Views from the Watershed
Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Episodes
Start Here
19 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Start here for important information about how to use this podcast tour; a land acknowledgement; and a couple of interesting things to notice along th...
Introduction: Connected By Water
19 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Most New York City residents don't know where their water comes from (except from out of the tap!) Your tour guide, Lize Mogel, gives a little bit of ...
A Difficult History
19 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As New York City grew, so did its need for clean water. So city leaders decided to tap the Esopus Creek in the Catskills. The construction of the Cats...
A Miracle of Modern Engineering
19 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The NYC water supply is enormous! It serves 9.5 million people every day, and has a capacity of 570 billion gallons. That's the equivalent of 2,059 Em...
A Seat at the Table
19 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A DEP Commissioner, a Catskillian, and a bunch of lawyers walk into a bar... The 1990s were a turning point for the relationship between the Catskil...
Trout and Tourism
19 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Catskills are considered to be the birthplace of fly fishing in the US. Here, fishing can be an occupation, a lifeline, or a hobby. Anglers (and f...
Tough Choices
19 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There’s a lot of water in the Catskills! Flooding is a constant threat, made worse by climate change, and most of the businesses in downtown Boicevi...
Un-Muddying the Waters
19 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sediment, turbidity, and riparian buffers, oh my! There's a lot that can happen in a stream on its way to becoming NYC's drinking water. Watershed man...
Hard Work
19 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The workers who built the NYC water system over 60 years are an invisible part of this massive infrastructure project. It's a personal story, as much ...
Upgrading Infrastructure
19 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
NYC’s water infrastructure is kind of like your household plumbing, but a lot bigger. What happens though, when, like your household plumbing, it sp...
The Whole Farm Plan
19 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Dairy farming is hard. In the 1990s, new watershed regulations would have made it even harder, if not impossible. Farmers pushed back, organized and e...
Rooted Systems
19 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
You are surrounded by forest just about everywhere you go in the Catskills. The forest is a kind of infrastructure, one that's been shaped, used, and ...
After the Storm (Part 1)
19 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 2011 Hurricane Irene roared through the Catskills "like a fire hose going through an anthill." But yet, the Catskills persisted. The story of Hurri...
After the Storm (Part 2)
19 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Hurricane Irene raised concerns about the Gilboa Dam and the ability of water infrastructure to manage the massive amounts of water produced by large ...
Tapping the Delaware
19 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
New York City needed more water, so it set out to tap the Delaware River (much to New Jersey's dismay!). The construction of the Pepacton Reservoir, w...
Putting the Public in Public Lands
19 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
NYC owns a lot of land and water in the Catskills. You can walk (or paddle) on some of it because people advocated for that access, and did the work t...
Gone But Not Forgotten
19 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Pepacton Cemetery is a remote and resonant place. Like all cemeteries, it’s a marker of loss-- not just the loss of individual people, but of en...