Podcasts about mid hudson

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Volunteers open paddling routes The Fishkill Creek runs behind Sergei Krasikov's house and it wasn't long after he moved to Beacon that he began to wonder: How much of this is navigable? A quick scan of Google Maps revealed the numerous dams which make canoeing and kayaking the entire 33.5-mile creek from Pray Pond in Unionvale to Madam Brett Park in Beacon impossible, and by late summer some sections are too shallow to paddle. But a few segments seemed open enough to encourage exploring. "That first year or two we paddled from Long Dock into Madam Brett Park, and from Van Pelt Park upstream to the Walmart in Fishkill," said Krasikov, who was elected to the Beacon City Council last year. Then came the macroburst storm of 2018, and much of the creek became jammed with downed trees. Further paddling was out of the question. Krasikov then learned about a defunct group called the Fishkill Creek Watershed Association, which had done everything from developing a natural resource management plan to dragging discarded Christmas trees to the banks of the creek to slow erosion. In 2023, Krasikov founded a new group called the Fishkill Creek Watershed Alliance to carry on the association's work. "They produced great reports," he said. "We're still using them." Since its inception, the Alliance has regularly tested for water quality in the creek and looked at the effects that industry and invasive species are having on its watershed. Through his work with the Alliance, Krasikov met Russel Faller from the Mid-Hudson chapter of the Adirondack Mountain Club and a former member of the Fishkill Creek Watershed Association. Faller mentioned that he used to lead work parties on the creek to keep it clear for paddling, but since the Association's disbanding there was no one to help him. And so last weekend Krasikov, Faller and almost a dozen volunteers in kayaks, surf kayaks, canoes and inflatable standup paddleboards met at Doug Phillips Park in Fishkill. They hailed from all over the Hudson Valley; some were already Alliance members, while others were curious paddlers looking for an excuse to explore someplace new. Armed with hacksaws and ropes, they paddled a little over 2 miles upstream, removing downed trees and logjams, some of which looked like they had been in place since the macroburst. Much of this stretch of the creek is flanked by tall grasses, thickly wooded forests and very few houses. Just a few minutes into the paddle it's easy to get the impression that one is deep in the remote wilderness despite being a few hundred feet away from a bowling alley. One of the only signs of human civilization was a dog chasing a blue heron into the creek. Even litter was sparse, and the one or two beer cans the group did find were, judging from their design, several decades old. Deer and raccoon tracks could be found along the shore. Without chainsaws, much of the work was slow going. Sawing through one particularly large red oak took four people about half an hour. And a logjam just downstream of the junction with Sprout Creek was so dense that it originally looked like Fishkill Creek simply ended there. But after another few hours of sawing and pulling, the water flow was restored and the section was navigable once again. The Fishkill Creek Watershed Alliance's website now has a page dedicated to paddling the creek, with maps to three cleared and navigable sections along with safety tips and other pointers. The most dangerous thing the group encountered last weekend was low-hanging poison ivy, but during a few sections paddlers had to get out and pull their crafts around shallow sections with surprisingly quick rapids. Even the deeper sections are shallow enough that standup paddleboarders should remain seated, bring along a kayak paddle and, if possible, remove the tail fin. It'll take regular maintenance to keep the creek open for paddling, but Krasikov is already thinking ahead. Riverkeeper has had success removing several defunct dams i...

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Allows swimming at Beacon waterfront When folk singer Pete Seeger envisioned The River Pool at the Beacon waterfront more than 25 years ago, he said he wanted to encourage swimming in the Hudson, which he sang about as "My Dirty Stream." "He felt that if people were swimming in the water, they would work to keep it clean," said Karen Frillman, president of the pool's volunteer board. Seeger died in January 2014, after the pool had been open for seven summers. The River Pool is scheduled to open this year on Wednesday (July 1) for its 18th season at Pete and Toshi Seeger Riverfront Park. It is waiting for final approvals from the Dutchess County Health Department. Frillman said the department samples the water weekly. "The first year they tested, they said it was [clean enough to be] almost drinkable," she said. "It's a great spot." The health department also inspects the structure to ensure it's safe for the 700 or so children who visit each summer. The pool is 17 feet wide and 30 inches deep, with a net bottom. It's attached to the riverbed with cables, allowing the pool to move with the tide. Seeger modeled the pool after the floating swimming cribs anchored in the East River off Manhattan in the late-19th and early 20th centuries. Volunteers assemble the pool each summer in a cove near the park. It is staffed with a paid lifeguard from noon to 6 p.m. every day except Monday through Labor Day. The group raises about $50,000 a year with The Annual Great Newburgh to Beacon River Swim, scheduled for Aug. 1. Typically, more than 200 swimmers pay $75 to traverse the river escorted by kayaks. The River Pool board would like to see its model replicated, said Ben Weiss, one of its nine trustees. "River Pool at Peekskill, River Pool at Newburgh, River Pool at Albany — that's the big vision." About 10 years ago, the group pitched a larger pool at Scenic Hudson's Long Dock Park in Beacon, measuring 54 feet long by 20 feet wide, with a separate wading pool. "Although this would be an appealing amenity, we were — and still are — concerned about the additional infrastructure, park management demands and liability linked to hosting swimming," said Seth McKee, executive director of The Scenic Hudson Land Trust & Land Programs. For those reasons, McKee said, swimming is not allowed at any of the two dozen waterfront parks and preserves managed by Scenic Hudson, although Sojourner Truth State Park in Kingston, which the nonprofit created with New York State, will soon offer swimming overseen by state parks. The River Pool is part of a larger movement toward providing free, supervised swimming holes. By one estimate, there are 10.7 million swimming pools in the U.S., but only about 300,000 are open to the public. In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul included funding for new or renovated public pools in her 2024 state budget as part of a program called New York Swims. The state awarded $38 million to municipalities in the Mid-Hudson region, including $8 million to help fund an outdoor aquatic center at Delano-Hitch Recreation Park in Newburgh that opened last summer. In New York City, a nonprofit called Plus Pool has been raising funds since 2015 to build a floating, self-filtering pool in the East River and to deploy river pools across the state, including near the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge. It is testing a 2,000-square-foot pilot this summer near Pier 35 in lower Manhattan.

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Wayne County has another massive commercial center to contend with, a solar farm.The Governor of Pennsylvania has put out information about new standards to regulate potential data centers. The Sullivan County Division of Public Works is inviting the public to a meeting regarding a proposal to replace a bridge over part of Swan Lake. A special grant means free recreation that's all the rage these days. Jim Sebastian of Mid-Hudson news reports on the new Wurtsboro project. A former Olympic athlete and resident of Roscoe has died. 

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