By Judith N. Hogan Mottl, Nordica Holochuck, and Barbara A. Branca

The southernmost 153 miles of the Hudson River is an estuary where fresh water mixes with salt water from the ocean. Ocean tides influence the river as far north as the Troy dam, where the difference between high and low tides approaches five feet. The "salt front" reaches as far north as Kingston. A rich estuary, the Hudson supports a full spectrum of marine, brackish, and freshwater species in its tidal marshes. It is one of the few tidal rivers in the North Atlantic Basin that retains spawning populations of all its native fish species.

The Hudson River has changed dramatically over the last 150 years. During the mid-1800s, painters of the Hudson River Valley School captured the expansive, natural beauty of the region in their luminous landscape paintings. However, the pristine river represented in those works soon became threatened by the darker side of the industrial age. By the mid-1900s, the damaging effects of "progress" had become all too clear.

Pollution problems ranging from untreated sewage to heavy metals and toxic contaminants tainted the river, impacting commercial and recreational fisheries and eliminating swimming in many areas. Public access to the shoreline was severely limited by the construction of railroads on both river banks.

But the pendulum has swung again, and in the last 30 years, the Hudson has experienced tremendous recovery. The Federal Clean Water Act led to a vast reduction in Hudson River pollution. Citizens, state and federal environmental agencies, local businesses, and strong environmental advocacy groups began working together to restore the river's vitality. In May 1996, New York State released a 15-year management plan for the river. The Hudson River Estuary Action Plan calls for adequate estuarine research to guide decision making, to increase public access, and to boost the economy with new programs.

"Our special mission is to try to bring the best available scientific information into the decision-making process," says Robert Kent, NYSG Extension marine coordinator. "Sea Grant is especially interested in sustainable development—helping people survive economically while at the same time providing environmental protection."

In its unique role among organizations active in the Hudson region, New York Sea Grant (NYSG) has funded research into fisheries matters, sediment contamination, and management of exotic species over the years. To respond more effectively to the region’s wide-ranging issues, NYSG in 1993 opened a local Sea Grant Extension office in Cornell Cooperative Extension's Kingston facility.

Nordica Holochuck took the reins of Sea Grant's Hudson Valley effort in 1996, and at the same time, came "home." A Kingston native, she's familiar with the river and the communities that share its vistas. Her background includes eight years as an environmental educator specializing in wetlands and water quality issues. Holochuck's large and varied audience—from environmental protection advocates to marina operators and tourism agencies—is nearly as extensive as the network of agencies working toward a healthy and sustainable Hudson River, and her mission is partnering with many such groups.

The first "official" partnership formed by Sea Grant was with the Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve (HRNERR), itself part of a national system of over 20 estuarine research reserves throughout the coastal United States and Puerto Rico. The national reserves were established in 1972 to secure long-term protection for select tidal wetlands and to manage them as natural field laboratories and outdoor classrooms. The HRNERR encompasses four sites along 100 miles of the tidal Hudson River. Its 4,800 acres range from open waters to uplands and from tidal marshes and vegetated shallows to sand and mud flats.

To manage these diverse ecosystems, Sea Grant and HRNERR created the NYSG/Hudson River NERR Cooperative Research Fellowship in 1994. The one-year fellowship allows graduate students to undertake doctoral dissertation or master's thesis work on the Hudson River estuary. Its conditions require that the research be conducted within one of the HRNERR sites and have a clear connection to an estuary issue. "Fellowships provide a way to continue research on the shallow water tidal wetlands of the Hudson on a regular basis," observes Chuck Nieder, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) researcher and HRNERR’s research coordinator. According to Nieder, the fellowship program hinges on an elegant exchange. "By providing interested graduate students with a good education and mentoring, we can get more good research at a reasonable price." The resulting information, he adds, can help ensure better management decisions.

