1:00 PM FIELD TRIP IS FULL

You are Invited to a Bog Talk & Walk

with Dr. Michael Kudish

Sunday, May 21

11:00 AM to 12:15 PM: Dr. Michael Kudish’s talk on Catskill bogs and fens – Program details below.

SUNY Sullivan, 112 College Road, Loch Sheldrake, NY

12:15 PM Bag lunch with the professor, bring your bag lunch, on campus

1:00 PM FIELD TRIP IS FULL – There is a WAIT LIST. Limited group field trip with Dr. Kudish to Flying Trillium Preserve’s bog and fen, Bradley, NY (6.5 miles from the campus). Field trip group size is limited to 20.

REGISTER SOON: To reserve a seat for the talk or get on the WAIT LIST for the limited group field trip: Call Lisa at 845 693 4181 or Email [email protected]. There is limited space.  Registrants will receive exact locations and parking details, suggestions of what to bring, and weather contingencies for the field trip.

PROGRAM DETAILS: Bogs and fens can tell us much about the history of the Catskills, but unlike written records and tree rings, these wetlands can tell us about events going as far back as 15,000 years to the end of the Ice Age. The morning indoor slide show at SUNY Sullivan will introduce bogs and fens to the participants and define these wetlands as different from swamps and marshes. Methods of sampling peat, plant fossil identification, and radiocarbon dating will be described. Plant fossils can tell us, among other past events, when the pond closed, when native Americans were burning the forests, and when certain tree and herb species first appeared and/or disappeared. 

In the afternoon, we will go to nearby Bradley to the Flying Trillium Preserve bog and fen for a demonstration of peat sampling techniques in the field. Many people are amazed when they see for the first time peat that is thousands of years old emerge from the wetland. Flying Trillium’s bog happens to be the deepest in the Catskills at 10 meters (about 33 feet), but not the oldest. The adjacent shallower fen at 13,700 years is still quite a respectable age.

DR. KUDISH: Professor Emeritus at Paul Smith’s College, is the foremost authority on the Catskill forests, and the author of The Catskill Forest: A History (2000, Purple Mountain Press), a seminal work based on 30 years of research. Dr. Kudish taught in the Forestry Department at Paul Smith’s College from 1971 to 2005. He holds a B.S. from City College of New York, an M.S. from Cornell University, and a Ph.D. from New York College of Forestry at Syracuse.

SPONSORED by Morgan Outdoors and Flying Trillium Gardens and Preserve