Kaatscast: the Catskills Podcast

Late last year, and 20 episodes ago , Michael DiBenedetto joined us in the studio and made a convincing case for copper bullets over lead, citing collateral damage to our Catskills bald eagles. On today's show, we reconnected with Michael -- in Ukraine -- where he's volunteering as a driver with an organization called Road to Relief . Michael drives a truck in the Catskills, too, making deliveries...

Ann Cihanek is a goat farmer whose herd of semi-retired goats are employed across the region to clear sites of invasive plants, brush, and overgrowth. We caught up with 10 of her Green Goats at the John Burroughs Memorial State Historic Site, in Roxbury, NY. Years of overgrowth on hilly, sensitive terrain, called for a novel approach to restore a historic view of the fields and mountains below. Ma...

In July, a small group of hikers was apprehended and ticketed for leaving two Adirondack chairs at the summit of Slide Mountain. Those hikers' actions, while misguided, may have been good-intentioned. But they fly in the face of outdoor ethics and "leaving no trace." At the core of " Leave No Trace " are 7 principles that provide a framework of minimum impact practices for safe and sustainable exp...

Nearly a century ago, famed photographer and innovator Emile Brunel purchased Boiceville's Brown Hotel and transformed it into Le Chalet Indien, a world-class resort frequented by famed artists and politicians of the day. Brunel's fascination with Native American culture manifested in an adjoining sculpture park, which still stands and is now stewarded by the Friends of Brunel Park , a 501(c)(3) n...

Wave Farm –– in Greene County's Acra, NY –– is a 29-acre campus that's not only home to WGXC 90.7 FM, but a hub for terrestrial radio, transmission arts, and resident artists. Hear from Executive Director Galen Joseph-Hunter how Wave Farm has been pioneering the "transmission arts" genre for more than 25 years. Thanks to our sponsors: Briars & Brambles Books Hanford Mills Museum Ulster Savings...

Silver Hollow Audio had the honor of recording –– and this month, publishing –– the audiobook version of Kim Brown Seely's Uncharted: A Couple's Empty-Nest Adventure Sailing from One Life to Another . Faced with an empty nest, stagnant jobs, and an economy in freefall, Kim and her husband decided to embark on a grand adventure. On an impulse, they purchased a sailboat, learned to sail, and set off...

The Catskills naturalist John Burroughs once wrote, "The place to observe nature is where you are; the walk to take to-day is the walk you took yesterday. You will not find just the same things: both the observed and the observer has changed; the ship is on another tack in both cases." His 1886 essay, "A Sharp Lookout" predates terms like "sit spot," "forest bathing," and "shinrin-yoku" by about a...

When Mel Bellar established his Andes, NY landscape design company, the Catskills were considered "zone 4" on the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Thanks (?) to climate change and warmer winters, the region is now solidly in "zone 5." We talked with Mel about that shift and how it's reshaping our options. Join our conversation for many more Catskills landscaping considerations, like complementing th...

Spring has sprung in the Catskills, and with the reemergence of our native flora and fauna, invasive species are also happy to awaken. Catskill Regional Invasive Species Partnership (CRISP) director John Thompson tells us what to watch out for, how to report our findings, and what we can do to stem the tide of invasive pests. Plus, two emerging invasives to add to our radar! Report your findings a...

April is Financial Literacy Month! It's also National Jazz Appreciation Month, National Fresh Celery Month, Foot Health Awareness Month, World Landscape Architecture Month, and National Soft Pretzel Month. But let's just stick to finance for now, a topic that affects us all throughout the year. And for a refresher on that topic, we met up with our local bank branch manager, Samantha Awand-Gortel,...

Just two weeks before the start of trout season, the Catskills lost a paragon of angling. Henry "Hank" Rope, Jr. wore out a pair of wading shoes every year, fishing Catskills creeks and tributaries. Hank shared his love of the sport through his Big Indian Guide Service and volunteered his time with Trout in the Classroom at a community elementary school. We recorded Mr. Rope on several occasions o...

Radio Catskill hit the airwaves in 1990 and operated out of a hydro-powered station in Jeffersonville. But when a building was recently offered in nearby Liberty, WJFF shed its 30-year skin and relocated to the now fully-renovated, modern production facility. Technological advances aside, this small public radio station is still very much focused on local news and Catskills culture. Many thanks to...

