News and Commentary about the City of Hudson, New York
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Seeing South Bay Revisited
With permission, I am reproducing photographs of the South Bay that were part of the presentation at yesterday's LWRP information session. They show the South Bay as it is today and reveal it as a place worth caring about.
Also part of the presentation was a video about the restoration of Gooseneck Cove in Rhode Island. Although Gooseneck Cove is a saltwater marsh and the South Bay a freshwater wetland, the similarities are clear. A memorable and important quote from the video: "Restoring marshes is more important now than ever before."
The greatest thing that the salt marsh (depicted in the film) and the South Bay wetland has in common - besides the fact that both are tidal - are some of the same species of fish. The single catadromous specie in the South Bay, the American Eel, is also found in salt marshes (the salt marsh behind Sagamore Hill is named Eel Creek). All of the anadromous species - those that only travel to freshwater for spawning - use the South Bay (or would use South Bay if it was in a better state). Most or all of those species can also be found in salt marshes at one time or another. This entire group of fishes are a priority to our national fisheries, which department is within NOAA. It is NOAA that ultimately signs off on our LWRP.
Thanks so much for posting these pictures, Carole -- and thanks to the unidentified photographer. What a gorgeous place this is; well worth preserving.
This blog takes its name from the 1850 novel by Hudson author Alice B. Neal. The original Gossips of Rivertown cast a gimlet eye on Hudson society in the mid-19th century. More than a century and a half later, the new Gossips carries on the spirit of the original, but in a different genre and with a different focus.
The greatest thing that the salt marsh (depicted in the film) and the South Bay wetland has in common - besides the fact that both are tidal - are some of the same species of fish. The single catadromous specie in the South Bay, the American Eel, is also found in salt marshes (the salt marsh behind Sagamore Hill is named Eel Creek). All of the anadromous species - those that only travel to freshwater for spawning - use the South Bay (or would use South Bay if it was in a better state). Most or all of those species can also be found in salt marshes at one time or another. This entire group of fishes are a priority to our national fisheries, which department is within NOAA. It is NOAA that ultimately signs off on our LWRP.
ReplyDeleteT. O'Connor
Thanks so much for posting these pictures, Carole -- and thanks to the unidentified photographer. What a gorgeous place this is; well worth preserving.
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