Nature

Informational meeting in Kingston next Tuesday will discuss expanded trail network
Explore, Nature

Informational meeting in Kingston next Tuesday will discuss expanded trail network

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With state acquisition of a significant infill parcel, hikers are now able to walk only on state land from less than a mile off the Sawkill Road next to the Thruway westward several miles to within a stone’s throw from the Zena Road in Woodstock. A public information meeting has been scheduled for next Tuesday, May 7 at the Senate House Garage at 4 North Font Street in Kingston at 6 p.m. to discuss efforts to improve the trail network connecting the lands open to the public in the 3000-acre-plus Bluestone Wild Forest.

Plastic bag mummy cleans streets in New Paltz
Community, Nature

Plastic bag mummy cleans streets in New Paltz

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On Earth Day, April 22, you may have seen a plastic bag mummy, Plady, picking up trash while riding a mini plastic car, Toxicar, down Main Street in New Paltz. This was not an early celebration of Halloween, but performance art. Plady and Toxicar were created by the Taiwanese artist Maxine Leu, an MFA sculpture student at SUNY New Paltz, and enacted by performer Sanford Fels, a BFA sculpture student also at SUNY New Paltz.

Help out with the Big Sit bird count
Nature

Help out with the Big Sit bird count

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Saturday, May 4: The ornithological equivalent of a walkathon and the John Burroughs Natural History Society (JBNHS)’s one fundraising event of the year, the Big Sit situates several birdwatchers in a 24-hour observation and identification of birds by sight and sound, raising money in the pledge-based style per bird or by straight donation.

Spring is the season for coyote conflict, warns DEC
Nature

Spring is the season for coyote conflict, warns DEC

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This time of year, coyotes are finding dens and birthing pups, which means they need to hunt more aggressively and are more likely to attack pets they view as competitors. Humans and large dogs are, for the most part, safe, but it’s important to take precautions to protect cats and small dogs.

The trail-building artistry of Eddie Walsh
Nature

The trail-building artistry of Eddie Walsh

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“Every trail has a unique challenge, so I started to seek out techniques from other trades, whether it’s rigging from sailors or from the stone-quarry industries… The rocks I set in place will still be there until the next Ice Age. That’s very rewarding.”

John Bartram: botanist to kings and Catskills
Local History, Nature

John Bartram: botanist to kings and Catskills

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The eminent Swedish botanist and zoologist Carl Linnaeus, father of modern taxonomy, called Bartram “the greatest natural botanist in the world.” And aristocrats eagerly awaited the arrival of their “Bartram’s Boxes”: bundles of seeds, saps and specimens shipped from North America. What brought him to the Catskills?

Baker Does Beethoven – with a lawnmower
Nature, Stage & Screen

Baker Does Beethoven – with a lawnmower

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Having previously created large-scale images of Elvis, Einstein, the Statue of Liberty and Jimi Hendrix in a field in Ellenville by expertly manipulating a lawnmower, Roger Baker fired up his push-mower by Sandburg Creek and began crafting Beethoven’s eyes in May 2016. The completed drawing on the living canvas of grass culminated in a series of performances of Beethoven’s music held on-site. Days later, as the grass grew and the dark and light areas melded together, the image vanished. It lives on in John Hazard’s new film.