| Watershed Post

Saugerties Zombie Crawl

Footage from the First Annual Saugerties Zombie Crawl in 2010, by Zachary Coons.

The undead walk again in Saugerties, as the town plays host to a crew of shambling, rotting, groaning zombies. Tonght, October 22, is the second annual Zombie Crawl -- and this year, the event is raising proceeds for Hurricane Irene victims.

At least one thing will be live: Music. Kingston funk-rockers Voodelic will play Dave's Wine and Coffee House, and Tyrannosaurus Rocks will host "Zomstock" at the Donlon Auditorium.

Want to avoid ending up as a reanimated corpse? Head to the Village Apothecary, which will be handing out doses of zombie cure. Or if you're resigned to your fate, join the undead crew at the Partition Street Wine Shop, Main Street Restaurant or the Dutch Ale House, all of which are serving zombie-themed cocktails.

By 10pm, most of the crawling horrors will end up at the Donlon, where there will be a costume contest, presided over by last year's winner, Zombie Gaga.

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Dispatch from Olive: Not the brightest fall

Photo of the Bushkill Creek in Olive by Ed Ostapczuk.

I remember more vivid autumns. Then again, I don't remember mowing the grass in the middle of October. I think all this rain caused the leaves to drop before they turned their bright colors. Mother Nature is confused. One day we have ceiling fans blowing eighty-degree temperatures around, and the next day I am huddled next to the woodstove. Leaves are falling making our view of the Ashokan Reservoir visible again; however, it is not the silver puddle in the distance it usually is. It is more the color of Yoo-Hoo.

Not only are leaves falling -- rumors are ﬂying around as election time draws near. The damages from the Hurricane have brought us together in some ways; the Olive Emergency Relief Fundraiser exceeded our goal of $10,000, so those who placed requests will soon receive grants from ALL money collected.

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Sunday October 23 at 11am: Volunteers needed in Margaretville

This just in from Dorothy Maffei, Margaretville's indefatigable flood relief volunteer organizer.

The village of Margaretville needs volunteers on Sunday, October 23 at 11am to help move unsorted donations to a warehouse. There are (ulp) two tractor-trailer loads that need to be moved.

"We will have a truck," Maffei writes today. "We just need 5 or 6 willing helpers."

To help out, email Maffei at [email protected].

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Anti-Rent War: The original Occupy Wall Street?

1839 poster supporting the Anti-Rent movement in Nassau, New York. From Wikimedia Commons.

Much about the world has changed in the century and a half since the Anti-Rent War took upstate New York by storm, and the protest movement of the hour is a rather different organism than the bands of "Calico Indians" who once traveled from farm to farm in the Catskills, resisting the evictions of tenant farmers. (For one thing, the Anti-Rent War was bloodier and more confrontational than the mostly nonviolent Occupy Wall Street movement has been so far, and its rhetoric more heated.)

But as this account of the August 7, 1845 killing of Undersheriff Osman Steele by Anti-Rent protestors, written in 1955 and posted today on Bovina historian Ray LaFever's blog, shows, some of the grievances of the Anti-Rent warriors aren't too different from those of today's Wall Street protestors. An excerpt:

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Mount Tremper resident charged with illegal stream work (again)

This just in from the Town of Shandaken Police: 68-year-old Algernon Reese, of Old Plank Road in Mount Tremper, has been arrested on charges that he used an excavator to dig a trench through a neighbor's property without permission, and disturbed a stream without a permit.

From a press release from the Shandaken Police Department:

Reese was charged with 1 count of Felony Criminal Mischief after a complaint from his neighbors that Reese had used an excavator to dig a 3-foot wide by 30-foot long trench through their property without permission. Additionally Reese was charged by NYS ECON Police with 1 Misdemeanor count of Disturbing a Protected Stream. Reese was arraigned in Shandaken Court and released.

This isn't the first time Reese has run afoul of local conservation law. Reese has been found guilty on several occasions of doing stream work without a permit. From the Phoenicia Times, March 2009:

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Windham: Apply for over $600,000 in flood relief before Oct. 24

Above: Flood-damaged bags of grain at Cave Mountain Brewing Co. in Windham a few days after Hurricane Irene. Via Facebook.

