History, Natural History & the Arts
MyCoast NY is a public web tool which offers an opportunity to contribute and access photos of flooding, shoreline change, and storm damage from anywhere in the state.
When you submit a photo, it is automatically linked to real-time weather, river, and tidal gauge data to help provide context for the photo. [Read more…] about Help Document New York Weather Impacts
The Nature Conservancy in New York has awarded $500,000 through its 2025 Climate Resilience Grant Program to support 12 projects that will protect more than 1,200 acres and strengthen climate resilience across the state.
Now in its fifth year, the Climate Resilience Grant Program funds land trusts, local governments, Tribal Nations and nonprofit organizations working to conserve resilient lands, protect floodplains and shorelines, and build local capacity to adapt to climate change. [Read more…] about Nature Conservancy Awards Climate Change Resilience Grants
The navigable portion of Hudson River provides a unique ecosystem with highly diverse habitats, despite being dramatically impacted by 200 years of dredging, retaining walls, and industrial development.
More than 85% of the river’s islands have been eliminated and most of the river’s side channels have been filled in. About half of the river shoreline between Troy and the Mario Cuomo Bridge (formally Tappan Zee) has been engineered. [Read more…] about The Ecological Impacts of 200 Years of Hudson River Dredging
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced more than 1,200 acres were permanently protected by five community-based partners through a State program to protect water quality. [Read more…] about State Protects 1,200 Acres to Protect Water Quality
A new report from State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli found the frequency of severe weather in the state is growing, taking a toll on New York’s residents, property and economy.
“Extreme weather events are happening more and more often and inflicting financial and emotional stress on New Yorkers from loss of life to property destruction,” DiNapoli said. [Read more…] about NY Severe Weather Events Increasing, Costs Soaring
The source of the Bronx River is now the Kensico Reservoir in Westchester County. From here the river flows south, passing 24 miles through White Plains, Scarsdale, Yonkers, and Bronxville until it reaches Bronx County, where it then empties into the East River, a tidal strait connected to Long Island Sound, between Hunts Point and Clason Point.
The river gets its name from colonial settler Jonas Bronck. The river once originated in an area the Weckquasgeek called Quaropes (White Marshes). [Read more…] about The Bronx River: A Natural History
Most people know that the bottom of a northern lake or large pond is a mucky, muddy mess of weeds, decayed leaves, some rocks, and a few crayfish to avoid stepping on while wading.
This area is known as the lake shelf. Just beyond the shelf is often a steep drop-off – usually 20 feet deep or more – known as the slope, followed by a longer and much less steep rise leading to the deepest part, known as the basin. With every storm and footstep, most of the muck is re-suspended, moving and settling again on the rise and basin. [Read more…] about Gyttja: Lake Mud Beneath Your Feet Reveals the Past
Perhaps you saw the flyers at your town office or a warning sign posted at your favorite swimming hole.
The smell might have driven you home, but maybe you crept closer – unable to see anything wrong but unnerved by the deserted shoreline on such a hot and inviting day. [Read more…] about The Hidden History of Cyanobacteria
Twenty years ago, at this time of year, I found myself walking the margin of a marsh in east central Vermont with then State Botanist Bob Popp. We had traveled to that particular site because it showed promise as potential habitat for the rare northeastern bulrush.
This elusive species requires exposed soil at the water’s edge. Just as we were about to depart from the last wetland in the area, Popp called me over to exclaim that he had found what we were seeking, which he recognized by the arching arms of the seedhead that reminded him of an explosion of fireworks. [Read more…] about Northeastern Bulrush & Why Federal Grants Matter
Healthy streams are home to diverse fish and wildlife, provide vital drinking water, and create recreation and relaxation opportunities.
Historically, they’ve often been impacted by various land uses that disturb native shoreline vegetation, put water quality at risk and increase flood potential. [Read more…] about Get ‘Stream Wise’: The Lake Champlain Watershed Initiative
The Upper Saranac Foundation’s (USF) new Wake Smart campaign seeks to raise awareness about the impacts that wakeboats have on lake ecology and other users.
