RiverTalks @ Beczak

What's Canada's approach to Clean Water? Find out on Sept 29.

Capital to Capital Canoe Expedition presentation in Yonkers on Saturday, September 29

1,000 mile Canadian and American canoe expedition advocates for clean, healthy rivers

Meet the 10 intrepid Canadian and American canoeists who are paddling over 1,000 miles from Ottawa, Ontario, to Washington, DC, in a 36-foot voyageur canoe. They’ll be joined by a rotating shift of locals along the way: Lenore Person, a Dobbs Ferry resident and Director of Development with Beczak Environmental Education Center, will paddle with them on the Hudson River.

The Capital to Capital Canoe Expedition RiverTalks presentation will share adventures and images from the Ottawa River to the St. Lawrence Seaway, Lake Champlain, the Champlain Canal and the Hudson River. Participants will learn about Canada’s approach to the problems their waterways face, and discuss what the paddlers have discovered from local residents and organizations about the waterways on which they travel.

“This is the dream,” says team leader and long distance paddler Max Finkelstein. “That our two countries work together to transcend political borders to protect and restore our rivers.” To symbolize this idea, their cargo includes a bottle of Ottawa River water from the foot of the parliament buildings, to be mixed with the waters of the Potomac in Washington.

The Capital to Capital Canoe Expedition’s call for clean water is timely. Earlier this year, New York State Supreme Court Justice Joan Lefkowitz ruled that the Department of Environmental Conservation’s permit system failed to meet a federal mandate to protect the waters. “It is probably one of the most significant threats to water quality that we have today,” Kate Hudson, watershed program director with Riverkeeper, said of stormwater runoff. Eight environmental groups, including the Hudson Riverkeeper and the Long Island Soundkeeper, are locked in a battle with New York State, charging that a stormwater system permit that municipalities must sign onto fails to do enough to ensure that oils, fertilizer, animal feces and other pollutants are stopped on their way.

The Capital to Capital team includes Max Finkelstein from Ottawa, a long distance paddler and author of Canoeing a Continent; Nicholas Tilgner, a Yukon River Guide, Dot Bonnenfant, long distance paddler and artist, and Willis Elkins, trip leader/canoe instructor for the North Brooklyn Boat Club. Lenore Person, Beczak’s Director of Development, will be joining them for the Hudson River leg, paddling from Beacon to Yonkers.

The Capital to Capital Canoe Expedition is supported by the Canadian Wildlife Fund, and offered hospitality by Riverkeepers along the way. Canadian groups include Ottawa Riverkeeper, Canadian Heritage Rivers System, and Canadian Canoe Foundation; Hudson River groups including Hudson Riverkeeper, Hudson River Watertrail Association, Hudson River Valley Greenway, Yonkers Paddling and Rowing Club, and Beczak Environmental Education Center; and mid-Atlantic groups including Delaware Riverkeeper Network, Raritan Riverkeeper and Potomac Riverkeeper.

Hudson River Sunset Sail July 12

Sail the Hudson River for two and a half hours on the A. J. Meerwald, a beautifully restored schooner and New Jersey’s official Tall Ship, Thursday, July 12, 6:30 – 9:00 PM

Tickets are $50 per person and support the work of Beczak Environmental Education Center.
There are limited spots available: register now / online advance tickets only
Children are welcome with parents.
Bring your own refreshments; beer and wine are permitted onboard.
Free and secure parking at Beczak Environmental Education Center, 35 Alexander Street, Yonkers, NY.
The ship departs from the Yonkers Pier, a short walk away.
For more information contact weekends@beczak.org / (914) 377-1900, ext. 13.

Sit back and relax. Watch the majestic Palisades and New York skyline glide by. Or take a turn steering the ship, raising and furling the sails, and handling the lines.

“The ship brings people back to a simpler time,” says Captain Jesse Briggs, a native of Virginia who has been working on boats since he was ten years old. “There’s no engine sound, and you travel at a leisurely pace. People relax and enjoy the scenery. How far we go depends on the wind and tide.”

Sailing on the A. J. Meerwald is an authentic living-history experience. Participants can participate in a discussion about the New York Harbor’s rich maritime heritage and the history of the A. J. Meerwald and the oyster industry. Or have an hour and a half of sea breezes and unwinding.

The A. J. Meerwald is an 85-foot schooner with over 3,500 square feet of sail. It’s a Tall Ship in demand—with music, art, and discussion sails for all ages. This summer her itinerary ranges from New London, Connecticut’s OpSail 2012 festival to programs in Philadelphia, Deleware and Atlantic City.

