-Magdalen Lindeberg

Summer Rayne Oakes (Cornell Class of 2004), environmental activist, author, and entrepreneur, recently toured the Smith Woods with SIPS professor Marvin Pritts. Smith Woods is a an old growth forest located in Trumansburg New York. Pritts has played an influential role in stewardship of this 32 acre resource including co-authoring a book on its environmental history.

Oakes, who graduated cum laude from Cornell with degrees in Environmental Science and Entomology, maintains the Homestead Brooklyn blog and YouTube channel Plant One on Me. She has previously profiled Kirsten Kurtz in Cornell’s Soil Health Lab. In their tour of Smith Woods, Oakes and Pritts discuss the history of the property, plant species found there, the importance of deer fencing for regeneration, and the impacts of invasive plants and pests. The resulting YouTube video, This is What an Old Growth Forest in the Northeast Looks Like, has already received over 3500 views.