How to Read a River

Local rivers are swelling with heavy rains from Tropical Storm Debby this week, putting low-lying towns in the Catskills and Northeast Pennsylvania on alert about potential flooding.

With increasingly extreme weather brought on by climate change, experts say it’s worth reconsidering the ways we manage our rivers and streams.

Radio Catskill reporter Chia-Tien Nicole Chen spoke to Tim Koch, the stream education leader for the Ashokan Watershed Stream Management Program, to learn more.

Find out more about the Ashokan Watershed Stream Management Program and its upcoming public events — including streamside meditation, paddling and fly fishing — on its website, ashokanstreams.org.

Photo: Ulster County employees, attendees of a two-day stream geomorphology field course, take measurements at the Panther Kill Stream in Phoenicia, New York.

Photo credit: courtesy of the Ashokan Watershed Stream Management Program / Cornell Cooperative Extension, Ulster County