Danskammer Threatens Valley’s Health and Environmental Justice
Back in 2019, the New York State Legislature passed the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, mandating a decline in greenhouse gas emissions throughout the state. In light of the legislation, the proposed expansion of Danskammer, a fracked-gas power plant...
Touring the HV by EV
Is 2021 the year electric vehicles hit their tipping point? New York dug into a $750 million EV-infrastructure expansion. States like Massachusetts banned sales of new gas-powered cars by 2035. And while Tesla had gobbled up a lot of early...
#HudsonInspired: Artist Matthew Friday Considers Water, Waste
Not many artists think deeply about ecology and water, but artist-writer-educator Matthew Friday has done exactly that in multidisciplinary works such as DUMP!, Stories of Water and Waste, and more. Friday credits his interest in ecology to a childhood spent...
#FlightWatch: The Valley’s Vanishing Nighthawks
BEEMPP! BOOM!! and again BEEEMPP! BOOOM! On a warm June evening, I would take the kids down to Coxsackie to wait. At the sound of “beeempp booom,” we would look up into the growing darkness to see a shadowy figure with...
Valley Hemp Farming: High Potential, With Some Pitfalls
When Congress moved to legalize industrial hemp farming late in 2018, there were cheers all around. Sen. Mitch McConnell, then the Republican Senate majority leader from Kentucky, called hemp farming “a bright spot of agriculture’s future.” “Now,” said Sen. Ron...
Hiking by Art
A wall-mounted phone with a rotary dial and a curly cord. A decade or two ago, an Appalachian Trail hiker like Dan Foeller could pretty safely have bet it was just another pay phone. Passing it earlier this summer, though,...
10 Facts About the Dutchess County Fair
COVID put the kibosh on the Dutchess County Fair (and so much else) last year, so it's great to have it up and running again, from August 24-29.
The Mountainside Ride That Opened Up the Catskills
As far as Hudson Valley mountain rails go, the Mount Beacon Incline Railway seems to get all the glory. From 1902 to 1978, it lifted some 3.5 million passengers to the 1,540-foot summit. There — at least for a time —...