Mapping the Sawkill Workshops

MAPPING THE SAWKILL WATERSHED PROJECT

Focusing on an eight-mile-long riparian corridor of the Sawkill Creek, Mapping the Sawkill Watershed Project is a diverse ecological exploration and celebration of the land. Led by artist Jennifer Zackin, this yearlong community initiative, focused on relationship-building, encompasses a series of participatory sensory workshops, walking tours, a Stream Stewards program, community mapping sessions, and an art exhibition (see events calendar below), all taking place in 2026. All events are free and open to the public.

The Sawkill Creek serves as a vital ecological artery for the Hudson Valley, covering a 42-square-mile watershed from Echo Lake in Woodstock into the Esopus and finally into the Hudson River. The watershed connects communities, ecosystems, and drinking water resources throughout the region.

The project will culminate in an exhibition at the Woodstock Artists Association & Museum (WAAM) from October 23 through November 29, 2026. At the center of the exhibition will be a woven sculptural topographical map of the Sawkill creek bed by Jennifer Zackin, incorporating data collected by the Stream Stewards alongside research, mapping, and community-generated knowledge developed throughout the year. Together, these elements will offer visitors an opportunity to experience the Sawkill watershed through both artistic and ecological perspectives. With Mapping the Sawkill Watershed Project, Jennifer Zackin partners with the Woodstock Land Conservancy’s Ecologies of Water program, the Woodstock Artists Association and Museum (WAAM) social practice artist-in-residence program, the Town of Woodstock’s Drinking Water Source Protection Program (DWSP2), and theWoodstock community in collaboration with Sawkill Creek.

Read more about the project here.

2026 PUBLIC EVENTS CALENDAR

RSVP for a Mapping the Sawkill event here.

June 20, 2026 | 12:00–1:00 PM Summer Solstice: Celebrating the Second Chakra & Water with Linda Mary
Montano. Bring a yoga mat. The Mothership Gallery, 6 Sgt Richard Quinn Drive, Woodstock, NY

June 20, 2026 | 3:00–5:00 PM Playing the Sawkill Collaborative percussion performance with Dreiky
Caprice. Wear water shoes. Comeau Property, 95 Comeau Drive, Woodstock, NY (Upper Parking Lot).
Meet at the kiosk.

June 23, 2026 | 4:00–6:00 PM Summit to Stream: Building a Resilient Watershed Together. Woodstock
Library, 10 Dixon Ave, Woodstock, NY. Includes a community mapping activity.

July 18, 2026 | 11:30 AM–1:00 PM The Many Voices of a River: Listening and Field Recording the Sawkill
with Zaneta. Comeau Property, 95 Comeau Drive, Woodstock, NY (Upper Parking Lot)

July 26, 2026 | 11:00 AM–1:00 PM Sawkill Walking Tour #1: Exploring the Bearsville Flats and Woodstock
drinking water well area with Beth Reichheld. Rick Volz Field, Dixon Ave, Woodstock, NY – meet in parking lot.

August 30, 2026 | 11:00 AM–1:00 PM Sawkill Walking Tour #2: Exploring the Comeau Property with Beth
Reichheld. Comeau Property, 95 Comeau Drive, Woodstock, NY (Upper Parking Lot) Meet at the kiosk.

September 12, 2026 | 1:00–3:00 PM Citizen Science Microbial Cultivation Workshop with Adam Zaretsky.
The Mothership Gallery, 6 Sgt Richard Quinn Drive, Woodstock, NY

September 26, 2026 | 11:00 AM–1:30 PM Sawkill Walking Tour #3. Exploring Little Deep to Big Deep with
Beth Reichheld. Little Deep parking lot, Zena Road, Woodstock, NY

October 3, 2026 | Riparian Buffer Planting with Andrew Faust. Location and time to be announced

October 23 – November 29, 2026: Mapping the Sawkill Exhibition. Jennifer Zackin & Collaborators,WAAM, 28 Tinker Street, Woodstock, NY, 

October 23 – November 29, 2026: Mapping the Sawkill Exhibition. Jennifer Zackin & Collaborators,
WAAM, 28 Tinker Street, Woodstock, NY

COORDINATING TEAM BIOS

Jennifer Zackin, Project Coordinator
Jennifer Zackin is a transdisciplinary artist and educator based in the Hudson Valley, New York, and the Sacred Valley of the Inca, Cusco, Peru. Zackin’s close engagement with materials creates moments of alchemy, transforming the familiar into the unexpected. Her practice begins in the studio and expands into the community, nurturing relationships, supporting regenerative methods, and honoring the performance of art-life. Working across sculpture, installation, performance, collaboration, drawing, painting, photography, and social sculpture, Zackin explores abstraction as a gateway to understanding complex ecosystems and ecological systems. Zackin and her partner Adolfo Ibañez founded the Chokechaka Artist Residency Program in the Sacred Valley of the Inca, Cusco, Peru.

Beth Reichheld, Stream Steward Volunteer Coordinator
Beth Reichheld served as director of the NYC DEP Stream Management Program (SMP) for 30+ years, working with county soil and water conservation districts managing rivers and floodplains throughout the Catskills using an approach that reduces erosion and flood risks, protects infrastructure, and improves habitats and water quality. In collaboration with those living and working in the Catskills, the SMP and SWCDs built a science- based and proactive stream stewardship ethic and implemented stream restoration projects on dozens of miles of Catskill streams. Beth has served on the Woodstock Land Conservatory board, the Woodstock zoning and comprehensive planning committees and helped develop the Catskills’ wetland and watercourse ordinance. Before coming to the Catskills in 1992, Beth earned her bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Bowdoin College and a master’s degree in forest science from Yale.

Mark Vian, Stream Steward Scientist Mentor
Mark Vian worked as a river restoration ecologist with the NYCDEP Stream Management Program for 28 years, helping to define and implement management plans for Stony Clove Creek, Westkill Creek, Upper Rondout Creek, and the Upper Neversink River. Prior to his work with the NYCDEP, Mark worked for the Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve and as field manager for the monthly water quality monitoring at the Reserve’s four tidal wetland research sites, as well as a number of synoptic storm event sampling projects on the tributaries that feed them. He serves as Principal at Deep Stream Tracking, which applies animal-tracking methodology to the study of rivers and streams. He has lived within earshot of the Kaaterskill Creek on the eastern escarpment of the Catskills since 2006.

Telemak Olsen, Stream Steward Scientist Mentor
Telemak (Telly) Olsen is a geologist specializing in river systems and earth-science education. He has contributed to geoscientific research in landscape response to wildfire, surface exposure dating, and tectonics. Telly currently supervises the SUNY Ulster Watershed Conservation Corps internship program in partnership with New York City DEP’s Stream Management Program. He has a B.A. in Geoscience from Skidmore College and a M.S. in Geology from Western Washington University. Outside of streams, Telly enjoys playing with his two cats, George and Dookou, and mountain biking in the Catskills.