Learn impact of drugs in your drinking water

Dr. Emma Rosi, an aquatic ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, will speak about the impact of pharmaceuticals and personal care products on drinking water and stream ecology on Thursday, April 19.

Rosi will speak at the Saw Kill Watershed Community monthly information meeting beginning at 7 p.m. at the Elmendorph Inn, 7562 North Broadway. The event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

During the meeting, Rosi will talk about the impacts of pharmaceuticals and personal care products on the bugs, fish, plants and algae of the ecosystem.

The Saw Kill Watershed is largely in the town of Red Hook, but also includes parts of Milan, Rhinebeck, Tivoli and the Bard College campus.

For information, email Clara Woolner at cwoolner@ bard.edu, call (845) 2431969, or visit http://sawkillwatershed.wordpress.com.

Catskills tanning industry talk April 19

The Catskill tannery industry and its effect on hemlock forests will be explored in a multimedia presentation hosted by the Mid-Hudson Sierra Club on Thursday, April 19.

“The Catskill Tanneries: An Environmental Disaster with a Happy Ending” will be from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Boughton Place, 150 Kisor Road, off state Route 299. The program is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. RSVP via email to mhsierraprograms@yahoo.com.

Historian Paul Misko has researched the whole Catskill region, with his main focus on Woodland Valley near Phoenicia, according to a press release. He will describe the tanneries, how they operated, the men that worked them, and the near clearcutting of most mountainsides for an industry that demanded huge supplies of hemlock bark. Both the positive and negative environmental results of the industry will be explored, the release said.