Launched in 1928, the Meerwald was one of hundreds of schooners built along South Jersey's Delaware Bayshore for oystering and clamming. Governor Christine Whitman added the A. J. Meerwald to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. On Earth Day, 1998, the Meerwald was designated New Jersey’s official Tall Ship. Since 1989, the ship has been owned by the Bayshore Discovery Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to motivating people to take care of the environment, history, and culture of New Jersey's Bayshore region through education, preservation, and example.

RESERVE YOUR TICKETS HERE for this wonderful Hudson River experience!

Hudson River Tugboat Day is June 23

Ride the Historic Tugboat Pegasus, Meet Captain Pamela Hepburn, and Enjoy Tugboat Films for the Whole Family

Celebrate the hardest working boats on the waterways at Hudson River Tugboat Day on Saturday, June 23, at Beczak Environmental Education Center.

Hudson River Tugboats, a RiverTalks presentation by Pamela Hepburn, Captain of the Pegasus. June 23 @ 7 PM. $10 / $5 for students, teachers, and seniors, includes refreshments.

Captain Pamela Hepburn

No one knows the Pegasus like Pamela Hepburn--she lived on board with her daughter for several years! In Hudson River Tugboats, Hepburn gives a brief history of tugboats in the New York Harbor and their continuing importance today as well as tells her own story of working her way from tugboat cook and deckhand to captain, then purchasing the hundred year old Pegasus and renovating it inside and out. Plus enjoy Tugs, a documentary short by Jessica Edwards, which includes scenes of the everyday work life on tugs and ends with dramatic images from the 18^th annual Great North River Tugboat Race. Read more about Pamela Hepburn, tugboat pioneer, here.

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John J Historic Fireboat
and the Tug Pegasus

Hudson River Tugboat Day activities are all free but for the evening RiverTalks, and all take place at Beczak Environmental Education Center and the Yonkers Pier, just two blocks away. Free and secure parking at Beczak.

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11:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Enjoy the Disney classic Little Toot about “the little tug that could"
Explore how tugboats work and make your own out of recycled material
Take a dockside tour of the Pegasus at the Yonkers Pier

4:00 – 5:00 PM

Take a 1-hour ride on the Pegasus departing the Yonkers Pier. Participants are limited to the first 49 to register. Contact Eva at weekends@beczak.org / (914) 377-1900, ext. 13.

Historic 1907 Tugboat Pegasus

The sturdy Pegasus was built in 1907 for Standard Oil. It transported oil products, docked tankers, and acted as a fireboat when needed. In 1995 it was abandoned, underpowered and too decrepit for active service. Thanks to downtown mom / tugboat captain Pamela Hepburn, this maritime icon was saved from the scrapheap, put on the National Register of Historic Places, and the Tugboat Pegasus Preservation Project guided its transformation to the unique New York educational experience it is today. The Pegasus is now docked at the Hudson River Park on Pier 25 in Tribeca. There, the 105-year-old Pegasus offers regular free dockside tours and educational river trips teaching visitors about the New York harbor’s value as a rich natural habitat, as a historic waterway that shaped this city’s history, and as a thriving commercial port crucial to today’s economy.

http://www.tugpegasus.org/

Hudson River Tugboat Day is hosted by Beczak Environmental Education Center and made possible by sponsors Reinauer Transportation Company, Cashman Dredging, and Yonkers Downtown Waterfront BID. Captain Pamela Hepburn’s RiverTalks presentation is sponsored by Yonkers Paddling and Rowing Club, and Hudson River Watertrail Association.

Hudson River Dredging Update on April 14

Look local this Earth Month – get on update on GE’s PCB Dredging as well as other Hudson River issues, threats and opportunities

RiverTalks presents “Hudson River Dredging Update” with Clearwater’s Environmental Action Director, Manna Jo Greene, on Saturday, April 14, 7:00 PM.

We’re in the second year of Phrase 2 of General Electric's PCB remedial dredging upriver. Learn the EPA’s findings as well as the effects of last year’s flooding on the Hudson River Superfund site with Manna Jo Greene, Clearwater’s Director of Environmental Action.

Clearwater, an environmental education organization started by Pete and Toshi Seeger, gained national recognition for its activism starting in the 1970s to force a cleanup of PCB contamination of the Hudson caused by GE and other companies. They continue to be actively involved in the PCB clean up.

