Mount Students Participate in Hudson River Snapshot Day

10/6/2008

Students in the Mount’s Ecology class will spend Tuesday, October 7th, outside the classroom and on banks of the Hudson River. They will be participating in the sixth annual Hudson River Snapshot Day, an event which celebrates the Hudson River and gives students an opportunity to learn about this unique ecosystem.

Snapshot Day unites not only students from the Bronx and Riverdale, but from all over the Hudson Valley. Students collect water samples and examine fish and other wildlife they find. Participants learn a number of different skills including using standard scientific protocol, field sampling, and how to apply learned concepts. Students’ data contribute to scientists work and is included in their research which adds to the ongoing study of the ecosystem.

The ecology class’s work will be led by Dr. Patricia Grove, a biology and ecology professor at the University of Mount Saint Vincent. The class will visit St. Vincent’s Point and take chemical data, survey fish populations and learn how the overall health of the Hudson River affects the ecosystem. The Mount’s section of the Hudson River will be set up with fish baits and a seine, a net enclosure to trap schools of fish.

Hudson River Snapshot Day is designed to educate participants on the uniqueness of this estuary as part of the annual recognition of “National Estuaries Week”. The event is coordinated by The Hudson River Estuary Program of New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and Hudson Basin River Watch. Each fall, environmental education centers are encouraged to team with school classes along the Hudson River to create a day-in-the-life picture of the river from the Troy Dam to New York Harbor.