Community Partners
Thank you to our sponsors and community partners who are helping to make this festival amazing!
Friends of the Pine Bush Community
Lupine Fest Sponsor
Become part of a Capital Region community of Friends that protects the unique habitat of the Albany Pine Bush Preserve!
Maurice D. Hinchey Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area
Lupine Fest Sponsor
In March 2016, the Maurice D. Hinchey Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area officially designated the Albany Pine Bush as a Heritage Site. The Albany Pine Bush was selected because of its unique combination of outstanding ecological (pitch pine – scrub oak barrens) features and its rich human history which starts with Native Americans who settled in this area almost 10,000 years ago. The Mohawks and Mohicans sold the furs they harvested from the Pine Bush to Europeans at Fort Orange, present day Albany. Both settlers and Native Americans used the “Mohawk Path” later named the Kings Highway, as a travel corridor through the Pine Bush. For centuries the Albany Pine Bush has provided resources of many different kinds for people. It provided land for farms, sand for glass manufacturing, trees for lumber and posts and was a place for hunting and food gathering.
Farnsworth Middle School Butterfly Station
A train once stopped in the middle of the Pine Bush. People from around the world would come to this spot to walk through the Pine Bush and look at the many wonderful butterflies. The stop came to be known as “Butterfly Station.”
Friends of the Woodlawn Preserve
Volunteers from Woodlawn gather to improve and advocate for the Woodlawn Preserve. Clearing trails, hosting cleanup days and monitoring activity, the dedicated volunteers work to maintain the preserve's natural ecosystem.