Northern Glaciated Shale and Slate Valleys

Rusty Crayfish were recorded at N Manheim Blvd, Ulster County on 2026-09-16, about 1 km from the ecosystem center. This invasive preys on mayfly and stonefly larvae and shreds aquatic vegetation. It is now the dominant crayfish species in many watersheds across central and eastern New York.

Multiple caddisfly taxa were observed in early October, including Pycnopsyche antica on 2026-10-10 and northern caddisflies (Limnephilidae) on 2026-10-01. These pollution-sensitive insects indicate cool, clean, well-oxygenated water needed for their larvae to develop. Fall emergence of caddisflies at this ecosystem's latitude peaks in October as temperatures drop.

Water level at the nearby tidal station measured 1.380 m on 2026-10-21 at 15:00, standing 0.296 m above the predicted level for that time. Positive deviations of this magnitude reflect storm surge or extreme tidal forcing; the observed level remains within normal tidal range but signals atmospheric or hydraulic conditions driving water higher than the astronomical prediction.

Four-toed Salamander, flagged as Threatened, was observed on 2026-10-14 in Esopus and on 2026-10-01 in New Paltz. Mid-October sightings align with autumn staging behavior as the lungless species prepares for winter dormancy in cool, moist refugia, with activity expected to tail off sharply as soil temperatures drop.

Five Bobolinks confirmed on 2026-10-20 at Posquiello Creekside Rd, a stopover during southbound migration to South America. Bobolinks depart breeding grounds late August through mid-September, arrive in Venezuela early October, and continue south through October to reach wintering grounds in Argentina and Paraguay by November. These stopovers provide critical refueling for the long-distance migration.

Six days remain to comment on a cut New York City wants to make in the Ashokan Reservoir spillway. The city's Department of Environmental Protection has applied to the DEC for a dam-safety permit to notch the crest of the East Basin spillway, in the Town of Marbletown, roughly 4.5 feet deep and 60 feet wide. A scour-protection blanket would go in on the reservoir side of the notch, and a row of baffles just downstream to break up the water coming through. The DEC has issued a Negative Declaration, meaning it found no significant environmental impact, and is taking public comment on the application through September 24. The notice calls the notch interim. It belongs to the Ashokan Century Program, the city's multi-year rebuild of the dam's spillway, spillway bridge, dividing weir and dikes, which DEP says is meant to give the spillways adequate hydraulic capacity while keeping the reservoir in continuous operation through construction. What the notch does is simple. A spillway crest is a fixed lip; nothing passes until the pool rises above it. Lowering a 60-foot section of that lip by 4.5 feet lets water begin passing through that section while the pool still sits 4.5 feet below the level where the rest of the crest would spill. The flow through a narrower, deeper opening runs faster, which is what the blanket and the baffles are for. In March the reservoir stood within three to four feet of the spillway crest. Everything that goes over this spillway ends up in the Lower Esopus Creek, which runs from the dam through Marbletown and Hurley, past Kingston, and into the Hudson at Saugerties. That creek has carried the reservoir's mud since 2010. Storms on the upper Esopus pick up red silt left by a glacial lake and deliver it to the reservoir's West Basin, where it is meant to settle before the water passes into the East Basin. In heavy runoff it does not settle fast enough. After Irene and Lee in 2011 the city made prolonged, heavy releases of turbid water, Ulster County threatened suit under the Clean Water Act, and the releases have run since under an Interim Release Protocol. That protocol caps spill and release together and shuts the release channel when the gauge on the Esopus at Mount Marion nears its 18-foot action stage. Hundreds of billions of gallons of turbid water have gone down the creek under this arrangement. That is the creek the finding of no significant impact was made for. Fine sediment at concentrations far below what the Esopus carries in a release year clogs the gills of mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies, buries the ones that cannot move, and settles over fish eggs. Brown trout hunt by sight; in turbid water they feed less and swim less well. The notch adds a lower opening to a spillway whose output is already rationed against a downstream gauge. How spills through it will be counted against that combined limit over the years of construction is a fair question to put to the agency now. Comments go to Alysse Devine at DEC Region 3, (845) 256-3054 or dep.r3@dec.ny.gov, through September 24.