HRE Snapshot Day at Cohotate Preserve

October 7, 2008

1. Liz LoGiudice, CCE Greene

6055 NYS Route 23Acra, NY 12405

518 622-9820 x 33

2.School 1

Coxsackie Athens H.S. Environmental Science Class

Tony Loughran

Sunset Blvd.Coxsackie, NY12051

518 731 1800

22 students, juniors and seniors

School 2

CatskillElementary School

Kathy Durkin

770 Embought Road

Catskill 12414

518 943 0574

17 students, 3rd Grade

3.Cohotate Preserve, Ice House site

4.River Mile 116

Activity ITides and Currents

8:55 amdepth 49 cmrising

9:55 amdepth 56 cm

Current

11:40 amHeading south

Activity II

Air temp10:04 Air Temp 59F15 C

11:05Air 57.7F13.7C

Wind Speedusing wind meter 5 mph with gusts to 8 mph coming from the northeast

Recent weather

Sunny Saturday and Sunday

Rainy in the morning Monday with sun in the afternoon

Frost last night

Activity III

  1. The ice house site is a flat, grassy area on the river with several cottonwood trees. It is situated at the bottom of a forested hillside. The artificial shoreline of the bulkhead from the icehouse dock dominates the eastern shore. Shoreline is also characterized by tidal mudflats. Area is used recreationally for picnicking, hiking and fishing. Ice house site is approximately a ½ mile walk from the parking area.

Surrounding land use:

Urban/residential 15%

Forested 75%

Beach 2%

Industrial/Commercial 5%

OtherArtificial shoreline 3%

2. Shoreline includes tidal mud flats in the southeast, with a rocky shore further south. To the north of the tidal mud flat there is an old bulkhead, with another tidal flat to the north of the bulkhead.

The banks have been altered at the bulkhead (entire ice house area is likely dredge spoil), wood and debris are collected in the southern mudflat, there is lots of vegetation and no pipes entering the water.

  1. We fish at the southern mud flat, which has a muddy bottom and a variable depth, depending on tide. Three square rush and pickerel weed are visible. The water was calm today.
  1. Ice house area has an abundance of plants. Plants include arrow arum, arrowhead, three square rush, dotted smartweed, jewel weed, pickerel weed, purple loosetrife, spatterdock, joe-pye weed, wild rice, and yellow flag.

Primary sampling area is the southern mudflat, which has approximately 35% plants in water. The majority of the visible plants in the water (90%) are three square rush, with 5 % pickerel weed and a small percentage of grass that we are not sure of the variety.

Activity IV

I am not sure about the reliability of the chlorophyll sample. I waded into the water to take the sample that was sent with the runner. Sample was pulled at approximately 9 am. Wading into the water caused some sedimentation in the water column, so this may affect readings in my sample. In the afternoon, we tried matching color of samples we pulled at approximately 1pm to the color chart. The water sample was pulled from the dock, under pretty low tide condition. The first filter was completely clean. The second filter read around a 0.5 on the color chart. The third filter was completely dark and it was very hard to push the water through. The second filters were showing sedimentation, rather than chlorophyll, we believe. Does the analysis differentiate between presence of sediment and chlorophyll?

Activity V

1.Water Temp

10:04 62.6F 17C

11:25 17.3

2 Turbidity20 JTU

Activity VIII

Ph at 11:20 was 8 determined by indicator solution

Salinity at 11:35 was 1.2 as indicated by provided test strips.

DO at 11:25 was 11 ppm, with a water temp of 17.4C; 115% sat.

DO determined by drop count test kit

Activity IX Fish

Used sine net, 40’ long, 4’ tall – don’t know the mesh size

9:40 amPull # 111 fish total

10 tesselated darters

1 spottail shiner

9:45 amPull # 220 fish total

17 tesselated darters

3 spottail shiner

10 amPull 3 and 458 fish total

44 tesselated darters

10 spottail shiner

1 white perch

1 herring

2 banded killifish

10:10Pull 566 fish total

50 tesselated darters

7 spottail shiners

2 bluegill sunfish

1 herring

1 kilifish

Also, 1 damselfy nymph and lots of scuds!

Activity XOther observations

Shipping – very little shipping traffic this year – mostly recreational vehicles

12:08 Oil barge, southbound

10:20Amtrack northbound

11:12 Amtrack southbound