As Catskills black bears emerge from hibernation, we spoke with three bear experts –– wildlife rehabilitator Kristine Flones, and conservationist couple Patti and Bill Rudge –– who shared some handy tips for coexisting peaceably with our Catskills bears, including ... the best time to wrap up your wild bird food (and why) the importance of taking out the trash (at the crack of dawn) equipping your...

As any skier knows, squeezing into a pair of ski boots can be quite the challenge. For skiers with physical and cognitive disabilities, though, preparing for a day on the slopes can require exponentially more time and effort. But that doesn't stop skiers like Todd Reid, who lives with spina bifida, from savoring a day on skis.   At the base of Windham Mountain, the 7200 square foot Gwen Allard Ada...

If the Catskills seem busier lately, you're not imagining it. According to a new report, visits to the Catskills more than doubled between 2018 and 2021, when the region welcomed an estimated 12 million travelers––that's roughly equivalent to the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and Yellowstone, combined! The ongoing deluge, it turns out, is the very reason for this report, prepared over two years by the C...

Washington Irving was an early author to set his fictional tale in the Catskills, but he certainly wasn't the last. If Rip Van Winkle were alive today, he'd have no shortage of contemporary Catskills suspense stories to help keep him awake. Kelli Huggins is on a mission to read all things "Catskills," and she hankers for horror. If a novel features a Catskills town, hotel, or reservoir, it will li...

There's a "herd" of sewing machines in the hundreds, in Delancey, NY, and they're in the loving and capable hands of one Billy Hancock, owner of Billy's Make & Mend , an outpost for sewing machine repair and maintenance, sewing work, machine lessons, and plenty of history.  Thanks to our latest sponsor, Ulster Savings Bank , which was established the same year as the Singer sewing machine comp...

To start off the new year, we visited Shea in the Catskills , a tarot practitioner, artist, facilitator, organizer + contemplative, for a (deeper than perhaps expected) conversation on community, tarot, inspiration ... and some insights for 2023! Check out Shea's own podcasts! They're simply produced, clean, and inviting -- rumination and curation in a welcoming voice ... Shea in the Catskills The...

Just off the Kingston traffic circle, you'll find a couple of gas stations, a used car dealer, and a drive-through vegetarian burger joint. But in the 1940s, this was the site of "Seal College," a training facility for some of the most famous sea lions to share the stage with the likes of Abbott and Costello, Bob Hope, and Ed Sullivan. In his new book, Sharkey: When Sea Lions Were Stars of Show Bu...

Charles Shreyvogel was an Eastern artist who painted famous Western scenes. His favorite model was also decidedly non-Western. Greene County’s Kenny Bloodgood recounts tales of his great-uncle Grant and his unlikely appearance in some of Schruyvogel’s most famous paintings. We produced this episode as part of Catskill Historical Views , a collaboration between Catskill Tri-County Historical Views...

Whether you're a human who enjoys venison, or a bald eagle that scavenges a hunter's kill, lead = poison. And as it turns out, common lead bullets fragment on impact into hundreds of pepper-sized flakes that can be devastating to wildlife (and not so great for humans, either!).  Michael DiBenedetto is a lifelong Catskiller, a longtime hunter, and a passionate advocate for copper bullets. If his ex...

When the Wiltwyck Cemetery and family crematory started following us on Instagram, instead of getting ... well ... creeped out, we decided to reach out, and learn about this unique establishment. Kingston's Wiltwyck Rural Cemetery goes back to the mid 19th-century, with tombstones artfully occupying some 60 acres of beautiful rolling hills. A crematory was added in 1984, and it's the only one in U...

Catskills writer Violet Snow is the author of To March or to Marry , an historical novel about the lengthy fight for a woman's right to vote, both here in New York, and nationally. As we prepare to cast our ballots in 2022, it's hard to imagine that just over 100 years ago, women were excluded from that process. In this episode of Kaatscast , I talk with Violet Snow about the inspiration for her n...

Overlook Mountain is a popular Catskills hiking destination, complete with a scenic fire tower and the ruins of an historic hotel. According to researchers, and bolstered by groundbreaking scientific evidence, the mountain's popularity precedes modern hiking; 19th-century tourism; even colonial settlement. A parcel under the protective watch of the Overlook Mountain Center hosts an array of stone...

If you've ever heard (or even ... uttered) the word "cidiot," to describe an urban transplant, likely that term wasn't used in a positive light. Podcast host Mat Zucker has been doing his best to rebrand the word in a podcast that bears the name. Cidiot is a popular biweekly show about "learning to live in the country," and last year it won "Best Regional Podcast" in the Chronogrammies Readers' Ch...