How do you remove nasty, invasive weeds that have an intricate root system that can stretch up to 70 feet?
Very patiently and deliberately, Landscape Project Manager Katy Jacobs told 30 community members who gathered at the Hamilton Public Library for an update about the Peter’s Glen project on Colgate University’s campus.
Jacobs, a landscape architect at Colgate who is leading the project, said her team had to dig 6-feet deep to remove the Japanese knotweed plaguing the hillside from Frank Dining Hall to the Dana Arts Center — as part of the work that began in February.
The project, made possible by a gift from Peter L. Kellner ’65, will provide an important new linkage between Upper and Middle campus and significant infrastructure improvements to better handle stormwater. It also includes heated stairs along a series of stone cascades, new plazas where students can gather, and more open views of the beautiful Chenango Valley.
Jacobs said she is excited for campus and community members to see pathways formed and plantings begin over the next several weeks.
About 130 trees will be planted this fall, she said, in just the first phase of additions that will eventually include 500 trees, 593 shrubs, 4,562 groundcover plantings, and 1,000 bulbs. Ninety-five percent of everything planted is native to the Northeast, with a couple of exceptions for trees — the Norway spruce and London planetree — that already are on campus and thriving.
“Everyone will soon be able to get a real sense of the layout and vision for this,” Jacobs said.
What visitors won’t see is the major underground work that is such an integral component of the project. Improvements include new, larger pipes installed down the slope and subsurface chambers installed under Whitnall Field as part of the Bernstein Hall project to manage stormwater.
The work will result in improved stormwater treatment and prevent overflows that at times plagued the current system.
Jacobs’ talk was organized by the Hamilton Area Gardeners’ Club and its president, Michelle Coluzzi, who said she is excited by the idea of a new place for campus and community members to walk and enjoy nature.
Susan Bauman, another club member, said she learned a lot about the intricacies of the project from Jacobs, who spelled out how her team has to be extremely careful as they dig into the hillside and handle not only the existing stormwater flows but also sanitary and telecommunications infrastructure, some of which extend into the Village of Hamilton.
The construction team also had to install straw wattles and build soil terraces to prevent erosion after the existing trees, shrubs, and overgrowth were removed as part of the prep work. Seeing the hillside undergo such a dramatic change can be a shock, but Jacobs shared recent site photos that already show expanded views of the Chenango Valley.
“We’re turning a stormwater nightmare into a beautiful landscape feature,” she said.
Landscape architects at Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates designed the project, which is scheduled for completion in late 2025.