News from the Watershed
August | 2026
| |
| | New York’s steepest river is rich in history, recreation, working landscapes and habitat. BRASS is working to enhance them all. | | | |
40th Anniversary, New Offices, New Employee
and A Celebration at the Grange!
| | The 1984 Boquet River Study by the National Park Service that led to the creation of BRASS. | |
40 years protecting and celebrating
the Boquet watershed!
| | |
Back in 1984, a coalition of neighbors, planners and local governments commissioned a study of the Boquet River by the National Park Service. That study (original cover shown above) recommended the creation of a "Boquet River Council" composed of local people committed to enhancing and protecting this valuable asset in the eastern Adirondacks. One of the most important goals of the study was that the organization use a non-regulatory, cooperative approach to watershed management - which is the same way we work today.
Less than two years later, in August of 1986, twelve committed neighbors incorporated BRASS. Some of the names below are likely familiar to many readers, but it is incredible to note that one, Matt Foley, is still serving on BRASS' board forty years later! The founder of River Rat Glass & Electric and owner of the Wadhams hydropower plant, Matt's interest in and abiding commitment to the river's health has been second to none. Please celebrate with us on August 25th at the Whallonsburg Grange!
| | BRASS' 1986 Founding Directors | | |
Robert Sweatt
Route 9
Elizabethtown, NY 12932
Matthew Foley
Route 10
Wadhams, NY 12990
James Mason
Mountain View Drive
Willsboro, NY 12996
Charles Pratt
County Road 8
Westport, NY 12993
| | |
Donald McIntyre
Washington Street
Westport, NY 12993
Martin Rosenkranz
238 West Road
Willsboro, NY 12996
Donald Cunnion
Route 22
Essex, NY 12936
Vernon Pierce
County Route 10
Westport, NY 12993
| | |
Roger Poland
12 Clinton St.
Keeseville, NY 12944
Anne Sherman
Sherman Road
Westport, NY 12993
Jack Egglefield
Hand Avenue
Elizabethtown, NY 12932
Spencer Johnston
Route 9
Elizabethtown, NY 12932
| | |
Demolition!
As mentioned last month, the FEMA-sponsored buyout of a Westport house is complete and the house and yard debris is now gone! The land will revert to open space that will provide flood-water storage during high water events. Look for a volunteer tree and seed planting event here this fall!
| |
| |
Amélie Przedwiecki joins BRASS!
Amélie has just started as BRASS' new Outreach and Volunteer Coordinator and we couldn't be more excited! She is an educator, field scientist and ecologist with a fresh Masters Degree from the SUNY Center for Earth & Environmental Science where she has multiple papers published or in the pipeline. And yes, that is her starting a prescribed burn in the photo above! You'll have to ask her about that when you meet her along the river!
| | | | |
Flooding in the Adirondacks!
BRASS will be presenting at the Wild Center’s event “When Waters Rise: Adirondack Flooding Risk, Response, and Resilience” on Thursday August 6th.
The panels and discussions "will explore the causes and impacts of flooding, hear stories of recovery and adaptation, and consider how communities can work together to prepare for future high-water events."
This will be a fascinating day – great for anyone looking to learn more about Adirondack resilience and flooding. Click the link above to register.
| | | | | | |
BRASS HQ!
We'll be moving in to new digs in bustling, downtown Wadhams. We can keep an eye on the river pouring over the waterfall from the historic tavern building. Great thanks to longtime member and supporter Lauren Murphy of Heritage Properties of the Adirondacks for making this possible.
| | | |
Furniture Needed!
BRASS is looking for donations of functional office furnishings. We're tight on space, but have a few specific needs. Please drop us a line about any of these (518.534.4378):
- One desk - ideally wooden with drawers
- Two office chairs
- Rugs
- Coat tree
- Book shelves
- Microwave
- Coffee maker (restoration runs of caffeine!)
- Several comfortable chairs
| |
What we're reading (and watching) now
-
Not every beaver builds dams and lodges. Bank-dwelling beavers may be just as impactful to ecosystems as their cousins who build dams – this study points to their important role in rivers too big for channel-spanning dams.
-
Moss Road bridge project in Lewis - the Ausable Freshwater Center details the long path to opening this stretch of the North Boquet to fish, including the heroic mussels relocation effort! As described, large-scale projects like this depend on experts like AFC working in tandem with the Boquet Partnership that includes the Essex County DPW, the US Fish & Wildlife Service, the NYS DEC, the Lake Champlain Basis Program, the Nature Conservancy, Essex County Soil & Water and more. We're very fortunate to have this caliber of talent in our backyard!
-
Here’s a great timelapse video of a crew building beaver dam analogs (impressive results!)
-
Central Valley Salmon are returning to a warm ditch of a creek in the coastal range of Northern California. Ben Goldfarb brings us a crazy story of salmon prevailing against all odds. Here’s one of my favorite quotes: “The Central Valley’s chinook are reared on flooded rice farms, migrate along irrigation ditches and spawn in trucked-in gravels.”
-
Beaver Science Speaker Series webinar - August 13th, at 2 pm ET Dr. Michael Flinn is an aquatic ecologist and professor of Biology at Murray State University, and the Director of Hancock Biological Station. In this webinar, he will highlight research from Western Kentucky on riparian wetland restoration, showing responses of vegetation, macroinvertebrates, nitrogen, and biodiversity in the context of hydrology and beavers.
| | | | | | |