The impact of new plant species in wetland habitats was the focus of the first fellowship recipient, Laurence S. Fernberg of Fordham University. Fernberg studied the effects of nonnative emergent plants in freshwater wetlands, with special emphasis on purple loosestrife, an invasive plant species found in three of the four reserve sites. Unlike familiar cattails, the plants indigenous to these wetlands, purple loosestrife can tolerate a variety of soil types and is more stress-tolerant. As certain similar areas are opened up for development, this invasive species is more likely to become abundant, predicts Fernberg. The purple-flowering plant also drops its numerous leaves into the water, releasing more nitrogen and phosphorus earlier on in its decomposition, thus affecting nutrient cycling downriver.

As a result of this research at the Louis Calder Center in Armonk, N.Y., Fernberg completed his doctorate degree at Fordham. He is now a restoration ecologist and adjunct professor at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn.

Another fellow, Rutgers graduate student Lisamarie Windham, collected data on the nitrogen release of Phragmites in the brackish tidal marsh of the river. Phragmites are reeds common to both sides of the Atlantic that usurp the habitat of cattails in their more brackish locations.

Plant ecology is by no means the only topic under scrutiny by NYSG/Hudson River NERR Cooperative Research fellows. Hunter College student Daisy Suk Yee Tang has examined land use changes from the mid-fifties to the present for the Sparkhill Creek watershed. The Sparkhill Creek flows into the pristine 10,000-year-old Piermont Marsh. However, over the past 40 years, the Sparkhill watershed has been developed for agriculture, industry, and housing. Using aerial photographs, Tang developed a Geographic Information System (GIS) database containing hundreds of digital images ranging from historic land use to soil types. Now, just how much wetland loss and to what extent it occurs can be immediately viewed at the click of a button. This reference can be accessed by all other researchers to show the "big picture" of economic sustainability and ecosystem stability.

Just as Tang’s work addressed the big picture, the work of current fellowship recipient David J. Scala of Rutgers University explores a smaller but no less complex world. Scala is studying microbial ecology in the Tivoli Bays, located on the east bank of the Hudson across from Kingston.

Most wetland restoration involves plants and animals that people can see and identify, but the dynamic world of microorganisms is what keeps important nutrients cycling through an ecosystem. Deep down in the mud, anaerobic bacteria feed on ammonia and nitrates, releasing nitrogen gas back into the atmosphere. In the surface mud, aerobic bacteria recycle phosphorus and nitrogen. Scala is identifying species from each complex of bacteria by their particular genetic markers in order paint a detailed picture of the impact of interactions on nutrient levels.

From large scale development issues to the smallest microcosm of ecological relationships, variety makes the research on the Hudson exciting. Holochuck, who integrates research and outreach as "point" person for the fellowship program, describes the program as "a sound partnership that develops research results useful for resource management."

Besides marsh habitat and ecology studies, fishery issues and toxic contaminant problems figure in Sea Grant research projects. One project centers on the Atlantic sturgeon, valued for both its roe and its flesh. The Hudson River has the largest and only remaining viable population of Atlantic sturgeon in the mid-Atlantic. However, in response to declining numbers, the NYSDEC closed the Hudson River sturgeon fishery in 1995.

In order to develop a population assessment method for sturgeon, NYSG has funded a one-year study directed by Mark B. Bain,Cornell University natural resources associate professor and New York Cooperative Fish and Wildlife research unit assistant leader. Bain notes that few data exist on the Atlantic sturgeon population because the long-lived species has a complex, highly migratory life cycle.

"A method is needed to assess population trends so that fishery management regulations can be more valuable," says Bain. The NYSDEC has termed monitoring and data collection "critical" for continuation of a viable fishery. Contributing to the data, New York Sea Grant-sponsored researchers Isaac Wirgin, New York University Medical Center environmental medicine associate professor, and John Waldman, Hudson River Foundation research associate, have conducted the largest genetic study of sturgeon species. The questions their research seeks to answer could help in managing recovery of the Atlantic sturgeon in North America.

