Joint Ecological Project by Bard College & ASU

A delegation from Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, USA) has visited Astrakhan State University.

This visit was a part of the Russian-American exchange program of social experience and knowledge to develop the project “US-Russian Environ Mental Action for Water Way Protection”, which aims to protect delta ecosystems and river basins. The project is developed jointly by the Student Ecological Team of ASU and by students of Bard College; it is funded by the Eurasia Foundation. On behalf of the Russian party, this project is supervised by Prof. Alexander Barmin, Dean of the Department of Geology & Geography of Astrakhan State University, and by Mr. Mikhail Valov, a postgraduate student of the same Department; on behalf of the United States party, it is supervised by Dr. Tomas Kewin О’Dowd, who teaches Ecology at Bard College. Earlier, the students of our Ecological Team visited Bard College.

While visiting each other, the two parties exchanged their knowledge of the structure and processes of environmental protection, as well as their experience in research and social activities among the local population, especially among young people.

Our United States colleagues had a number of meetings with the faculty and students of ASU; they also visited our Technopark and new university building, as well as the Training Center of the LUKOIL-Nizhnevolzhskneft LLC (Russia’s major oil-recovering company), the sturgeon farm of the Astoria Club, the Preserve Museum of History & Architecture, and the Astrakhan State Theater of Opera & Ballet. Besides, our American guests traveled to the delta of the Volga River and took part in cleansing local areas from garbage together with our Ecological Team and the local authorities.

The ultimate product of the joint project is to publish a toolkit in riverside protection.