SUNY-ESF turns storm damage into teachable moment

Newcomb campus rebounds one year after devastating floods, with new resilience measures to endure future storms

By Chloe Bennett

The staff of the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Newcomb monitored their campus with relief one year after it was drenched by torrential rain. This year, the campus was spared from storms that caused major flooding elsewhere in the Adirondacks. 

Since the partial destruction of its 15,000-acre forest and trails, SUNY-ESF made upgrades to adapt to future storms. Still, some of the property remains closed to the public. 

Stacy McNulty, associate director and senior research associate at ESF’s Adirondack Ecological Center, said that until the July 2023 flood, nothing stopped its operations, even the COVID-19 pandemic. 

McNulty and other staff led some of the Adirondack Park Agency board members through a September property tour with updates on recovery. Its Arbutus Bridge was swept away in July 2023, leaving several alumni stranded at the campus’ historic cabins. Forest rangers and responders retrieved the visitors within hours and the buildings held. Culverts and roads did not. 

Damages from the deluge cost about $2.5 million, said Bob MacGregor, director of forest properties. Replacing the bridge alone was about $1 million.

The school used funds from SUNY to cover fixes and anticipates up to a 75% reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Around 41 culverts were replaced, including with some that are oblong-shaped to allow for more water to pass.

Once damage was assessed, McNulty, an environmental researcher and professor, looked to replace the setback with educational opportunities. 

“We decided we had a mission,” she said in a SUNY ESF board meeting earlier this year. “We had to keep going.”

Students at ESF collect environmental data from the campus monitoring system, which has been in place since the 1970s. The severe storm of 2023 added to the information-rich program with opportunities for research-focused students, McNulty said. 

In the 15,000-acre forest, a graduate student used light detection and ranging (LiDAR) after the flood to help the school track changes. The school can use drone imagery to detect tree mortality and potentially trace it to the severe weather of 2023. 

Landscape architecture students from the Syracuse campus used the Newcomb property to research flood-resilient designs and sustainable trails. Graphics and plans were constructed for visits to the changed campus. 

“Hopefully they will take that lesson out as they go into the professional world because they’re going to be faced with that kind of storm resilience question from their professional standpoint for probably the rest of their careers,” McNulty said. 

Repairs and upgrades after the flood could also position the campus to withstand future storms. MacGregor, who is based in Syracuse, said the property will be more resilient with the changing climate. 

“There’s no cloud that doesn’t have some kind of silver lining,” he said. “Because of this disaster, we have a better road system now.”

Below is a video from the college’s film studio detailing some of the infrastructure and ecosystem changes triggered by the flood.