Above: A view of the Shawangunk brush fire looking south from the Summitville turn on Route 209 outside the Ulster County town of Ellenville at close to midnight on Tuesday, May 5. Photo by Michael Wentland.

A massive forest fire that began on Sunday, May 3 has burned through over 2,000 acres of forested lands in Sullivan and Ulster counties this week, prompting the evacuation of 30 homes and a statewide emergency response.

Forest rangers, firefighters, first responders, police and state emergency operation officials have fought the blaze, which is concentrated in the Roosa Gap and Shawangunk Ridge State Forests around Route 52 in Ellenville.

Above: A small crowd of onlookers watches the brush fire in the Shawangunks from Thornton Road in Wurtsboro, which overlooks the Shawangunk Ridge State Forest, on May 5. Photo by Michael Wentland.  

If you’re planning to eat out today — Friday, May 1 — think of dining at one of the 23 Catskills restaurants in Delaware and Ulster counties that are participating in Fighting Hunger Friday, a fundraiser for the Margaretville’s Community Food Pantry, based in Arkville.

The restaurants, listed below, are accepting cash donations from diners that they will pass on to the food pantry. Leave your donation in a brown paper bag on your table at any participating eatery.

Some of the eateries are offering special menus and matching donations. The Arkville Bread and Breakfast is serving fried chicken and waffles tonight from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., with all proceeds going to benefit the food pantry. The owners of the Crazy River Café in Margaretville will match every donation to the pantry that is made in their restaurant today.

A new outpost of the National Young Farmers’ Coalition is launching in the Catskills, and this Friday they’re throwing a big party and dance at the American Legion Hall in Delhi.

Even if you’re not a farmer, you’re invited. Morgan O’Kane and DJ Dirtyfinger, both of Brooklyn, will be playing, and everyone is invited to bring a dish to pass. (These are farmers we’re talking about, so the food will be delicious.)

“The event is open to all who farm in the Catskills, as well as those who support farms,” said Kate Marsiglio, a farmer who runs Stony Creek Farmstead in the Delaware County town of Walton and who is one of the local NYFC organizers.

The goal of the new local branch of the NYFC is to “unite all farmers in the Catskills,” Marsiglio said. “Young and old. Experienced and Green. Organic and conventional. We have so much to gain from each other.”

Forty-two days after he was badly burned in an explosion in his garage in the Delaware County village of Margaretville, 72-year-old Glenford "Sandy" Scudder died of his injuries on Sunday, April 26 at Westchester Medical Center, according to an obituary released by the Hynes Funeral Home in Margaretville.

Left: Sandy Scudder, pictured in a photo from a GoFundMe page, died on Sunday, April 26 of injuries sustained in an explosion on March 16. 

Scudder was a well-known figure in Margaretville, the village where he was born and lived all his life. According to his obituary, Scudder was passionate about hunting, classic cars, his two dogs and watercross, a sport where snowmobilers hydroplane their vehicles across lakes and rivers.