When we first moved to the Albany, NY area in 1982 I opened my first office in Delmar, NY because I believed that is where the NY Department of Environmental Conservation was located. It actually took me several months to figure out that the main headquarters of DEC was actually several miles north of Delmar in a large building on Wolf Road, Colonie, NY. However, the State Non-gave and endangered species offices and leadership were located in Delmar at what is now called the Five Rivers Environmental Education Center. Five Rivers is located just a few miles from our home. The DEC staff located at Five Rivers, became some of my closest friends and comrades during my 5 year stint working for the National Audubon Society in the Northeast.
Five Rivers Environmental Education Center is a living museum comprising over 450 acres of fields, forests, and wetlands. Located in the Capital District, the center provides a variety of easily accessible programs and services for individuals, families and organized groups. In recognition of outstanding interpretive programming, the National Park Service has designated Five Rivers a National Environmental Study Area.
There is a visitor center with interactive displays and exhibits, built in June 2017. Before heading out on the trails, a stop in the visitor center to learn about the habitats and wildlife of Five Rivers, our history, and the green features of the new building is a treat.
Over a century ago, much of the vicinity around what is now the Five Rivers was covered by extensive orchards. As the Great Depression took hold, many hard-scrabble farms could no longer make ends meet. In 1933, the New York State Conservation Department purchased two of these farms to develop the Delmar Experimental Game Farm. At the time, populations of upland game birds and waterfowl were in serious decline. The primary mission of the facility was to learn more about the propagation and management of these species.
From 1933-36, the Civilian Conservation Corps Camp S-72 put up buildings, fences and developed access roads throughout the property to prepare the site for game farming. CCC crews also created ponds by damming the Vlomankill, using limestone blocks salvaged from the abandoned Watervliet Lock of the old Erie Canal. In succeeding years, CCC crews created several additional duck-rearing ponds and erected several additional buildings for brooding, hatching and rearing upwards of 100,000 grouse and pheasant chicks per year. Each fall, the upland game birds and waterfowl were released on state lands throughout New York. The Canada geese that nest at Five Rivers today are thought to be descended from birds originally raised here.
In 1941, the Department established a Wildlife Research Center on site to expand on-going pathology studies, as well as to field test innovative theories in wildlife management. Techniques developed on site such as aging deer via dentition, perfecting the cannon-net and modeling wildlife populations via biometrics revolutionized the wildlife management profession nation-wide.
So as to re-direct increasing public interest away from the sensitive conservation research activities on site, in 1948 staff began developing a modest exhibition of caged wildlife in the area adjacent to the main parking lot. The menagerie came to be known far and wide as the Delmar Zoo, and firmly established the site as a vibrant educational institution. Tens of thousands of families and school group visited this remarkable collection annually. In 1970 there was a major reorganization of the Conservation Department, from which the current Department of Environmental Conservation emerged. As a result of this reorganization, priorities of the Department were reoriented and the Game Farm and Zoo were closed.
Because the site had become such an important community asset, a group of concerned citizens organized and successfully convinced the state to transform the abandoned site into an environmental education center. Thereupon, the Department developed a rustic amphitheater, a series of nature trails and refurbished a former sign shop as a Visitor Center. The new facility was opened to the public in June of 1972. It was renamed the Five Rivers Environmental Education Center, a name suggested by SUNY Albany meteorologist Dr. Vincent Schaefer, to denote the five rivers which comprise the watershed within the Center’s service area, namely the Hudson, Mohawk, Hoosic and Sacandaga rivers and the Schoharie Creek.
addition to the heat, the humidity has been very high too. We actually went to 
management. I’m focusing on 3 regions myself, one here in New York, one in Florida and one in Indiana. I’m trying to practice what I preach and then report on my personal efforts in hope that others in various regions around the United States might decide to take on similar actions where they live. Want to learn more 
connected with my dad. I’ve continued to post a series of Letters that Dad wrote home to his sister during his time in the Army during World War 2. If that sounds like something that might interest, you 
Forget about frogs, this water lily species is big enough for humans to hop around on. Scientists have just identified a third species of giant water lily, after a rather large one at London’s Kew Gardens prompted horticulturists to suspect it did not fit into the two previously known groups. Native to Bolivia in South America, the species is the largest of its kind and has been named Victoria boliviana.
The snowpack so far this winter has been less than normal, but it has been seriously cold most days. This has resulted in significantly fewer opportunities for hikes in area parks and preserves.
A belated Happy New Year!
To bring the 30X30 global goal down to a national and local level, I have launched an initiative called 
The temperature “soared” all the way to 45 degrees today! Believe me, that feels like a Spring day here after the long and cold past several months. There is still snow here and there on the ground and some of the huge piles found in various parking lots look to be there until the 4th of July.
begun pushing their way through the cold earth and snow. I did not actually expect to see any…but I was hopeful nonetheless. What do you know! We did find a few hardy little flowers poking through but the flower petals have not opened yet. We will go back in a few days to check on their progress.
in memory of my Dad, Bruce Dodson. Since today would have been my Dad’s 96th Birthday we also decided that it would be a good day to check on the tree. It will be several more weeks before we can actually tell if the tree made it through the winter OK and hopefully blooms this year, but as far as we could tell the tree looks nice and health.
awhile to get the pump to pull up some water and the first bit was a bit brown, but it didn’t take long before crystal clear and very cold water came rushing out. I have no idea when the well was put in, but it was a long time ago. Pretty neat to see some old stuff still working I think.
Theresa ventured out for a short distance on one of the trails that was close to the Onesquethaw Creek, but it was solid ice covered and slick. I decided that I would just stand on the road and take a picture of her trying her best not to take a spill. She didn’t fall, but it was a very careful and slow walk back to the road surface for sure.
What a year 2020 has been! I am afraid that at the least the beginning of 2021 is going to be a continuation and quite possibly a bit worse until the virus vaccination is widely distributed. Theresa and I, have essentially isolated ourselves from family and friends since March 2020. However, with quite a bit of planning, we were able to at least enjoy a few family gatherings, while appropriately distanced and/or masked up.
There are several places around the Dodson Family Camp that we try and visit each year that we are in the area. Most of them are places that my Dad and Mom also liked to visit often and when there were living, we all went together each visit to see if everything still looked the same from year to year and to think back about days long gone. It is interesting to think about how important nature was to those frontier people when they were settling America. And back then the “highways” toward progress always were connected with rivers.
One of those places has always been fascinating to me. I have often thought that the story of Hindostan, Indiana could form the foundation for a great novel. I know that there have been many booklets written about the place, but as far as I know, there has never been an actual novel about the place or the people who lived there.
When Hindostan was “booming” there was a large mill located directly on a rock outcropping in the river. And when the water is low one can still see where the posts that supported the mill were located. Over the years this stretch of the river has always been a popular fishing spot too.
borne illnesses were the bane of many towns on the Midwestern frontier. Situated along rivers for the purpose of easy transportation, towns were often built on flood plains that bred insects in huge numbers. The ferocity of the epidemic that struck Hindostan, however, caused the population to succumb to disease or abandon the area. By 1824, less than half the population remained in Hindostan, though many seem to have stayed in the county.
Fishing near Hindostan Falls has always been a popular pastime. And the State of Indiana has created a boat launch above the falls so that boaters and people who enjoy fishing can easily access the water.