Manna Jo Greene says, “This presentation at Beczak Environmental Education Center is very timely because there are still 136 acres of PCB surface contaminated sediment outside the area delineated for dredging that need to be addressed.”

“Although we have made a lot of progress including the PCB remediation in the upper Hudson, the River is still in danger from Indian Point leaks, the proposed Rockland desalination plant and other threats. Despite our best efforts, Hudson River fish are still in decline, so there is still much to do,” says Greene.

More information about General Electric's PCB remedial dredging in the Hudson River

DEC: http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/51215.html

EPA: http://www.epa.gov/hudson/

ABOUT MANNA JO GREENE

Manna Jo Greene, Clearwater's Environmental Action Director since 2000, was formerly the Recycling Coordinator/Educator for the Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency for more than 10 years and a registered Critical Care Nurse since 1976. She holds an AAS in Nursing, a BA in biology (pre-med) from SUNY/New Paltz, and completed course work toward a Masters in Environmental Sciences at Bard College. A lifelong environmental professional and community activist, Manna avidly supports collaborative land use planning and problem solving. Working to promote sustainable agriculture and green building and landscaping practices, she teaches communities how to integrate environmental preservation, economic prosperity (based on quality of life indicators), and social equity using effective communication. Manna also serves as Councilwoman on the Rosendale Town Board.

More at http://mannajo.weebly.com/

there's no better time to see Gasland than NOW!

Gasland—the award-winning documentary about fracking—has a timely message for New York State

Explore the connection between gas drilling and drinking water. Discuss the current status of New York State decisions on fracking with a Riverkeeper attorney who represents our drinking water and the environment.

RiverTalks presents a screening of Gasland, the award-winning documentary about fracking, followed by a conversation with Riverkeeper’s Kate Hudson, on Saturday, March 10, 7:00 PM, $10 / $5 for teachers, students, and seniors.

The largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history has swept across the United States. The Halliburton-developed drilling technology of “fracking” or hydraulic fracturing has unlocked a “Saudia Arabia of natural gas” just beneath us.

But is fracking safe? Could it happen here?

New York State’s citizens have barraged state environmental officials with an unprecedented 60,000 comments on this issue, and just last week the state Supreme Court upheld the right of two towns to prevent fracking for natural gas in their town. Yet, New York State’s DEC says they will release the final phase of work on their proposal to allow hydrofracking of natural gas in spring 2012.

On the eve of New York State’s decision making on this issue, Beczak Environmental Education Center presents Gasland, an award-winning documentary about frackiing, followed by a conversation with Kate Hudson, the Riverkeeper attorney who is challenging New York State’s Department of Conservation.

ABOUT GASLAND

Gasland is a Sundance award-winning documentary on the surprising consequences of natural gas drilling. When filmmaker Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of secrets, lies and contamination. A recently drilled nearby Pennsylvania town reports that residents are able to light their drinking water on fire. Variety magazine calls Gasland “...one of the most effective and expressive environmental films of recent years.”

Gasland’s Honors include:

Nominated for Best Documentary OSCAR 2011 
Won EMMY for Best Non Fiction Directing 
Won Planet Defender Award from Rock the Earth 
Won Manayunk Eco-Champion Award (Josh Fox) 
Won Environmental Media Award for Best Documentary 
Won John Lennon/ Yoko Ono Peace Prize 2010 (Josh Fox) 
Won Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize 
Won Big Sky Film Fest Artistic Vision Award 
Won Yale Environmental Film Fest Grand Jury Prize 
  Listed as one of Current TV 50 Docs to see before you die  
Listed as Outside Magazine 25 most influential Docs of all time

ABOUT FRACKING IN NEW YORK STATE

A rocky formation under parts of New York State, the Marcellus Shale, holds some of the largest natural gas reserves in the nation. To break up shale formations and release the gas, energy companies use a process called high-volume hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, which involves injecting millions of gallons of chemically treated water underground..

Since 2010, New York State has created a moratorium on fracking. The Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York wants the state to speed its decision so that new drilling permits can be issued this year.

Major environmental groups including Riverkeeper have hired their own technical experts to review the state proposal argue that the state is far from done. Looming large, they say, is the lack of a detailed plan to dispose of the millions of gallons of wastewater per well that the new drilling will produce.

If the State Department of Environmental Conservation issues a final Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement on hydrofracking this spring, it will lead to a flawed proposal, according to environmental group Riverkeeper.