The Windham Chapter of the Catskill Mountain Foundation and the Windham Area Recreational Foundation (WARF), two Windham-based nonprofit organizations that have been collecting funds flood relief, are now ready to give it away.

The two groups presently have almost $600,000 in donations, combining funds from last week's benefit at Windham Mountain, donations to the Catskill Mountain Foundation, and donations to the WARF.

Between now and Monday, October 24, Windham business owners and residents in need because of Irene can apply to both organizations for flood relief assistance.

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Catskill Mountain Foundation

Windham Area Recreational Foundation

New Paltz Flood Aid concert raises $52,000 for flood victims

Last weekend's big flood benefit concert in New Paltz raised $52,000 for flood victims who were hit hard by Tropical Storms Irene and Lee on the Wallkill River in Ulster County.

The concert, which you can watch in full on the New Paltz Flood Aid website, featured a huge roster of local performers. The funds will go to the New Paltz Community Foundation, which is still taking donations via PayPal.

Here's the press release from the concert organizers:

Leading up to our benefit concert on 10/16 at Hasbrouck Park, New Paltz Flood Aid for Farmers, Families, and First Responders had collected over $30,000 from our 10/2 kickoff event and in sponsorships, donations, and pre-concert ticket sales. Due to a continued tremendous outpouring of support – on the day of the concert we increased that amount to over $52,000. Amazing!

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Iconic rock photographer Barry Feinstein dies

Cover of the soundtrack to the Martin Scorsese film No Direction Home; image from a 1966 photo taken by Barry Feinstein of Bob Dylan at the Aust Ferry in England.

The AP reports that Barry Feinstein, a longtime Woodstock resident who took many iconic photographs of rock stars in the '60s and '70s, died early on Thursday, October 20 at the age of 80.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Agent Dave Brolan says the Woodstock resident died early Thursday. He'd suffered various ailments and was hospitalized with an infection.

Feinstein's best known images include the skinny, side-glancing picture of Dylan on the cover of 1964's "The Times They Are A-Changin'" and of Harrison sitting among garden gnomes on his 1970 solo album, "All Things Must Pass."

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Happy hunting: Antler restrictions in the Catskills

Antlers: Too small (top) and large enough to kill (bottom): DECThe New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is expanding its antler-restriction program for deer hunting into a larger portion of the Catskills, in a bid to allow more young bucks to grow into mature deer before they are killed during hunting season.

The DEC has been experimenting with antler restrictions in the Catskills since 2005, and Governor Andrew Cuomo expanded the program this summer into an area south and west of Route 28 in Ulster, Sullivan and Delaware counties for the 2011 season.

The antler restriction program requires that bucks can only be shot if they "have at least one antler with 3 or more points that are at least one inch long." (See photo at left.) So far, the program seems to work, according to its Deer Management Plan, which was finalized this month:

Data from the pilot program indicate that harvest of yearling bucks has declined about 80%, consistent with the program’s goal (Hurst and Kautz 2011). The average number of 2.5+ year old bucks in the harvest has increased 53%, and in 2009-2010, approximately 85% of adult bucks taken in the pilot units were 2.5 years old or older.

But while some hunters and groups, notably the New York State Whitetail Management Coalition, support antler restrictions, others aren't convinced. The DEC conducted a survey of hunter attitudes in 2010, and found that while hunters supported protecting young bucks, they also want freedom to bag whatever buck they choose.

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FEMA to open mobile DRC in Cobleskill

FEMA will be running a mobile disaster recovery center in Cobleskill from Friday, October 21 through Monday, October 24, from 8am to 8pm each day.

A press release from the agency:

A Mobile Disaster Recovery Center (MDRC) will open for four days in Schoharie County on Friday, October 21 to assist individuals, households and businesses affected by Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee, officials said today.

The MDRC will be located in the Wal-Mart parking lot, 139 Merchant Place in Cobleskill, and will operate through Monday, Oct. 24, from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. each day.

The center will be staffed with disaster-recovery specialists who can provide information and answer questions about storm-related assistance, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials said.

“Before visiting a recovery center, I strongly recommend people seeking assistance register with FEMA,” said FEMA Federal Coordinating Officer Philip E. Parr.

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