Hudson River Watershed: Source to Sink in Eight Days

By KARIN E. LIMBURG of the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry

SYRACUSE - The year 2009 marked the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s exploration of the river that now bears his name. As part of the celebrations, I led five undergraduates and three graduate students with interests ranging from environmental chemistry to fisheries to sustainable development on a weeklong field course in June.

We began in the Adirondacks at the headwaters of the Hudson River and ended at the river’s terminus at the southern tip of Manhattan Island. We began at Huntington Wildlife Forest (HWF) because of its special place in the watershed.

Before Colvin Verplanck’s decisive measurements of elevation in his High Peaks surveys, it was thought that Harris Lake and its feeder streams and lakes were the ultimate source of the Hudson River. Indeed, the trio of headwaters - Round and Corner ponds draining into Catlin Lake, and Wolf Lake - form the second headwaters area for the Hudson.

Wednesday of that week took us downriver to Hudson Falls and Fort Edward (still in the Upper Hudson), to get firsthand perspectives on the PCB dredging issue. We met ESF alumnus Jim Sullivan EFB ’06 and General Electric engineer Ed LaPointe to see GE’s on-site remediation, and with Richard Bopp, professor of environmental geochemistry at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, got a broad perspective and tour of the initial dredging projects.

Read the full story here…
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