As we approach the winter solstice the familiar shortening of days and lengthening of nights mingle with the less familiar mildness of winter weather that has us sniffing the air for hints of what changes lay ahead for our planet. We can be sure of one or two things for now. Our goodly inheritance of water and land will become more, not less, important. And the holidays will be upon us soon! May yours be happy and merry and bright.

New water monitoring stations are calibrated, installed, and online. Three 3 new stations in all, with one located in the Basha Kill Wildlife Management Area and two downstream on the lower Basha Kill and in the Neversink River where it runs next to the Nature Conservancy Myers Grove Preserve. This data will be up on our site soon, in the meantime you can view it on Monitor my Watershed, select Deerpark Rural Alliance and NYenvironcom from the browse sites menu.

A brief refresher For those who have recently started following us, and for those who have just forgotten, the WaterInsight program utilizes the EnviroDIY monitoring station network and data loggers, developed by the Stroud Water Research Center. Our customized versions of the EnviroDIY data loggers record various water quality parameters, including conductivity, dissolved oxygen, temperature, and depth, uploading these data both to the monitormywatershed.org platform, as well as on the main NYec site. We are in the process of developing additional features, such as air quality monitoring, to be added in the near future.

Avictory of sorts. Developers have withdrawn their current site application for the proposed Rivendale project following a public hearing regarding the project’s scoping. So, for now, this issue is laid to rest, but we remain vigilant in protecting this land of flood plains and wetlands along the Neversink. We will maintain our archive of documents relating to this project on the website and Rivendale subsite. If it rises from its grave, we will be there ready to respond once more. More details are available in the Deerpark Rural Alliance Update.

Something happened regarding a thing called New Century (New Century Films, on 209 and Neversink Drive, former site of the Moonie’s equestrian center)! A site plan hearing can be viewed somewhere online (actually, on our YouTube channel). Check it out.

The DEC has fined the owners for discharge and sediment violations. Further details are in the Daily Freeman, and in the DEC Notice of Violation document here. Check it out.

Our Halloween bash at Forage Pizza was a great success with 25 attendees enjoying pizza, arancini, the great burning of tThe Wickerman, a screening of the motion picture classic, “Godzilla ” and a speech on that film (read it here) by NYenvironcom founder, Alex Scilla. A good time and a fair amount of delicious beer was had by all which has emboldened our plans for an even bigger Wickerman for next year’s Halloween. Our auction/raffle also brought in a not small amount of additional supporting funds. Thanks to all our prize donors: Forage Pizza, Sawkill Creek Outfitters, Stonehouse Farms, and the Malsberg, Marusic, Scilla, and Woodard families. See you next year.