1. Assessing ecosystem health in Dutchess County, NY - a photo essay (K. E. Limburg, SUNY-ESF) President-elect of the U.S. Society of Ecological Economics

2. The principal investigators …

3. Graduate students… …do most of the work!

4. We collaborated this summer with the Dutchess County Watershed Coordinator, Dave Burns (wearing cap) and his staff

5. Great Spring Creek, with about 38% agriculture, was loaded with redfin pickerel Wappingers Creek watershed Dairy farm: an increasingly rare Dutchess landscape Mainstem of the Creek, in Wappingers Falls near the Hudson Mountain Brook, a headwater stream

6. Fishkill Creek watershed – a more disturbed system An urban stream in Beacon, NYWalmart parking lot, Rte 9 in Fishkill, NY IBM’s East Fishkill facility, adjacent to the Wiccopee Creek

7. Stream assessments: Identifying, weighing, and measuring fish Physical habitat measurements Assessing macroinvertebrate community integrity: apparently, someone had eaten corn by the creek the night before… Fish collected for Index of Biotic Integrity

8. Encroaching development: Apparently, this development uses a lot of fertilizer A new technology park near IBM East Fishkill Field of dreams?

9. Frank Brothers farm, Wappingers drainage, Route 44. I have watched this property go from a working dairy farm, to a dormant state, and now recently, to housing (behind barn). The process here has taken > 20 years, but in general land use change appears to be driven by thresholds, be they financial, social, or political.