This year’s Catskill Environmental Research and Monitoring (CERM) Conference from October 22-24, 2025 will offer two field trip opportunities. Field trips allow researchers and managers to dialogue with each other across disciplines about potential collaborations.
Field Trip 1 – In the Shelter of the Mountains: Native People and Catskill Mountain Ecosystems
Friday, October 24, 11:00 AM – 4:30 PM
For centuries, local Lenape People shaped Catskill Mountain ecosystems in the vicinity of the East Branch, Rondout, Esopus, and Schoharie valleys. On this walk, we will explore how they stewarded the landscape and identify flora and fauna of cultural importance for their communities, past and present. We will also dive into how the Catskill Mountains allowed the Esopus Lenape and their neighbors to maintain their indigenous sovereignty in colonial days before they were finally driven to Ontario.
Our field trip leader will be Justin Wexler of Wild Hudson Valley. Justin is an independent scholar who has studied Hudson Valley Native culture, languages, and history for over 20 years. He regularly works with members of their displaced federally recognized communities, hosting tribe members on visits to their ancestral homeland and helping to connect the past with the present.
Location: The trip will use the Rochester Hollow Trail located in the Shandaken Wild Forest about five minutes from the conference venue. Trailhead parking is limited and roundtrip carpooling from the venue will be provided. A box lunch is provided with registration.
Difficulty: The trail is relatively even surfaced with a few rocky areas. There is a gentle and gradual elevation gain along the trail. For questions about accessibility, contact info@cermconference.org.
Field Trip 2 – RECONSTRUCTING environmental HISTORIES
Friday, October 24, 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM
This field trip will take us to a bog and first-growth forest where researchers will core the bog to demonstrate techniques that reveal forest and wetland histories that go back thousands of years. The site we will visit has a 13,100-year recorded environmental history. Bogs were ponds when the glaciers retreated from the Catskills. Cores are collected to identify the preserved vegetation in bogs and obtain radiocarbon dates. This helps researchers recreate environmental histories of forests and wetlands.
Our trip leaders will be Dr. Michael Kudish, Dr. Dorothy Peteet, and Dr. Nicole Davi. The researchers will demonstrate coring methods used to develop environmental histories and discuss field research that links paleoclimate/ paleoecology histories to carbon storage and reconstruction of the history of climate and hydrologic variability in the Catskills.
Location: The bog site (Kudish, Bog #380) is a five-minute walk from Millbrook Road in Margaretville, NY through first-growth forest at the north base of Balsam Lake Mountain. The hike and the place are beautiful.
Difficulty: The hike to the bog is moderately strenuous over uneven terrain, but short! For questions about accessibility, contact info@cermconference.org.