The Wake Smart initiative launched on Memorial Day weekend, with signage at public access areas on Upper Saranac Lake as well as a mailer campaign, social media posts and a webpage with resources on how to enjoy wakeboating while also sharing the lake, protecting plants and wildlife, and preventing the spread of invasive species. [Read more…] about Campaign Aims to Raise Awareness About Wakeboating Impacts
As heir to a log cabin in the Adirondacks, I have caught myself imagining the mile-high glacier that carved out its lake and melted to fill it with crystal pure water. The scrape marks on outcrops of stone here and there in the forest remain as testimony to that primeval event.
Big Moose’s Twitchell Lake became host to a native population of brook trout that sportsmen in the 1860s and following decades measured by the pound rather than the inch. But my summers in the 1950s bring up a very different image, water unfit to drink or even swim in, laced with dangerous e. Coli bacteria and a dumping ground for used-up appliances. This essay will tell the story of “troubled waters” and one lake community’s painstaking quest for good water quality. [Read more…] about Twitchell’s Troubled Waters: Adirondack Water Quality History
No views of New York City are more iconic than looking from the harbor toward Manhattan. The Dutch who first settled Manhattan sketched the island with little more than a fort, a windmill, a dozen houses rising near the shore, and Indigenous people paddling around the bay. Four centuries later a photographer captured the new One World Trade Center half-clad but already towering over Wall Street.
Regular New York Almanack contributor Bill Greer has developed an online gallery of thirty-two images framed by those two. [Read more…] about Manhattan from the Harbor: Views through Four Centuries
The Finger Lakes Land Trust (FLLT) and the Village of Aurora, NY announced the future creation of a new park featuring 1,100 feet of Cayuga Lake shoreline along with four acres of adjacent upland. Previously part of the now closed Wells College, this land was acquired by FLLT member Grace Bates with the intent of creating the park for public enjoyment. [Read more…] about A New Lakeshore Park for the Village of Aurora
Covered barges were once heavily employed in the New York port areas to lighter (i.e., load, transport, and offload) various non-bulk, perishable cargoes from and to ship or shore.
By the mid-nineteenth century, covered barges with boat-shaped hulls were present in New York State ports, including Plattsburgh, Whitehall, Buffalo, Troy, Albany and other Hudson River and New York Bay ports. [Read more…] about New York Watercraft: Working With Freight
A quick glance at Instagram shows some odd hauls from Dead Horse Bay. They’re not windowpane flounder or diamondback terrapins or cockle clams local to the waters. They’re rainbows of vintage marbles, shards of heirloom ceramics, and even rusted bicycles from the era of black and white television.
Scour Reddit from the past year alone and find posts about Dead Horse Bay mudlarking — that is, scavenging the shore for interesting, possibly valuable items. [Read more…] about Dead Horse Bay: Polluted and Disgusting, but People Can’t Stay Away
At the western edge of Hamlin Beach State Park on the shore of Lake Ontario, beyond a row of trees, is Yanty Marsh Trail. The trail loops through a deciduous (broadleaf) forest along the lake, pausing to overlook a large marsh and winding beneath the canopy of a white pine grove. [Read more…] about Shifting Baselines: Environmental Change at Hamlin Beach
Point Peninsula Wildlife Management Area is located in Lyme, on Lake Ontario in Jefferson County, NY, and includes 1,086 acres comprised primarily of grasslands, divided by Beach, South Shore, and Pine Woods roads. It also contains a natural wetland complex consisting of emergent marsh, shrub/scrub swamp, and floodplain forest. [Read more…] about Unusual Birds at Point Peninsula on Lake Ontario
The latest episode of “DEC Does What?!” a podcast from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, explores the work of DEC’s Great Lakes Program to protect the iconic Great Lakes, the largest freshwater ecosystem in the world.
DEC’s Great Lakes Program oversees the largest watershed by land area, working across more than 42 percent of the state’s land area and along over 750 miles of shoreline. [Read more…] about The Great Lakes: World’s Largest Freshwater Ecosystem
A new video series launched by the Lake Champlain Basin Program in partnership with Peregrine Productions and NEIWPCC celebrates the beauty of the Lake Champlain basin and efforts in several communities to protect and restore their shared waters.
With the web-based Summit to Shore StoryMap as a guide, viewers can digitally explore the landscape around Lake Champlain, from distant mountain peaks in the headwaters to wetlands on the lake’s shoreline. The videos include breathtaking drone imagery, intimate portraits of streams and rivers, and panoramic 360-degree video. [Read more…] about Summit to Shore: The Lake Champlain Basin
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