Watershed Program Director Kate Hudson said there would be “glaring gaps” in the process.

“In light of the fact that they have 60,000 comments to read and respond to, we are astonished that they are proposing to do that and what it tells us is that they are going to be releasing a flawed document that does not address many of the issues that we and other people have raised and this will only ultimately lead to further delays,” Hudson said.

Those delays would come in the form of lawsuits filed by Riverkeeper and others challenging the findings of the environmental documents.

ABOUT KATE HUDSON

Kate joined Riverkeeper in February 2011 as the NYC Watershed Program Director after nearly 25 years spent in Government protecting the environment of New York State.

Kate has served as Assistant Attorney General in New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation’s Environmental Protection Bureau. She was a member of the Bureau’s Hudson River Team, and was responsible for preparing the State and Federal Trustees natural resource damage claim against General Electric, for their contamination of the Hudson River with PCBs.

Building upon that experience, in 2007, Kate rejoined the NYS DEC where she created and staffed a ten person unit dedicated to pursuing claims for natural resource damages against a wide variety of polluters for their discharges of hazardous substances and petroleum. As Director of the unit, she developed policy and budgetary documents in support of the Department’s natural resource initiatives, represented the Department in the development of claims, coordinated assessment and litigation activities with Federal Trustee agencies and Indian Tribes, and negotiated settlements with responsible parties.

Kate is a long-time resident of Gardiner, NY, living in the shadow of the Shwangunk Ridge, where she is an active outdoorswoman who enjoys hiking, biking, skiing and rock climbing. She is also an experienced sailor, who races on the Hudson River, and has twice competed in the Race around Long Island.

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GASLAND's screening at RiverTalks has been made possible by Food & Water Watch.

Feb. 25: The Hudson River's Role in the Underground Railroad

River to Freedom!

The Hudson River’s Role in the Underground Railroad

Discover the role the Hudson River played in the Underground Railroad and hear stories of those who used it to escape and assist others in gaining their freedom.

Cordell Reaves, expert on the Underground Railroad with the NYS Office of Parks, Recreations, and Historic Preservation, presents The Hudson River’s Role in the Underground Railroad. This RiverTalks event is Saturday, February 25, 7:00 PM, $10 / $5 for teachers, students, and seniors. For information contact weekends@beczak.org, (914) 377-1900 x 13.

February is Black History Month. Learn a little known aspect of local African American history at The Hudson River’s Role in the Underground Railroad, a presentation in pictures and stories with Cordell Reaves with the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation.

The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada. Fugitives from the Hudson Valley, New Jersey, Pennsylvania—as well as from the South—traveled through the lower New York State in big numbers. But how did they do it?

There is little evidence of escaped slaves traveling in the Hudson Valley after the 1830s. Compared to other areas—for example Central New York State, southern Pennsylvania, the Ohio River Valley, Detroit, the absence of records is deeply puzzling.

The answer, suggests Cordell Reaves–Underground Railroad specialist with the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation–has to do with the Hudson River.

Something happened in the valley in 1807 that had nothing whatever to do with slavery—the first successful steamboat, Robert Fulton's Clermont. After that, the Hudson rapidly became the great Interstate Highway of its day—cheap and fast.

“Between New York City and Albany, the Underground Railroad used cargo sloops and steamboats, particularly those crewed or captained by African Americans,” says Reaves.

In The Hudson River’s Role in the Underground Railroad, Reaves presents fascinating stories of former slaves who used the Hudson River to escape as well as everyday people in the Hudson Valley who assisted others in gaining their freedom.

About Cordell Reaves

Cordell Reaves is a Historic Preservation Program Analyst with the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. For the past 10 years he has worked with historic sites across New York State to help them interpret and preserve their Underground Railroad History and increase their organizational capacity. Most recently he has been working on increasing tourism to NY using the story of the Underground Railroad. Cordell was born and raised in Brooklyn NY, has an MA from the Cooperstown Graduate Program for History Museum Studies and resides in Albany NY.

