Environment DEC
From the December 2003 issue
DEC Web Site Presents Tour of Hudson River
The Hudson River's productivity and diversity of natural resources sustain a wide array of present and future human benefits. It is a nursery for valuable food and game fish, a water supply, a boater's playground, a landscape of inspiring beauty, a shipping route, and more. However, this waterway is more than a river-it is a tidal estuary, an arm of the sea where salty sea water meets fresh water running off the land.
The Importance of Estuaries
Estuaries are coastal habitats that serve as spawning grounds and nurseries for at least two-thirds of the nation's commercial fish and shellfish. They also provide recreation, such as swimming, boating and bird watching. The Hudson River Estuary is a nursery for key migratory fish species of the Atlantic Coast, including shad, sturgeon, striped bass and river herring.
DEC's Hudson River Estuary Program leads a regional partnership to restore the tidal waters of the Hudson and the surrounding valley that forms the estuary watershed. The program's mission is to conserve the region's world-renowned heritage of fish, wildlife, streams and scenery and to provide places for people to use and enjoy them.
