On Thursday, Oct. 10, students, teachers, Hudson Highlands Land Trust educators and volunteers gathered at the Hudson River’s shores, equipped with seining nets, test tubes, notebooks and pens, to advance a statewide estuary study.
Haldane Middle and High School students were stationed at Little Stony Point’s beach in Cold Spring, with teachers Mark Patinella, Lee Posniak and Katlyn Yen, HHLT River of Words educator Pete Salmansohn, Susan Butterfass from FDR State Park and Haldane parent Jeanne Fitzgerald.
Adults explained procedures necessary to collect the scientific data, then provided oversight as the students did the field work. The students recorded their findings, including water temperature and quality, tides and weather. HHLT’s River of Words Education Team helped plan, manage and implement Haldane’s involvement.
Another group of Haldane students conducted studies further north in Beacon with the help of the Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries.
In Cornwall, the Willow Avenue School’s fourth grade classes studied with their teacher, Debbie Gilson. HHLT River of Words Educator Irene O’Garden worked with these students to create a verbal snapshot of the river using their five senses.
Students from Garrison Union Free School worked with teachers Kevin Keegan and Ian Berger, HHLT’s educator Cathy Bakker and stewardship coordinator Matt Decker, and parents Krista Osborn and Lyn Berkley at Garrison Landing on Oct. 17. Garrison School art teacher Coulter Young instructed students on sketching from nature. To learn more about the study, visit hhlt.org or call 845-424-3358, ext. 6.
