Hudson Valley Climate & Species Changes

Lake Mohonk Mountain House, on the Shawangunk Ridge in the mid-Hudson Valley of New York, has long kept an invaluable record of daily weather conditions and phenological changes in the area.  Phenological changes are dates of periodic biological phenomena like the first appearance of certain migrating bird species in the spring, the first flowering of specific plants, the singing of spring peeper frogs, etc.

Keeping of these records started in 1896 with naturalist Daniel Smiley and has continued unchanged until the present day (these tasks are currently overseen by naturalists at the Mohonk Preserve).  Last year, we had Shanon Smiley (left) deliver a talk at SUNY Ulster for the John Burroughs Natural Science Lecture Series on what this data tells us about local climate change.  The good news is that she recently made this talk available online off the Preserve website (scroll down, link at right).  Here's the direct link to download the presentation.

Climate Change at Mohonk: Weather & Species

About a half-hour long and it's worth watching if you're interested in what some of the evidence is for climate change in our local area.