UNRAVELING THE PAST TO PROTECT THE FUTURE: Bats and Biodiversity at Risk
Black Rock Forest held its annual benefit at Tavern on the Green in NYC on May 14, 2025. The Board Chair, Hume Steyer, welcomed 150 guests to the luncheon. Executive Director, Isabel Ashton, presented the Dr. Ernest G. Stillman Award in recognition of four decades of Conservation and Stewardship to John Brady, the Black Rock Forest Historian and former Forest Manager. Following the lunch, the Board President, Hilary Callahan, introduced Angelo Soto-Centeno, Assistant Curator of the Department of Mammalogy at the American Museum of Natural History, who presented the keynote address: “Unraveling the Past to Protect the Future: Bats and Biodiversity at Risk”. This event raises critical funds for Black Rock Forest’s research, education and conservation work. We are most grateful to the event co-chairs, Doug Land and Lynn Peebles, the Benefit Committee, our corporate sponsors, and to the many Friends of the Forest for their continued support of our mission.
Here is a recording of the event to listen to all the speakers and presentations:
For a complete list of benefit donors.
BENEFIT GALLERY
Photos by Jennifer Rakovsky, video by Wizard Studios, and editing by Rachel Strader.
BENEFIT DONORS
Jamaican Red Bat
Richard & Kerri Bartlett
Bahamian Funnel-eared Bat
William & Eileen Glaser
Douglas Land & Lynn Peebles
Rocco & Debby Landesman
Hume R. Steyer
Red Fig-eating Bat
Barnard College
The Dalton School
Catherine & Michael Diefenbach
Lotus Do & Andrew Jacobs
Ralph E. Ogden Foundation
Overhills Foundation & Christopher “Kim” Elliman
Waterhouse’s Big-eared Bat
American Museum of Natural History
Philip V. Ammirato
William Constantine & Margaret Wellington
Christopher DeFilippi & Austin English
Martin E. Karlinsky & Christine Ruppert
Open Space Institute
Jeannette Redden
Nathaniel & Tracy Stillman
The Sturges and Deull Family
Christie Van Kehrberg
Greater Antillean Long-tongued Bat
Jean & Robert Ashton
Hilary S. Callahan
Vivien & David Collens
Semra Ercin & Christopher Paul Meyer
Richard Greenblatt & Louise Ballinger
Margaret & Jim Harbison
George & Judy Muser
Anne & Frederick Osborn III
William & Frances Schuster
Whit Stillman
Event Underwriter
Peter Land
Lucy R. Waletzky, MD
Caribbean Brown Bat
Phebe T. Banta
Raymond E. Bell
Cynthia C. Bell-Bucha
Kurt Chowanski
Joshua R. Ginsberg
Paul R. Gottsegen
Eugene R. Gorman
Raju Hormis
Elizabeth Levy
William & Suzanne B. Plotch
Frederic C. Rich
Hannah Roth
Linda Stillman & Steven Finley
The Storm King School
Dawn Vacek
Philip White
Event Contributors
Emily Ashton
Stephanie Chiappa
Alexander Coates
Jennifer Coates
Shirley Ann Culotta
Matt & Kimmin Duggan
Daniel A. Dulaney
James Forrester
Elizabeth A. Garti
Pam Golden & Ross Zimmerman
Andrew Goldberg & Karen Putterman
Samuel T. Keany
Bill and Tina Kelly
Terryanne Maenza-Gmelch & Jeffrey Gmelch
Michelle Mellino
Marianne Duggan O’Brien
Deborah & Neil Pickett
Matthew Reich
Susan Elise Smith
Rachel Strader
Sarah Duggan Thomas
Daniel Turner
Robert Avera Turner
Stephanie Bell Veneris
BENEFIT SPONSORS
