Part 1: Tapping the Delaware, featuring Catskills historian Diane Galusha, historian and grave restorer Marianne Greenfield, and Adam Bosch, former Director for Public Affairs for the NYC DEP

New York City needed more water, it set out to tap the Delaware River (much to New Jersey's dismay!). The construction of the Pepacton Reservoir, which was completed in the mid-50s, and the displacement that it entailed, are still within the living memory of this part of the Catskills.     

Part 2: Putting the “Public” in Public Lands, featuring Ann Roberti, trail builder. 

NYC owns a lot of land and water in the Catskills. You can walk (or paddle) on some of it because people advocated for that access, and did the work to build paths through it. Just watch out for snakes in the pond!  

Part 3: Gone but not Forgotten, featuring Marianne Greenfield, historian and grave restorer 

The Pepacton Cemetery is a remote and resonant place. Like all cemeteries, it’s a marker of loss-- not just the loss of individual people, but of entire communities that were displaced to build the water system.

"Views from the Watershed" is about the landscape, history, and politics of New York City’s water supply, and the complicated relationship between the City and the Catskills communities that steward 90% of its water. It tells the stories of the watershed through firsthand, intimate perspectives from local people (including a historian, a dairy farmer, a former DEP commissioner, a grave restorer, and a forester) on what it means to be a part of the water system.

This series was originally produced by Lize Mogel as a “podcast tour” of the NYC drinking water watershed in the Catskills. Get more info including a driving map and participant bios at walkingthewatershed.com/podcasttour.

Credits:
Project Director: Lize Mogel
Sound Engineer: Brett Barry/Silver Hollow Audio
Soundscape: Suzanne Thorpe
Lead Community Partner: Catskill Mountain Club
Views from the Watershed was funded in part by the Catskill Watershed Corporation, in partnership with the NYC Department of Environmental Protection; Humanities NY, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities; and the O’Connor Foundation. 

Bio:
Lize Mogel is an interdisciplinary artist and counter-cartographer. She creates maps and mappings (among other forms) that bring the politics of place to the surface, and engages people in the myriad potentials of that place. She is co-editor of the book/map collection "Atlas of Radical Cartography.” From 2016-2024, she developed “Walking the Watershed,” about the relationship between the City and the mostly rural communities that supply its water. She’s currently developing “Wallkill Futures,” participatory projects with Wallkill River communities in the Hudson Valley. More at publicgreen.com.