most vexing problems of our time, such as climate change.

Related: A Day In the Wildlife: Amid the Ecosystems and Ecologist at the Calder Center

He noted that Calder staff and students are following in the footsteps of early Jesuits who were committed to learning about the natural world, and who reported their findings back to the Superior General of the Society of Jesus. One of them, Georg Joseph Kamel, S.J., a 17th-century pharmacist who made medicines from plants, is credited as the namesake of the Camellia flower, he said.

“Everything flowed to Rome, and on the basis of this, younger Jesuits were trained using what they had learned. So, we have in our blood this interest and delight in everything in the world, especially the world of nature,” he said.

“Every day that Calder is active, open, and making discoveries, you deepen our University’s connection to these Jesuit roots.”

Father McShane cited Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical on the environment and sustainable development, Laudato Si, as a present-day manifestation of that commitment to the natural world.

“In one of his most important addresses to the world, [Pope Francis] holds up for all the world with all the moral authority he can muster the needs of our common home, the world. As he holds up the needs of our common home, he points to exactly the work you do here,” he said.

‘A Conservationist of His Day’

In a presentation about the history of the property, Tom Daniels, Ph.D., director of the Calder Center, described Louis Calder’s career and the way he used the estate. He displayed several photographs, including one image of Calder and a hunting party.

“Hunting and fishing were very important to him. He was a conservationist of his day. We don’t necessarily think of conservation now as hunting and fishing, particularly in the Northeast, but sportsman, hunters, and fishermen had great respect for the land and the resources. It showed in his work at [paper company]Perkins Goodwin, and it showed in his handling of this property,” he said.

Supporting Undergraduate Research

Daniels also announced that the Calder Foundation had just contributed $210,000 toward an endowment that supports the Calder Summer Undergraduate (CSUR) program, which hosts undergraduate students doing research over the summer. The program, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary, currently hosts five students; the Calder gift will enable it to host two more.

Father McShane dubbed the Calders “exemplary companions in mission and colleagues in service.”

Addressing Peter Calder, he said, “Your family and the foundation gave us all of this, and you gave with it a mission to learn, to preserve, and to be evangelical about ecology preservation. We could never adequately thank you and your entire family enough.”

In acknowledging Father McShane’s thanks, Calder stood up from his front row seat, turned around and delivered impromptu remarks to the assembled group.

“The family appreciates all of your comments, but it’s really Fordham and its people that have made this a success. And I thank you for that,” he said.

50 Years Later, a Very Different Place

A running theme of the day was how much has changed since 1967. The aviary, outdoor swimming pool and “toboggan run” are long gone. Labs and classrooms have been constructed in Calder Hall and the Lake House, and a residence hall and a new greenhouse have been built in the last five years.

A primary driver behind much of that change was John Wehr, Ph.D., professor of biological sciences, who was director of the center for 30 years before stepping aside in 2014. He was honored at the presentation for all his contributions, including founding the CSUR program 20 years ago.

Daniels summed up the three main tenets of the center’s mission: understand the world we live in, show people nature so that they ascribe value to it; and make new scientists.

“We still have much to do. We have real science we have to do,” he said. “With the people we currently have at the EPA, environmental stewardship has never been more important.”

YONKERS – A new mosquito that can cause Zika is raising concern Friday in the Hudson Valley.

Fordham University’s Louis Calder Center in Armonk has been tracking the Asian Tiger Mosquito that can transmit the Zika virus.

“It came to the U.S. in the tire trade in Texas and since 2005 we have had it here in Westchester County,” Fordham University’s Dr. Thomas Daniels says.

He says his team has been setting up traps to catch adult mosquitos and sample their larvae.

“The Asian Tiger Mosquito is a container breeder,” Dr. Daniels says. “It can breed in flower pots, buckets, pools, anything that allows standing water to be sitting for a while.”

Dr. Daniels says to use repellents and dump any containers that hold water in order to protect yourself. Doctors have not found any Zika in the mosquitos that were tested.

Watch a video report at News 12 (subscription may be required).

The two-year grant will allow Calder Center researchers to identify fungi that share habitats with the tick and investigate how weather conditions, such as humidity and temperature, affect those fungal populations. The researchers hope to determine which fungi are most virulent to ticks and the optimum conditions under which they act as a natural deterrent to the spread of the tick population.

“These fungi are one of the reasons why a tick’s life isn’t easy,” said Tom Daniels, Ph.D., associate research scientist at the Calder Center’s Vector Ecology Laboratory and principal investigator on the project. “By understanding the ecology of these organisms, we anticipate development of natural ways to impose further controls on tick populations and the spread of disease.”

Lyme disease is transmitted by the bite of an infected deer tick, and New York accounts for 30 percent of the nation’s cases of the bacterial disease, according to the Federal Centers for Disease Control. In addition, the ticks spread human granulocytic anaplasmosis and babesiosis, two rare diseases that can be deadly if not treated with antibiotics.
The grant represents the first major funding on the fungal study project, which scientists at the Calder Center have been working on since 2001. It is part of the NIH’s R21 program, which funds early-stage studies in areas classified as high risk but which “may lead to a breakthrough.”

Amy Tuininga, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology, and Rich Falco, Ph.D., associate research scientist of biology and regional medical entomologist for the New York State Health Department, will serve as co-principal investigators. In addition, undergraduate and graduate research assistants will take part in gathering soil samples and ticks for the presence of fungi.

“Our hypothesis is that there is not a single species of fungus, but rather several species of fungi that work together to regulate the tick populations,” said Tuininga. “Through our work, we hope to discover a new biocontrol strategy consisting of, say, three or more fungi that can be used together more effectively than just one.”