DEC biologist Carl Herzog is speaking at SUNY New Paltz on Thursday about the great American bat die-off. From the Hudson Valley Geologist:

If you don't know, bats have been dying off in record numbers locally (and throughout the northeast) from a fungal disease known as White Nose Syndrome (WNS).  Bat hibernacula in the local Rosendale cement mines have been especially hard hit.

Earlier: Bat expert tells it straight

Composite photo by Flickr user Seth Tisue. Credit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tisue/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

On eBay: A 1956 clipping from Coronet magazine, with a long article about Catskills violinmaker Harry Stoughtenburgh.

50-plus years later, this probably still holds true:

In Ulster County, boys aren't encouraged to be luthiers.

Dean Sparks wants to get upstate food on downstate plates. The Central New York food distributor, who's behind regional milk coop Nymilk, is using social media to connect with farmers and eaters. The ultimate goal: Building a distribution system to funnel more upstate farm products into the open maw of the city.

I have met many, many folks from NYC that want to help in getting this Upstate/Downstate link established. They want to support small farms. They want fresh, good food. My neighbor farmers want to keep farming….keep making great food, grow their volumes, and save their farms. They want to send their kids to college, and ultimately to leave a generational heritage that is passed on to their children and grandchildren. Limited access to markets and consumers is choking them.

Sparks is looking for more people to get involved in the effort, and hoping to host an event in NYC this summer.

Coyotes. You've got questions. They've got answers.

On March 4, SUNY Ulster and the Catskill Institute for the Environment are hosting a talk on coyote ecology, featuring a panel of local scientists.

The panel will include Dr. Roland Kays, Curator of Mammals at the NYS Museum, who will speak on “New York’s Coyote/Coydog/Coywolf: What is it and how did it get here?;” Dan Bogan, Ph.D. candidate, Cornell University, discussing “Suburban coyote behavioral ecology: Implications for ecology and management;” and Robin Holevinski, Ph.D. candidate at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, who will address “Foraging Ecology and Population Status of Eastern Coyotes.”

Photo of coyote street art by Flickr user Lord Jim. Credit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lord-jim/ / CC BY 2.0

Capital Region enviroblogger, truck driver and all-around mountain man Andy Arthur climbed Hunter Mountain yesterday--and came back down with some marvelous photos. Above: The Hunter fire tower looking like something out of an Ingmar Bergman film.