ARCHIVE

Part 1: Hard Work, featuring featuring Catskills historian Diane Galusha

The workers who built the NYC water system over 60 years are an invisible part of this massive infrastructure project. It's a personal story, as much as it is a public works story.     

Part 2: Trout and Tourism, featuring Todd Spire, angler

The Catskills are considered to be the birthplace of fly fishing in the US. Here, fishing can be an occupation, a lifeline, or a hobby. Anglers (and fish too!) are important stakeholders in the watershed—NYC's control over the water in Esopus Creek and other rivers, and the fishing community's needs for clear, cold water are deeply intertwined.  

Part 3: The Whole Farm Plan, featuring Fred Huneke, retired dairy farmer

Dairy farming is hard. In the 1990s, new watershed regulations would have made it even harder, if not impossible. Farmers pushed back, organized and eventually collaborated with New York City to come up with a plan that would benefit everyone-- the City would pay farmers to modernize, and farmers would be able to keep cow poop out of the water.   

"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.