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A Day in the Life of the Hudson River

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Watch a clip about the "A Day in the Life of the Hudson River" Program on DEC TV.

The tenth annual Day in the Life of the Hudson River was a huge success! Thank you to all of the participants who made it possible. Below are some resources that can be used in the classroom, using data collected by students on October 4th:

• 2012 Day in the Life Almanac (PDF, 458 KB) provides observations by students, teachers, and environmental educators on their Day in the Life experience
• Fish Worksheet - Student Version (PDF, 100 KB)
• Fish Worksheet - Teacher Version (PDF, 105 KB)
• Salinity Worksheet - Student Version (PDF, 125 KB)
• Salinity Worksheet - Teacher Version (PDF, 126 KB)

On one day each autumn, hundreds of students from New York City to Troy participate in the annual "A Day in the Life of the Hudson River" event. Students collect scientific information to create snapshots of the river at dozens of locations, then share their data using Web-based technology so they can better understand how their piece of the river fits into the larger Hudson estuary ecosystem. In 2012, more than 3,500 participants sampled the estuary at 70 locations!

Sponsored by DEC's Hudson River Estuary Program and run in conjunction with Hudson Basin River Watch, "A Day in the Life of the Hudson River" coincides with National Estuaries Day and World Water Monitoring Day.

At each location, teams of students and environmental educators use seine nets and lab equipment to investigate aquatic life, water chemistry and quality, tides and weather. Many groups also collect core samples of river bottom mud for analysis.

Some of the findings contribute to ongoing research projects, and data from the event is incorporated into the lesson plans developed by the Hudson River Estuary Program and available to all teachers in the Hudson Valley.

In many cases, we help participating teachers partner with local environmental groups for the day's events. Education trainings, online lesson plans, specialized equipment, six years of data, and a variety of other resources are provided.

For more information, including nine years of data, visual aids and contact information, please visit the Official Day in the Life of the Hudson web site using Links Leaving DEC's Website on the right side of this page.

A Day in the Life of the Hudson River Estuary 2012

Download the Media Advisory for A Day in the Life of the Hudson River 2012 (PDF) (85 kB) for a list of participating schools, partner organizations and sites, or see the text below.

A Day in the Life of the Hudson River Celebrates Ten Years of Exploring the Estuary

• What: Three thousand students and teachers, many from your area, engaging in hands-on science exploration of the Hudson River. The Press is invited to attend.
• When: Thursday, October 4, 2012. Most sites run during school hours - a few after school.
• Where: Seventy waterfront locations between NYC and Troy (see schedule below for a selection of locations and schedules)
• Why: A primary goal of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is to connect New Yorkers to nature. DEC's Hudson River Estuary Program helps prepare students to become stewards of the river's water quality and natural resources. The Hudson River Estuary Program is a project of the NYS Environmental Protection Fund.

On Thursday, October 4, environmental education centers and school classes all along the tidal estuary will collect scientific information and share it to portray the ecosystem on this "Day in the Life of the Hudson River." Students will use hands-on field techniques to describe their sites, catch fish and invertebrates in nets, track the river's tides and currents, and examine water chemistry parameters. Beyond just a field trip, a "Day in the Life" allows students to collect firsthand information about their communities' natural resources, and explore how their piece of the river fits into the larger ecosystem.

Sponsored by DEC's Hudson River Estuary Program, the "Day in the Life" event is in its tenth year. Some 3,000 students and educators will be sampling the estuary's waters at more than 70 sites from New York Harbor to the Capital District.

In partnership with the National Estuarine Research Reserve, the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, and Cornell's NYS Water Resource Institute, the Estuary Program has recruited and trained river educators to work with students at each site. Findings will be posted online within days of the event.

"This is a great example of the kind of project enabled by the NYS Environmental Protection Fund" said DEC Commissioner Joe Martens.

The anticipated participation in this year's event will bring the total number of students, educators, and volunteers involved to more than 20,000 since 2003. Armed with seine nets and minnow pots, they've caught over 16,000 fish of 53 species, ranging from the abundant Atlantic silverside (3,891 over nine years) to the odd summer flounder, white sucker, and spotted hake, each caught only once. The striped bass has been one of the species caught at the most sites, from Manhattan's saltwater piers to Columbia County's freshwater shore. Once in decline coast-wide, stripers have rebounded to a prosperous recreational fishery thanks in part to DEC efforts.

Students examine the physical and chemical aspects of the river with a wide range of equipment and contraptions, like a home-made sediment corer assembled from local hardware supplies. High-tech refractometers and simple plastic hydrometers can both be used to measure salinity and find the "salt front" where freshwater runoff and salty seawater meet. In a dry year like 2007, the salt front had pushed its way to Poughkeepsie, while last year the rains of Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee flushed the saltwater all the way down to Croton Point.

This year, the Day in the Life event is expanding beyond the Hudson. In addition to sites on the waterways of New York Harbor, there are also pilot sites on the Mohawk River and the south shore of Long Island. "It all links together" says Estuary Program Coordinator Fran Dunwell. "Students get to see firsthand how fish diversity relates to what's going on in their local waterway, that upriver communities connect to downriver ones, and that the watershed and the coast are part of a shared system."

For more detailed information on the event, visit the DEC website at http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/47285.html .

Participating classes continue to represent the full diversity of the region's school population, from urban to rural settings. A list of confirmed sites for October 4th is below. "RM" refers to River Miles up the river as measured from the Battery at Manhattan. "NY Hbr" refers to New York Harbor, "ER" is East River, "BR" is Bronx River, "HRL" is Harlem River, and "MHK" is the Mohawk.

For additional information on teachers and partner organizations, and to schedule visits to a site, please email or call Chris Bowser, event coordinator, (845-264-5041; chbowser@gw.dec.state.ny.us).

• Links Leaving DEC's Website
• • Official Day in the Life of the Hudson River Web Site
  • Public Radio news coverage of the event
  • HRECOS Story - Interpreting A Day in the Life using real-time data
  • Cornell Water Resources Institute
• PDF Help
• For help with PDFs on this page, please call 845-256-3016.
• Contact for this Page
• The Hudson River Estuary Program
  NYSDEC Region 3
  21 S Putt Corners Rd
  New Paltz, NY 12561
  fax: (845) 255-3649
  845-256-3016
  Send us an email
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