The largemouth bass is another fish species whose life cycle is inextricably woven into the Hudson estuary. State fisheries biologists have long been concerned that decline in largemouth bass abundance in the Hudson may be linked to the reduction of aquatic plants necessary for fisheries habitat. A NYSG project directed by Stuart Findlay, aquatic ecologist at the Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y., successfully documented the spatial distribution of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) beds in the mid-Hudson River. The next research step, supported by NYSDEC, involves mapping SAV in the rest of the tidal Hudson.

North Tivoli Bay is the site for Findlay’s latest NYSG research, in which he will compare the annual cycles and productivity of two competing species that can be readily seen along the Hudson: reeds and cattails. Reeds, (Phragmites), are invasive nonnative plants that can tolerate a wide range of salinity, whereas cattails (Typha) are associated with fresh water. How do these two plants differ in their productivity? How quickly do they decay and release nutrients into the marsh system? Says Findlay, "The well-established fact that reed is encroaching rapidly in some sites has prompted serious plans for reed removal. The justification for reed removal, as well as complete understanding of the consequences of reed expansion, requires knowledge of how these past and proposed species shifts affect a whole array of marsh functions."

Because Phragmites remain standing during much of their period of decomposition, they retain nitrogen in their stems for a longer period of time. Unlike the "lay down and die" cattails, which more readily fall over into the water as they decay, "zombie" Phragmites "sequester" their nutrients. In some areas of the Northeast, cutting down Phragmites may be equivalent to facilitating the release of nutrients into the water column. Findlay intends to determine the amount of nutrients Phragmites release into the water—information that may help managers decide whether cutting down the standing dead plants is a good management practice.

Scientific research is just one component of the Sea Grant partnerships. "We are always looking for partnerships, because one individual can do only so much," says Dennis Mildner, HRNERR education coordinator. "The more people involved, the more work that can be done. There's a lot that needs to be done right now with the Hudson River area, and it makes sense to share and support each other. We plan to work with Sea Grant on a nonpoint source pollution workshop for coastal managers," he notes. Thus far, environmental concerns relating to nonpoint source pollution have prompted new ways to educate homeowners about fertilizers, pesticides, and the effect of runoff on area water quality.

The HRNERR and NYSG have also collaborated on The River's View Gardening Project at Bard College. This gardening program, funded in part by the NYSDEC, promotes use of flowers, shrubs, and ground covers that don't require fertilizers or pesticides and that can flourish with little irrigation. Sea Grant’s Holochuck serves as a liaison between the Dutchess County Cornell Cooperative Extension master gardener program and Bard College. The program encourages composting to reduce the waste stream and demonstrates watering techniques to reduce soil erosion. Now, visitors to Bard College, as well as the general public, can view a beautiful garden and have an opportunity to learn sound gardening techniques.

Holochuck's successful outreach efforts have also addressed the issue of PCB contamination in the Hudson, a focus of public and regulatory concerns since 1974. Studies in the late 1970s examined whether it was best to dredge the PCB-laden sediments or to rely on natural processes to decontaminate them. In 1984, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released an interim report stating that no action—that is, no dredging—was needed. However, in February 1997 the EPA released its new Data Evaluation and Interpretation report, which reassessed the 1984 decision. EPA then concluded that contaminated sediments will not be naturally remediated through dechlorination.

"We were aware of the new EPA report, and since PCBs have severely impacted the use of the fishery as well as related industries, we hoped to gather different stakeholders together to discuss the report and share the latest scientific research," explains Holochuck. Toward this end, she helped organize a public meeting at which more than 200 local, state, and federal agency representatives, scientists, businesspeople, and grassroots environmental organization members brought the findings of the report into focus.

In sharing ongoing environmental research with the public through educational and business outreach, New York Sea Grant is making its presence felt in the Hudson Valley. As this ancient river meanders into the new millennium, perhaps artists will once again be able to capture the restored glow of its luminous riverbank vistas and tidal wetlands.

Nor'Easter Fall/Winter 1997