A Kayaker's Journey Along the Hudson on January 28

For outdoors adventure writer Susan Fox Rogers, the Hudson River is a place of exploration and escape

Award-winning outdoor adventure writer Susan Fox Rogers shares her exhilaration of discovering the Hudson River by kayak in A Kayakers Journey Along the Hudson. This Rivertalks presentation is Saturday, January 28, 7:00 PM, $10 / $5 for teachers, students, seniors and members of paddling clubs. For information contact vgarufi@beczak.org, (914) 377-1900 x 12. Beczak Environmental Education Center, 35 Alexander Street, Yonkers, NY 10701. www.beczak.org

When Susan Fox Rogers moved to the Hudson River village of Tivoli ten years ago to teach writing at Bard College, she purchased a kayak to enjoy the outdoors. It turned into a love affair with the Hudson, one that she shares in A Kayaker’s Journey Along the Hudson.

This evening celebrates the release of Rogers’ new book, My Reach: A Hudson River Memoir, called “glorious nature writing” by novelist Philip Roth.

Attendees will enjoy some of Rogers’ Hudson River adventures including the time she and a friend tried to paddle from Albany to Manhattan (they give up at Tarrytown after running into extremely hazardous weather conditions in Croton Bay; she learned later that commercial fishermen call the area “the Croton Triangle”). And they’ll find out how Hudson became a refuge for Rogers as her mother became ill and died within a few months and then, about a year later, her father suddenly died.

Rogers is no stranger to solo adventuring. For many years she has been an avid rock climber, cross-country skier, bicyclist and hiker and has edited adventure writing collections including Going Alone: Women's Adventures in the Wild and Antarctica: Life on the Ice which won the 2007 silver medal from the Society of American Travel Writers.

Signed copies of My Reach: A Hudson River Memoir will be available for sale and Hudson River wines and cheeses will be served.

Praise for My Reach: A Hudson River Memoir

“Rogers has delivered a unique love story about the Hudson River. Like all good love stories it is poetic, sometimes sad, full of discovery and history, and ultimately life- affirming. My Reach is a special memoir about intimacy with a river, and self - and the truth that paddling is about living right.” —Holly Morris, author of Adventure Divas

 “In a fresh and unassuming voice, Susan Fox Rogers sets out to tell the reader what she learns as she comes to know the Hudson River through kayaking near her home in Tivoli, New York, and beyond. What she hadn’t anticipated, however, and what she shared, ultimately, is the heartbreaking and profoundly moving manner in which the river teaches her, as she faces a series of sudden and devastating personal losses, the nature of her very self.” —Boyer Rickel, author of Taboo

About Susan Fox Rogers

Susan Fox Rogers a writer, teacher, editor, rock climber and kayaker. She writes about the natural world and adventures in the outdoors. In the last ten years she has traveled to the Antarctic, Tasmania, Canada, and the southwest of France; hiked in Arizona, rock climbed in Nevada, birded Wyoming and backpacked in Alaska. The memoir is Rogers’ first book. She is the editor of 12 books, including most recently, Antarctica: Life on the Ice and Going Alone: Women’s Adventures in the Wild.

Read more here

Find Out if Fish Sleep on Dec. 10!

Discover fascinating facts about fish behavior—fun for the whole family!

Take a fascinating look at amazing fishes of the world with Judith Weis, professor of biological sciences at Rutgers University at Do Fish Sleep? Fascinating Answers to Questions About Fishes on Saturday, December 10, 7:00 PM.

From the fifty-one-foot whale shark Rhincodon typus to a less-than-one-half-inch fish in the minnow family—the tiny Paedocypris progenetica—fish certainly carry a lot of weight . . . or do they?

“A fish’s heft in water may vary, but these diverse aquatic animals certainly carry a lot of weight in our ecosystems and environment,” says Dr. Judith Weis. Her presentation Do Fish Sleep?, based on her new book by the same name, offers a fascinating look at these deceptively simple creatures.

Dr. Weis is an expert on estuarine ecology, yet her presentation is anything but dull scholarship. She knows how to make fish facts fun! “Fish actually possess attributes that would make us superpowers—they can change color, sex, produce light and electricity, regenerate injured fins, prevent themselves from sinking, and some can even walk on land,” says Weis.

Do Fish Sleep? features dozens of photographs and interesting facts from fish biology basics to the importance of preserving and restoring fish diversity and healthy populations. It promises to be a captivating evening for fish enthusiasts of all ages-naturalists, environmentalists, aquarists, scuba divers, and students—as well as for those just about to get their feet wet.

Signed copies of Do Fish Sleep? will be available for sale.

“Fish, fish, and more fish—from minnows to sharks, mountain streams to ocean bottoms, and teeth to tail fins, if it's a fish question, it's answered here.”

