John Mason in the Register-Star reports that the New York state Department of State proposes designating Hudson’s South Bay as a "Significant Coastal Fish and Wildlife Habitat." "The area is significant, according to a draft document from the DOS, because it contains 'ecological communities ranked as rare in New York state,' including a freshwater tidal creek and marsh, an intertidal swamp, a supratidal swamp and submerged aquatic vegetation beds," Mason writes. The document describes the South Bay Creek and Marsh as “a 121-acre basin of tidal wetlands and uplands located on the east side of the Hudson River, south of the city of Hudson, in the Town of Hudson in Columbia County.” Chris Reed of Friends of Hudson and the South Bay Task Force called this an important moment, “putting the South Bay on a level with Stockport Creek and Flats.” “The South Bay would be integrated into a regional system of primary habitats which is rated by the state, and entitled to the highest level of protection,” Reed wrote in an email to the Register-Star. The 30-day comment period for the designation, which covers parts of Hudson and Greenport, began June 15. Some of the life the South Bay Task Force has observed in the bay include an alewife floater, a species of mussel that requires the gills of a herring to survive, blue-backed herring, white suckers, banded killifish, mudminnows, pumpkinseeds, brown bullheads, carp, shiners and American eel. The story does not hint at how the designation might impact the current LWRP and GEIS plans for Hudson's waterfront that include the South Bay. Read the full story in the Register-Star.