Summit to Stream: Building Watershed Resilience Together
The 2026 Ashokan Watershed Conference will explore how water moves through our mountainous landscape, and what that means for our communities.
The conference will feature an engaging series of flood preparedness presentations for landowners offered throughout the watershed, a training for municipal officials focused on communicating flood risk and floodplain development, and a community and family stream walk centered on safety, maps, and reading the landscape.
Join us for the programs below as we connect science, experience, and local action to build a more flood-aware watershed.
Water Has a Memory: Past floods and future resilience
A presentation series open to all watershed residents
In these hour-long presentations, you will learn about past floods in your Ashokan watershed community from local experts and join the discussion on how we can be better prepared. These presentations will combine accessible science, local examples, and shared community experience. The series will be offered in three different libraries in the watershed.
Free to attend and no registration required.
June 16 at 4 p.m. – Olive Free Library
Local perspectives presented by Brian Burns, Town of Olive Highway
Superintendent, and Martha Frankel, Ashokan watershed resident
June 23 at 4 p.m. – Woodstock Public Library
Partnering with Jennifer Zackin and Beth Reichheld, volunteers of
Woodstock Land Conservancy
June 26 at 4 p.m. – Phoenicia Library
A deep dive into Shandaken’s flood history with Aaron Bennett, Ashokan
watershed resident
Reading the Landscape: Being safe while enjoying streams, forests and nature
A community and family day stream walk
Check back here for registration opening in July
This stream walk is a hands-on, outdoor learning experience designed for families, youth, and community members to build confidence, curiosity, and safety awareness when venturing into the woods, particularly near streams. Led by our youth and community education team, this guided hike combines outdoor preparedness skills with introductory watershed education.
Free to attend. Participants must be at least seven years of age or older to attend, and youth under 13 must be accompanied by an adult. No pets allowed. Registration is required.
August 14 at 10 a.m. – Kanape Brook
Understanding Floodways — and How to Explain Them
A technical training for municipal officials in the New York City watershed
This technical training is designed for municipal officials working at the front lines of floodplain management, land use regulation, and community resilience in the Ashokan watershed. The session focuses on building both technical understanding and communication confidence when working with residents on development in flood-prone areas.
Contact ser287@cornell.edu to be included on the preregistration list. Date and location to be announced.
Reflecting on the
2024 Ashokan Watershed Conference
From June through October 2024, we hosted 12 live events aimed at building deep bonds between people, Catskills streams, and the natural world. Participants fished for trout from the Esopus, gathered medicinal plants along Rochester Hollow, paddled the Little Beaver Kill, or practiced Qi Gong and river yoga on the Stony Clove, just to name a few.
Conservation through Connection aimed to show that streams are so much more than just water features on the landscape, only worthy of protection because they are natural “resources.” We tried to enable a view of streams as companions, and to provide opportunities for the relationship to be reciprocal – where people benefit from being in nature, and nature benefits from recruiting another ally in conservation.
Resources from the Conference
Continue your practice & learn new ones!
Several program guides provided us with resources so you can continue deepening your connection with nature and Catskill streams. Visit our YouTube page for instructional videos for River Yoga with Sara Beck (70,000+ views already), Streamside Mindfulness Meditation with Zen Mountain Monastery, and Streamside Qi Gong with Carol Chappell.
For anyone interested in the current science investigating the physical and emotional health benefits of spending time in nature, or the history and practice of forest bathing (shinrin-yoku), check out the reading list compiled by AWSMP with help from Dr. Don Rakow and Jane Dobson of Mind the Forest.
Thank you to our collaborators!
These people and organizations helped to make this summer such a success:
Morton Memorial Library, Pine Hill
Phoenicia Playhouse
Jane Dobson, Mind the Forest
Dr. Don Rakow
Harold Poppy Jones
Sara Beck, Catskill Yoga House
Dan Plummer, Catskill Yoga Studio
J. Rocco’s Steakhouse
Carol Chappell
Emerson Resort & Spa
Zen Mountain Monastery
Kenneth L. Wilson Campground
Todd Spire, Esopus Creel
We hope to see you at an upcoming AWSMP event!
Read about past Ashokan Watershed Conferences, streams and stream management plans for the Ashokan Reservoir watershed.