"Day In The Life Of The Hudson River" Oct. 16 Connects Students to the Hudson River Estuary in Nyack

Collecting and analyzing real field data, students from Pearl River High School will be part of a massive hands-on exploration of the Hudson River Estuary on Oct. 16.

More than 80 schools will travel to nearby waterfronts at 70 locations between New York Harbor and the Federal Dam at Troy. They will partner with environmental education centers to collect scientific data all along the tidal Hudson to create a snapshot of the river at dozens of locations.

It’s part of an initiative sponsored by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation.

“‘The Day in the Life’ annual event gives students an opportunity to experience the dynamic Hudson River firsthand with its diverse fishery, tides and currents, and the movement of its salt front,” said DEC Commissioner Joe Martens. “The event is a great opportunity forstudents to learn about the river’s communities, watershed and ecosystem. From theriver’s headwaters in the Adirondacks to New York Harbor, the Hudson ecosystems are linked in ways that offer so many benefits for not only our state, but the environment as a whole.”

Among the school groups operating in Nyack Oct. 16 will be students from Nyack High School, Dominican College and Upper Nyack Elementary School—they’ll all be at Memorial Park.

Pascack Hills High School students will be launching in a sailboat from the Nyack Boat Club.

At Hook Mountain, Blue Rock School will be on Lower Nyack Beach and Nyack Middle School students will be on the Nyack Beach steps.

They’ll collect data on fish—waders, nets and minnow pots—and they’ll examine the physical and chemical aspects of the river with a wide range of equipment and contraptions, such as a home-made sediment corer assembled from local hardware supplies.

It’ll all be connected back to the classroom by Estuary Program staff with pre- and post-visits in schools that participate in “Day in the Life.”

Lessons on-site and in the classroom fulfill NYS learning standards in a variety of subjects. Students will learn about the Hudson River Environmental Conditions Observing System (HRECOS), a computerized network of real-time monitoring stations extending from Manhattan to the Mohawk River. Dissolved oxygen levels, water temperature turbidity, and other parameters are measured by HRECOS every 15 minutes and posted on the World Wide Web.