— John Waldman, author of Heartbeats in the Muck: The History, Sea Life, and Environment of New York Harbor

About Judith Weis

Dr. Judith S. Weis is a Professor of Biological Sciences at Rutgers University, Newark. She received her bachelor's degree from Cornell University, and MS and PhD from New York University. Her research focuses mostly on estuarine ecology and she has published a book on salt marshes (Salt Marshes: A Natural and Unnatural History) in 2009 and a book on fish (Do Fish Sleep?) published in 2011.

She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), was a Congressional Science Fellow with the U.S, Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and was a Fulbright Senior Specialist in Indonesia in 2006. She has been on numerous advisory committees for USEPA, NOAA and the National Research Council and is currently chair of the Science Advisory Board of the NJ Department of Environmental Protection. She was the Chair of the Biology Section of AAAS, served on the boards of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), the Association for Women in Science (AWIS), and the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), of which she was the President in 2001.

amazing but true fish facts!

Hudson River Sturgeon with Tom Lake on Saturday, November 12

One of the Hudson River’s most knowledgeable naturalists presents the life history of the Atlantic sturgeon—the Hudson’s largest fish whose ancestors once shared the Earth with dinosaurs!

Hudson River naturalist, writer and teacher Tom Lake presents the life history of the Atlantic sturgeon—the Hudson’s oldest and largest fish species that can reach fifteen feet and over eight hundred pounds—once so plentiful they clogged the Hudson, now threatened with extinction. This Rivertalks presentation is Saturday, November 12, 7:00 PM, $10 / $5 for teachers, students and seniors. For information contact vgarufi@beczak.org, (914) 377-1900 x 12. Beczak Environmental Education Center, 35 Alexander Street, Yonkers, NY 10701. www.beczak.org

Imagine going fishing on the Hudson River and hooking a ten-foot, 300-pound monster armored with bony plates. Or imagine not being able to take your boat out on the Hudson because the channel is so full of huge spawning sturgeon that navigation is dangerous.

Scenes like these were commonplace Hudson River occurrences. Now, due to overfishing and pollution, the Atlantic sturgeon—the oldest and largest of all Hudson River fishes—is an endangered species. Find out if experts think sturgeon come back from the brink of extinction at Hudson River Sturgeon: Relic from Deep Time.

Tom Lake, Naturalist for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and editor of the Hudson River Almanac, attributes his fascination with sturgeon to their role as “canary in the coal mine” for the Earth’s health. “Sturgeon have been on Earth for 200 million years, surviving global turmoil and cataclysmic events. They are a perfect example of how heavy the human footprint weighs on our planet.”

In Hudson River Sturgeon: Relic from Deep Time, Tom Lake will explore the two sturgeon species found in the Hudson River—Atlantic and shortnose—from the Triassic Period when they shared the Earth with the first birds and dinosaurs to present time. His presentation will include photos of sturgeon recently tagged in the Hudson River, as well as information about sturgeon’s life history, spawning cycle, and uses in colonial times.

Beczak Environmental Education Center, where Tom Lake will present Hudson River Sturgeon: Relic from Deep Time, holds several hundred fishing programs each year, but has never caught a live sturgeon. “Two years ago, a dead three foot long Atlantic sturgeon washed onto our beach,” says Vicky Garufi, Director of Education and Outreach. “It was mangled, like it had been caught in a boat’s propeller. We keep its scutes—bony plates—in our Center, and of course we answer many questions about our seven foot sturgeon model on display.”

MORE ABOUT HUDSON RIVER STURGEON

The Hudson River Estuary logo depicts an Atlantic sturgeon, an apt symbol of the Department of Conservation’s efforts to protect the Hudson River Estuary.

Since 1998, possession of Atlantic sturgeon has been banned by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) in all US Atlantic coastal states.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation in collaboration with Hudson River Estuary Program, Pew Institute, Hudson River Foundation, and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation operates sturgeon studies in the Hudson River to learn about and protect Atlantic sturgeon’s spawning waters.

ABOUT TOM LAKE, HOST OF HUDSON RIVER STURGEON

Tom Lake is the Estuary Naturalist for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation's Hudson River Estuary Program. Besides teaching the ecology of the estuary, he edits the Hudson River Almanac, a natural history journal now in its 17th year. He also teaches anthropology, archaeology, and the Prehistory of the Hudson Valley at SUNY Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie.

Lake’s last presentation at Beczak, “The Return of the Bald Eagle,” was a highlight of the spring 2011 RiverTalks season.