Quad learning and lectures
-
- May
- 18
The Beczak Environmental Education Center in Yonkers has a slew of upcoming events planned as part of the 400th anniversary celebration of Henry Hudson’s voyage up the Hudson. From Beczak:
Saturday, May 30, 7:00-9:00 PM, $5 per person
The Dutch Influence on the American Kitchen. Food historian Peter G. Rose explores the foods brought to America by the Dutch more than three centuries ago, and the way these were adapted to new circumstances. Slides of 17th century Dutch art works depicting various foodstuffs are part of this lecture. Includes live music and refreshments.
Saturday, June 27, 7:00-9:00 PM, $5 per person
The Mannahatta Project. Dr. Eric Sanderson, a landscape ecologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society, presents an astounding three-dimensional virtual re-creation what Manhattan looked before the arrival of Europeans. See the forests of Times Square, the meadows of Harlem, and the wetlands of downtown. This program celebrates the release of Dr. Sanderson’s new book, Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City. Includes live music and refreshments.
Saturday, July 18, 7:00-9:00 PM, $5 per person
Life Along the Hudson. Photographer Joseph Squillante presents a stirring visual journey of people and scenes along the Hudson. His award-winning work captures the beauty and romantic quality of the river while offering portraits of people who live along its shores, including farmers, fisherman, and biologists. Includes live music and refreshments.
All of the above take place at Beczak, 35 Alexander Street, Yonkers, NY—just two minutes from Yonkers Metro-North Station. Free parking is available.
The photo, by the way, is meant to show two Manhattans — one that Hudson saw and, obviously, today’s version — and goes along with the June 27 talk by Eric Sanderson.
Dr. Sanderson’s multi-media presentation shows the original ecology of Manhattan—a vast deciduous forest, home to bears, wolves, songbirds, and salamanders, with clear, clean waters jumping with fish. It was a natural landscape of hills, valleys, forests, fields, freshwater wetlands, salt marshes, beaches, springs, ponds and streams, supporting a rich and abundant community of wildlife and sustaining people for perhaps 5000 years before Europeans arrived on the scene in 1609. In fact, with over 55 different ecological communities, Mannahatta’s biodiversity per acre rivaled that of national parks like Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Great Smoky Mountains!
Photo credit: © Markley Boyer / Mannahatta Project / Wildlife Conservation Society.
This entry was posted
on Monday, May 18th, 2009 at 1:40 pm by Mike Risinit.
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Journal News staff writer Greg Clary writes Earth Watch, reporting on environmental issues in the lower Hudson region. Clary has been a reporter, editor and columnist at the Journal News since 1988 and has covered police and courts, transportation, municipal government, development and the environment in the Lower Hudson Valley, among other topics. 
Laura Incalcaterra covers the environment, open space and zoning and planning issues for The Journal News. A Boston College graduate, Laura grew up in Rockland, attended East Ramapo schools and has worked for The Journal News since 1993. Laura has written features and covered North Rockland, crime, government and a host of other issues.
Mike Risinit covers Patterson and Kent in Putnam County, as well as environmental topics touching on the Hudson River and the Great Swamp. Risinit has been a reporter at The Journal News since 1998.
