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A Look Under The Ice

Watershed Stories

Keep up with the work of Ausable Freshwater Center (AFC) staff. These stories share information about our stewardship and monitoring work, natural stream restoration, and culvert replacement techniques by highlighting specific projects in the Ausable and Boquet River watersheds of northern New York. They also give you fun facts about the plants and wildlife that live in these watersheds, as well as tips for enjoying responsible, low-impact recreational opportunities.

Sep
23
2025
Berried in Trouble: The Autumn Olive Invasion
Walking along a stream, roadside, or the edge of a field on a breezy day, you may catch flashes of silver in the greenery. Take a closer look. You might have found a pocket of autumn olive – a beautiful, but invasive shrub with an interesting story.
Invasives
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Sep
17
2025
Best Practices in Catch-and-Release Angling, Part 1
As the River Steward at the Ausable Freshwater Center, I talk with many anglers on the Ausable River. When talking about their fishing experiences, anglers will often describe shaded streams, quiet breezy mornings with the birds, and exciting trips...
Stewardship
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Aug
26
2025
Fieldwork spotlight: Minnow Trap Surveys
On a recent Wednesday, the sun-sparkled surface of the East Branch Ausable River was broken by some of our staff as they waded into shady pools with a hiking stick and several minnow traps in tow.
Natural History
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Jul
29
2025
The HABs and the HAB Nots: Keeping an Eye on Algae this Summer
Lately, it seems like there is a new warning about harmful algal blooms, or HABs, every day. While not all algae are harmful, it is important to be aware of HABs and their potential risks to aquatic ecosystems, humans, and other animals.BackgroundAlgae...
Ecology
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May
15
2025
Mirror Lake and Beyond: How Buoys Boost Lake Data
In 2020, the Ausable Freshwater Center (AFC) teamed up with Dr. Kevin Rose and his lab group from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) to deploy a high-frequency sensor array in Mirror Lake –starting a partnership between the two...
Limnology
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Feb
12
2025
The Shrinking Habitat of Cold-Water Fish in the Adirondacks
Many lakes in the Adirondacks face two primary threats that impact cold-water fish, including our native salmonids—brook trout, lake trout, and whitefish. The first threat is climate-induced increases in water temperature. The second is deep-water oxygen depletion.
Brook Trout
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Feb
06
2025
Adapting Historic Monitoring to Meet New Challenges
As the threats and inputs to Adirondack lake ecosystems have evolved, the ways we study these systems have too. Since acid deposition was the primary stressor of the last 50 years, research questions which guided monitoring programs focused heavily on...
Limnology
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Nov
15
2024
What Happens to Lakes in the Fall?
Lakes experience a chemical and hydrological transformation in the fall. This is thanks to one of water's unique properties: unlike most materials, it is most dense as a liquid. Water's maximum density occurs at 4 degrees Celsius (39.2 degrees Fahrenheit...
Limnology
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Nov
14
2024
A Fellow's Summer with AFC
Hello! My name is Angie Zhu, Colgate University class of 2026. This past summer, I had the incredible opportunity to work with the Ausable Freshwater Center (AFC) as a Colgate Upstate Institute Field School Fellow. During my time as a fellow, I worked...
Road Salt
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Sep
12
2024
Managing Invasive Species in the Ausable Watershed
The Ausable watershed supports a variety of plant and animal species, playing a critical role in the local environment and economy, but its health is threatened by invasive species. Some species the Ausable Freshwater Center (AFC) is paying special attention to include knotweed species, reed canary grass, round goby, and Chinese mystery snail...
Invasives
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The Ausable River is a river on the edge.
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