Kayak Black Creek & Chodikee Lake in Highland
Saturday, June 24: Craig Chapman of New Paltz Kayaking Tours will supply rental kayaks and canoes at a cost of $10 each, or you can bring your own kayak to join the fleet.
Almanac Weekly | Nature
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Mohonk Foothills Phenology Project seeks volunteers to collect nature data
Succinctly defined by the National Wildlife Federation as “the study of how the biological world times natural events,” phenology matters to humans in a million different ways.
Great hikes: Bonticou Crag
Viewed from New Paltz, Bonticou is that first notable white outcrop to the north of Sky Top. Some accounts claim that it was named after an early surveyor; others that the Bonte Coe (Spotted Cow in Dutch) was, like the Gilded Otter, one of the ships that brought European settlers to the area. Whatever it means, locals tend to pronounce it “Bontikyew,” not “Bontikoo.”
Visit Bellefield’s Beatrix Farrand Garden in Hyde Park
A shrine for devotees of horticulture, it’s the earliest surviving private garden created by one of America’s most celebrated and influential landscape designers, Beatrix Farrand. While most of her gardens have been lost to time, notable exceptions include the Rockefellers’ Eyrie Garden in Maine, large portions of the Princeton and Yale campuses and Dumbarton Oaks, in Washington, DC: indisputably one of the great gardens of the world.
Jane Colden, America’s first female botanist, classified plants locally
The world was opening up to scientific study in the 18th century, and many men took up the study of botany. Jane Colden is the first female on record to have done so. And her Flora — Nov Eboracensis is one of the most extensive botanical studies of a single region carried out at the time.
Here’s how to get a free month-long Mohonk pass
Save time and money this week by registering for Healthy Ulster Spring at Mohonk Preserve. From Thursday, April 20 through Sunday, April 23, Ulster County Residents simply show proof of residency, and they can hike and explore Mohonk Preserve for free for an entire month!
Geology hike of Rosendale’s Joppenbergh
Sunday, April 9: There’s general consensus that the Shawangunk Ridge comes to its northern terminus in the Town of Rosendale; but what about that disconnected promontory of rock that looms over Main Street, Joppenbergh Mountain?
Volunteers wanted for amphibian migration nights
Volunteers act as crossing guards, literally picking the animals up and moving them across a road to keep them alive.
Sunset/moonrise hike at Poughkeepsie’s Peach Hill Park
Sunday, 3/12: Enjoy Daylight Savings Time and the Full Moon from a lovely perch with a 360-degree view in a park that you may not yet have discovered.
RFK Jr. to speak about the environment at SUNY-New Paltz
Monday, 3/13: The address, entitled “Our Environmental Destiny,” will provide a reminder of the role that natural resources play “in our work, our health and our national identity.”