Lissa Harris
About us:
Lissa Harris is the founder and publisher of the Watershed Post.
Articles
Mar. 15, 2011
Above: Bocce, a 9-month-old German Shepherd, surveys the high water on Route 299 in New Paltz last week. Photo by Laura Cerrone.
On Friday morning, the Watershed Post team visited a journalism class taught by Times Herald-Record reporter Adam Bosch at... Read more
Mar. 15, 2011
The Times Herald-Record has the details on a 30-year-old Forestburgh woman who fled state troopers on Route 42 last night. Thankfully, the chase ended in an arrest rather than in violence:
[Maryanne] Silverstrim refused to get out of the car and when... Read more
Mar. 15, 2011
As if the emerald ash borer and the Asian longhorned beetle weren't enough: In the last few years, a small, brown, smelly invader has moved into the Hudson Valley. It's Halyomorpha halys, the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, and it's after your apple trees.... Read more
Mar. 14, 2011
When a predicted flood last week didn't reach Biblical proportions, Phoenicia residents breathed a sigh of relief. The tiny hamlet in Shandaken has borne the brunt of much of the region's flood damage over the fall and winter, with back-to-back floods in... Read more
Mar. 14, 2011
When it rains in Wawarsing, it pours -- from both above and below, thanks to the leaky Delaware Aqueduct, which has been flooding the basements of a few dozen local houses with depressing regularity for years.
During the most recent floods last week,... Read more
Mar. 12, 2011
Michael Koegel, owner of the Mama’s Boy coffee shop on Main Street in Phoenicia, is still a very fresh face in town. The former Manhattanite moved up to the mountains full-time to open up his shop just last year. But he’s already jumped into small-town... Read more
Mar. 11, 2011
Posted on the Sullivan County website this morning:
County Manager David Fanslau issued the following statement: “As of 8:00 AM there are some County Roads that are flooded, some with shoulder damage from water runoff, and some with mud slides. The... Read more
Mar. 11, 2011
Sidney supervisor Bob McCarthy has declared a state of emergency in the area of the Fowler Finch Dam. Here's the press release we received from Delaware County around 7am:
Town of Sidney Supervisor Robert McCarthy has declared a State of Emergency... Read more
Mar. 10, 2011
Within the last hour, we received press releases from emergency coordinators about flooding predictions for tonight and tomorrow. Here's the Delaware County press release:
The Delaware County Emergency Operations Center was opened at 1300 hours today in... Read more
Mar. 10, 2011
Between the rain and the millions of gallons of water being pumped by the DEP through the leaky Delaware Aqueduct underground, the sump pumps of Wawarsing are working overtime. Adam Bosch of the Times Herald-Record reports today:
Homeowners said floods... Read more
Mar. 9, 2011
Fresh from the New York Times's City Room blog: GOP state senator John Bonacic, whose district includes territory from Delaware, Orange, Sullivan and Ulster Counties, has thrown his support behind a move to extend the so-called "millionaires' tax" in New... Read more
Mar. 9, 2011
Over in Shandaken, Mike O'Neil, Troutmeister -- yes, that does appear to be an official title -- recently issued a plea to the community for money to fund the annual stocking of trout in the Woodland Valley Stream. Troutmeistering is a sacred family... Read more
Mar. 2, 2011
After several years of weighing the evidence, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has finally called a halt to its investigation of the eastern cougar -- previously listed as "critically endangered" on the Endangered Species List -- and declared it... Read more
Feb. 23, 2011
Tonight at 6:30, parents, teachers, and community members are gathering at Onteora High School to watch and discuss "Race to Nowhere," a provocative recent documentary about overachievement and the culture of American education. From a new blog called... Read more
Feb. 23, 2011
The Daily Star reports that police are searching for a man who robbed the Smoker's Choice in Sidney on Monday:
A male wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt and jeans entered the business in the Great American Plaza at about 8 p.m., police said. He displayed... Read more
Feb. 22, 2011
In the NY Daily News yesterday: An editorial urging the city to buy every last possible scrap of land in the Catskill-Delaware watershed, to forestall the massive cost of another filtration plant like the one recently built to handle water from the... Read more
Feb. 17, 2011
A recent action by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation ensures that New York City's efforts to push dirty water out of the Ashokan Reservoir throughout the fall and winter are going to cost the city big time. The DEC is fining the... Read more
Feb. 16, 2011
The Bovina History blog has a tidbit today proving that -- alas -- the fine art of community newspaper writing has suffered since its nineteenth-century glory days. Ray LaFever writes:
In February 1880, the winter was the subject of discussion, as it is... Read more
Feb. 15, 2011
You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em. Photo by Flickr user Jim Lynch; published under Creative Commons license.
Now that the federal Departments of the Interior and Justice have put the kibosh on the proposed Stockbridge-Munsee casino... Read more
Feb. 12, 2011
From the Daily Freeman today:
A fire destroyed a barn at a horse farm Friday night at 1480 state Route 32, and some horses may have perished in the blaze, fire officials said.
The fire, which was called in at about 5:30 p.m., took down a barn... Read more