From working with school groups and garden clubs to actively participating in his church and the local Chamber of Commerce, Michael Farrell, director of the Uihlein Forest -- Cornell's Sugar Maple Research and Extension Field Station -- in Lake Placid, spends much of his time in community service. For such efforts, he was recognized as a Distinguished Volunteer of the Year by the village of Lake Placid April 30.

Since his arrival in Lake Placid in 2004, Farrell has promoted work in better understanding maple sugar, recycling, composting, community gardening and protection of the land. He is a board member of the Shipman Youth Center (an after-school program), organizer and coordinator of a new community garden project and organizer of a community-sugaring project that involved Shipman center youth in tapping maple trees in Lake Placid. He has also established a new hiking trail in Lake Placid and organized public events at Uihlein Forest.

"The extent of his community service is extraordinary," says Brian Chabot, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell.