As an aesthetic experience, traveling the Hudson River Brickyard Trail is a time-trip through two centuries of the valley’s industrial past, rather than a sojourn in pristine wilderness. As long as you don’t expect manicured parkland, you’ll have a fine time.
After a nationwide search, the not-for-profit decided to go no further than its own backyard and promote veteran land conservation director Seth McKee to the post of executive director of the Scenic Hudson Land Trust and land programs. At the same time, Scenic Hudson hired Raul “Rocci” Aguirre as its new executive director of Policy, Advocacy and Science.
New Paltz’s River-to-Ridge (R2R) Trail, whose popularity surged with the pandemic and is expected to top 200,000 visitors this year, has now become much more accessible for a particular subset of seasonal users: cross-country skiers.
The scaled-back proposal focuses on the Shawangunk Ridge, Wallkill corridor, Plutarch and Clearwater woods and wetlands. Most of the referenced area is already regulated (such as wetlands) or protected (for example, the ridge).
The Ulster County Department of the Environment is seeing some updates after a resolution was adopted (18 to 4) during the County Legislator’s December 15 session. The amendment creates a shift from having a coordinator of the environment to a director instead. The coordinator and soon-to-be director is Amanda LaValle of Kingston.
The opportunity for Gardinerites to sign onto a plan to purchase cheaper, greener electricity via Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) came closer to reality last week, when the town board authorized a Memorandum of Understanding with Katonah-based Joule Community Power to serve as Gardiner’s administrator to implement a CCA program.
The River-to-Ridge Trail in New Paltz is on track to host more than 200,000 visitors in 2020. The visitorship is more than double the number of visitors from the previous year.
Deer-hunter numbers are declining, and existing hunters should be given more opportunities to keep the population sustainable, which reduces damage to forest ecosystems and agriculture and minimizes vehicle collisions. That’s the overall takeaway from the DEC’s draft ten-year deer management plan.
Beavers serve as nature’s hydroengineers, creating ponds and lakes, diverting streams, slowing stormwater runoff and designing landscapes that welcome a myriad of waterfowl and fauna. Not the least of these is the great blue heron, which can often be seen perched in or around the beaver lodge at the Mill Brook Preserve in New Paltz.
“Mushrooms galore, much snow in store. No mushrooms at all, no snow will fall.”