Having heard enthusiastic reports from friends who’ve walked or biked the Ashokan Rail Trail since the October 18 opening of the West Hurley trailhead, I was curious to get a look at the western section, which opened on Thanksgiving Day. I live in Phoenicia, so the trailhead on Route 28A near Boiceville is only eight minutes away.
Hunting season is upon us. Though this sport has lost favor in the last few years, I still await clothed hunters who now with bright day-glow orange are easily recognized at convenience stores and gas stations. Most sport their tags on the backs of their jackets.
Moonlight is at its brightest. Let’s celebrate that by giving it some attention during this lunation. Copernicus, a magnificent, isolated crater with terraced walls, is regarded by many as the Moon’s most handsome feature. It’s now at its best.
The Open Space Institute (OSI) has announced its acquisition of two forested parcels of land adjacent to the Catskill Park’s Sundown Wild Forest in the Town of Olive. The properties, totaling 871 acres, have the potential to serve as an eastern access point to the 3000-foot-high Ashokan High Point hiking trail.
Vassar professor Debra Elmegreen is president-elect of the International Astronomical Union – the largest organization of professional astronomers in the world – and will begin her three-year term as president in 2021. Like Maria Mitchell more than 150 years ago, Elmegreen was recently elected into membership of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
This land, to be kept forever wild by the volunteer not-for-profit group Mill Brook Preserve, Inc., is like a magical world within the heart of town. There are pine groves and streams, multiple ponds and beaver dams and lodges as well as wild mushrooms and old-growth trees split in half by lightning that somehow came back to life.
The western section of the Ashokan Reservoir rail-trail, northern Ulster County’s latest public recreation attraction, will formally open on Thanksgiving Day, according to a county government press release. It has been closed due to construction activities.
Friday, Nov. 22: Can the Earth heal itself as quickly if we stop polluting it, or are we already irrevocably past the tipping point? If you’re losing sleep worrying about that existential question and could use a dose of hope, you might want to catch Dr. Lourie’s talk He is known for having initiated the largest climate action in North America: phasing out coal in Ontario.
When and why do deer lose their antlers? How do squirrels organize their nut hoards? What do shrews eat? Are bobcats making a comeback in the mid-Hudson Valley?
Unlike horns, antlers grow anew each year. But why?
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