PLACE, PLANTS & POLLINATORS

The Hudson Valley Habitat

The Hudson Valley is a rich and varied landscape, with its own distinct geology, biology, and natural and cultural history. The region is defined by its namesake river, a tidal estuary which mixes freshwater and saltwater for more than 150 miles—one of only a few rivers of this kind on Earth. 

The Hudson River estuary watershed—the area in which water from rainfall drains into the Hudson—stretches from the latitudes of New York Harbor in the south to the Federal Dam in Troy in the north, and reaches outward from the river basin to the Catskill and Taconic foothills on either side. This watershed perimeter defines our bioregion, an area bounded not by arbitrary state and county lines, but by the natural features and assembly of living things that make it a distinct ecological and cultural community. 

About Our Bioregion

Our Case Study Sites

The Hudson Valley bioregion is special in its incredible biodiversity—while it covers only 13% of the New York State’s acreage, it includes 80% of the different vegetation types found in the state, and an even larger proportion of the state’s total wildlife species. 

Our bioregion stretches from the globally rare barren habitats of the Albany Pine Bush and Shawangunk ridge, home to the endangered Blue Karner butterfly, through abundant forests. It encompasses native grasslands and shrublands which provide crucial habitat for nesting birds; a varied array of freshwater wetlands; and tidal wetlands along the river’s edge–a globally rare habitat and crucial area for nesting birds and breeding fish. The Hudson Valley’s diversity of damselflies and dragonflies is among the greatest in the nation; and when it comes to turtle diversity, it is one of the most important sites in the world. There is no place quite like the Hudson Valley on Earth. With so much biodiversity to protect, it is uniquely poised for conservation.

The case study sites featured in this guide represent four different landscape types that are prevalent in the Hudson Valley—urban, farm, conservation, and riparian (riverbank) landscapes. They include two sites in the central Hudson Valley ecoregion that runs down the river’s corridor, as well as a site in the adjacent Taconic Foothills to the east, and one in the fertile Wallkill River Valley to the West. The lessons learned from the pilot site installations, and the pollinator lists, plant lists and management strategies in this guide, can be applied to the entire Hudson Valley bioregion.

For Further Reading:

Several excellent books document the ecological history of the Hudson Valley and the Northeast. We particularly recommend:

The Nature of the Place: A History Of Living With The Land In Columbia County, NY (Conrad Vispo, 2014)

Geology of the Hudson Valley: A Billion Years of History (Steven Schimmrich, 2020)

Forests Adrift: Currents Shaping the Future of Northeastern Trees (Charles D. Canham, 2020)

Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England (William Cronon, 1983)

From the Hudson to the Taconics: An Ecological and Cultural Field Guide to the Habitats of Columbia County, New York (Farmscape Ecology and Hudsonia, 2024)

As the map shows, the Hudson Valley’s bioregion is large and has many diverse ecosystems. To better understand these habitat types and support restoration, ecologists separate out regions based on their major ecosystems and distinctive geology and geography, called ecoregions. The boundaries of the Hudson Valley bioregion include pieces of at least five distinct Level III ecoregions, which are numbered and mapped by the US EPA. Learning about the ecoregion where your site is situated can be a great way to find detailed information about your hyper-local habitat types, which can lead you to the most locally appropriate restoration practices. Ecoregions of New York State can be found on this map. 

Another great way to learn about the ecology of your immediate surroundings is through habitat maps and Natural Resource Inventories, often commissioned by your town or city’s Conservation Advisory Council or Open Space Committee (if you don’t yet have these, you can advocate for them at the local level). You can also learn more about your local ecology with resources from the New York Natural Heritage Program, such as Conservation Community Guides and the Ecological Communities of New York list. Identifying a few of the most common plants on the property can help you determine which ecological communities belong on your site, whether it's a blueberry heath or a hemlock-hardwood swamp. These guides can provide specific information about the soils, geology, conditions, plants, and animals that characterize your plot, and help you understand the growing conditions and identify which pollinator plant selections will thrive in your area.