Botanist turned forest historian, railroad history buff and retired professor; author of many books & articles, including “The Catskill Forest: A History”

Location: The Paint Studio (old church building, immediately to your right on entering Maplecrest), Sugar Maples Center for Creative Arts, Maplecrest, NY
Time: 4:00–5:00 pm
Admission is FREE!

Interested in nature, local history and industry, Big Hollow, and the surrounding mountain ranges? Join us at Sugar Maples (the Catskill Mountain Foundation’s Maplecrest campus) from 4:00 to 5:00 pm on Saturday, July 31, for a special public lecture by Dr. Michael Kudish,botanist turned forest historian, railroad history buff and retired professor; author of many books & articles, including The Catskill Forest: A History.

The talk will be followed by Q&A at Sugar Maples, and an optional visit to 19th c. mill ruins at the upper end of Big Hollow (an easy 10-minute walk from the Blackhead Mountain trailhead).

Known for making history and nature come alive, Dr. Kudish will be addressing a wide range of topics—from the Maplecrest Bog and its fossils to the boreal spruce-fir forest’s present distribution, settlement & agriculture in the valley/Catskills, roads and turnpikes, bark peeling, logging and mills, land acquisition by NY State and much, much more. Please join us!

Michael Kudish received his Ph.D. at the New York State College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse. In 2000, Purple Mountain Press published The Catskill Forest: A History. As a professor emeritus in the Division of Forestry at Paul Smith's College, Kudish has also written four books on the vegetation of the Adirondacks, including Adirondack Upland Flora and a number of articles on forest history of both the Catskills and Adirondacks. He is currently working on a four-volume set on the Mountain Railroads of New York State.

From The Catskill Forest: A History Purple Mountain Press, 2000:
“ …[Michael Kudish] began a life-long study of the history of these forests, beginning with Vegetation History of the Catskill High Peaks, his dissertation at the New York State College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse University in 1971.  In the intervening 39 years, his study has expanded to include an examination of Catskills soils, climate, ecological personalities of tree species, human disturbance and history, and the history recorded in the rings of living and just-fallen trees.  Such examination could push the clock back only 300 to 400 years, the maximum age of the oldest living trees and of the writings of European settlers. In 1994, he realized that tree fossils preserved at high-elevation peat bogs also could be used to reconstruct forest history and that the age of the peat could be determined by radiocarbon dating.  Forest history has now been pushed back to 14,000 years.” www.mknhp.com

For more information, contact Chris at translateinthecatskills@gmail.com