Immerse Yourself
The natural resources owned by the Miner Institute include more than 3,500 hectares (8,600 acres) of forests and agricultural land.
Miner Institute Facility
The W.H. Miner Agricultural Research Institute is located in the town of Chazy, 15 miles north of Plattsburgh. For the last 30 years, the institute has supported the Center for Earth and Environmental Science’s Applied Environmental Science Program, a residential semester for senior environmental science students. The Miner Institute has over 8,000 acres of forest and agricultural lands, analytical laboratories, computer labs and student dormitories.
Applied Environmental Science Program at Miner Institute
The AESP — A Thirty-Year Tradition with 1,000 Alumni
The Applied Environmental Science Program is a highly regarded, semester-long, residential educational opportunity for environmental science and geology majors. The program operates from the W.H. Miner Agricultural Research Institute in Chazy, New York with teaching faculty from the Center for Earth and Environmental Science at SUNY Plattsburgh.
Facilities & Equipment
The Miner Institute campus has laboratories for chemical and physical analyses of water, soil and plant tissue samples, a computer laboratory, classrooms, library, cafeteria and dormitory. The natural resources owned by the Miner Institute include more than 3,500 hectares (8,600 acres) of forests and agricultural land in the Little Chazy and Great Chazy river watersheds.
About the Site
The upper Little Chazy River watershed contains a sandstone pavement pine barrens known locally as Altona Flat Rock. This portion of the watershed has become the site for the Ecosystem Studies Field Laboratory. The hydrological and meteorological equipment at the field laboratory is dedicated to undergraduate teaching and research. The nearby Lake Alice Wildlife Management Area is another resource for AESP faculty and students.
The Combined Benefits of a Campus & Field Station
The AESP academic program features day-long classes which allow the timely integration of lecture theory with “hands-on” science in the laboratories or in the field. This teaching format has been extremely popular with the more than 1,100 students who have participated in the program since its inception in 1972.
Most of the students in this fall-semester program are juniors or seniors who have a strong background in the natural sciences and mathematics. Successful students must also practice their writing and time-management skills and be highly self-motivated. The AESP is a special educational opportunity which prepares students for the rigors of graduate study or careers in the environmental sciences.
Miner Institute is a place where, in the Thoreau tradition, students can live and learn deliberately.