History, Natural History & the Arts
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has expanded and enhanced several fishing and paddling access sites across the state, including those with universally accessible features.
Check out the list below for your next adventure: [Read more…] about Recently Upgraded Public Water Access Sites
The Open Space Institute (OSI) has announced the 2026 recipients of its Malcolm Gordon Fund Awards, an initiative supporting environmental education programs, experiences that connect people to the land, and efforts to inspire the next generation of nature lovers in New York’s Hudson Valley.
For its 32nd annual round, awards were given to programs including a gardening tool-lending library in Rosendale, free guided river exploration for young people and families in Newburgh, and more. [Read more…] about OSI Supports Hudson Valley Environmental Programs
The Hudson River Valley Greenway has recently committed $75,000 to support a historic preservation feasibility study for the 325-foot former railroad bridge over the Wallkill River at Springtown Road in New Paltz — a crucial connector on the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail (WVRT), which is part of the Empire State Trail. [Read more…] about The Wallkill River Railroad Bridge in New Paltz
The construction and development of the Delaware and Hudson Canal led to the creation of one of the Hudson Valley’s greatest manufacturing industries in the 19th century — that of the famous Rosendale cement. For a time considered the best cement manufactured in this country it and at the turn of the 20th century was the source of half of America’s production of natural cement.
Ulster County cement was used in the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge; the Croton Aqueduct, which supplied New York City with water; the dry-dock of the Brooklyn Navy Yard; hundreds of New York City’s largest buildings; and the principal construction projects of the Hudson River Railroad among many other places. [Read more…] about The Natural Cement Industry of Ulster County
In New York State, Ulster County in particular had high rates of enslavement of people of African descent owing to its vast, bountiful farmland and its early settlement by wealthy Dutch, English, and French families.
The stories of those enslaved in Ulster County have long been underserved by historians, and the lives and identities of many are now lost forever, but new research continues to uncover important genealogical and societal information on who the enslaved and their enslavers were, what their lives were like, and the fate of newly emancipated Blacks and their families. [Read more…] about Bearing Witness: Exploring the Legacy of Enslavement in Ulster County, New York
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