This article originally appeared in the December 19, 2007 issue of the Poughkeepsie Journal.

Excellent science communicated to the people who need it.

That's the new focus of the Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, according its president, William Schlesinger.

It has also become his mantra.

Recently, Schlesinger announced the nonprofit research organization's new five-year strategic plan that streamlines resources, embraces solution-driven science and promotes enhanced communication.

It has also become the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, effective this week.

The most visible change will be the closure of the Gifford Perennial Garden and Greenhouse in June.

Because of limited funding, the institute must undergo a reduction in the horticulture area in order to build capacity in new subjects, Schlesinger said.

New research initiatives will include sustainable energy, climate change and infectious diseases.

"We are aiming to be among the very best you can find in the country and around the world in those areas," said Schlesinger, who replaced the institute's founder, Gene Likens, last year.

Since the 1970s, the vision for the property was for it to be an arboretum. In 1981, Bradley Roeller helped create the Cary Arboretum - one of the largest collections of herbaceous perennials in the Northeast. It was named after its former owner, Mary Flagler Cary, whose trustees had asked The New York Botanical Garden to oversee the property.

At the time, Likens was the director of the arboretum and vice president of The New York Botanical Garden. He proposed and founded the ecosystem center in 1983. Ten years later, it became independent of the botanical gardens.

"I've seen the transition from arboretum to the scientific program when the institute was formed, and now this next generation of IES, with Dr. Schlesinger as president," said Roeller, who has 35 years of on- the-job experience. He manages the insitute's gardens and grounds.

Roeller's 2008 focus will be to use the property to show what ecosystems are, what ecosystem science does and why it is important to visitors, he said.

He added the native plant gardens will stay.

"We have eight representative habitats that you'd find in the Hudson Valley," he said. "This fits nicely into the ground-based interpretation (of ecosystem studies)."

Communication is the aim

Communication in the public and legislative realms is something Schlesinger wants to improve. He wants his staff to be "the people who inform the policymakers," he said.

"We do the science that makes advocacy possible," Schlesinger said.

Previously, he was dean of Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences in Durham, N.C.

Since 1983, the institute has applied the ecosystem approach to problems such as air quality and forest health.

"IES is a local organization with national reach. For several decades its scientists have been influential in the field of ecology; now IES is in a position to inform decision makers," institute board Vice Chairman Steven Benardete said.

The board of trustees recently voted the plan into effect.

Communication efforts will include briefing policy makers, drafting position papers, hosting workshops and creating an online information clearinghouse.

Monthly public ecology programs will be offered and the system of nature trails will be updated. The public is encouraged to explore the trails and take advantage of public lectures and weekly science seminars.

Reach Sarah Bradshaw at sbradshaw@poughkeepsiejournal.com or 845-437-4811.