Hudson RiverNet
News from the Hudson River Estuary Program

New Turkey Point Tide Station Will Provide Key Water Level Data

On October 3rd, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) celebrated the 35th anniversary of DEC's Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve (the Reserve) with officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), state and federal elected officials, agencies, not-for-profit organizations, educators, and scientists. DEC and NOAA officials also dedicated the new Turkey Point Tide Station, established by the Reserve and DEC, with NOAA support.

This station, which complies with strict NOAA protocols for tide level monitoring, began transmitting highly accurate water level data in September. The station fills a critical gap in the nation’s water level monitoring network, as it is located nearly 100 miles north of the Battery in New York City, site of the only other permanent tide station on the 152-mile estuary. The Turkey Point station increases the accuracy of tide predictions and supports safe navigation, timely spill response, improved tracking of climate impacts, and habitat management and restoration.

NOAA designated the Reserve in 1982 as part of the National Estuarine Research Reserve System, a network of 29 protected U.S. coastal areas that promote sustainability and improve coastal management through research and education about estuaries. The Reserve includes four tidal wetland and upland complexes that span the middle 100 miles of the tidal Hudson River, with two sites in Rockland County (Piermont Marsh and Iona Island), one in Dutchess County (Tivoli Bays), and one in Columbia County (Stockport Flats). The sites and programs are managed by the Reserve in partnership with DEC and its Hudson River Estuary Program, and the NYS Office of Parks Recreation and Historic Preservation.

Climate Adaptive Design (CAD) Team Wins National Landscape Architecture Award for Kingston Point Proposal

The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) recently announced the 28 winners of the 2017 Student Awards. Selected from 295 entries representing 52 schools, the awards honor the top work of landscape architecture students in the U.S. and around the world. Among those honored was a team from Cornell University’s graduate program in landscape architecture, for their proposal ‘Weaving the Water Front’ which reimagines a 38.3-acre site along Kingston Point in Kingston, New York, by incorporating climate resilient strategies, public spaces, and wetland restoration to adapt to sea-level rise and storm surge flooding.

The Awards Jury said, “A really smart project. It clearly explored three strategies and proposed a design that will work for 100 years."

Climate-Adaptive Design is an initiative of DEC’s Hudson River Estuary Program and Cornell landscape architecture and engineering students to help communities reimagine and reinvent their flood-prone waterfronts. The villages of Catskill and Piermont and cities of Hudson and Kingston are participating in the program.