Environment DEC
From the July 2003 issue
DEC Joins Community Organizations in Fishing for Justice Event
Craig Thompson demonstrates how to
rig a fishing rod
Now in its sixth year, the purpose of the Fishing for Justice celebration is to raise awareness and appreciation of the socio-economic importance of the Hudson River, and to highlight positive aspects of enjoying America's "first river." Sponsored by the Arbor Hill Environmental Justice Corporation and the W. Haywood Burns Environmental Education Center, the event, recently held at Island Creek Park in Albany, was a stimulating family day filled with guest speakers, educational exhibits, a fishing derby and a barbecue lunch.
Aaron Mair, a member of the center's board, opened the celebration by noting that, "This is a very powerful river that symbolically cuts through the core of our nation. It is a resource which first inspired America's environmental movement, and upon which we are functionally and culturally dependent. It behooves each and every one of us in communities up and down the river to work together to help bring the Hudson back to its former glory."
Celebration Activities
Joe Sicluna (right) assists kids before
the fishing derby
DEC staffers Craig Thompson and Joe Sicluna really had their hands full at the celebration. In addition to providing educational displays, information and fishing equipment, Thompson and Sicluna kept approximately 40 eager youngsters from Albany's Arbor Hill community happily occupied. They had the kids baiting hooks and untangling fishing line, and they taught them the differences between "going fishing" and "catching fish."
As part of this year's celebration, members of the Burns Center's board, with the help of Schuyler family descendants, christened the center's new research vessel, "The Captain Samuel Schuyler". The vessel, named in honor of a businessman who operated a tug boat on the Hudson, will be used primarily to monitor Hudson River water quality. It will be moored in Troy at the W. Haywood Burns Center's satellite facility, the Samuel Schuyler Center on River Street.
