Whether you get your water from an individual well or a municipal system, all the water you drink comes from a watershed — the area of land that drains into a particular stream, river, or lake. Watersheds contain both land and water-based ecosystems (forests, fields, wetlands, ponds) as well as groundwater. Larger watersheds contain many smaller subwatersheds.
The Saw Kill Watershed is a 26.2 square mile area in northern Dutchess County, New York that drains water directly into the Hudson River via the South Tivoli Bay. The watershed includes land in the towns of Red Hook, Milan, and Rhinebeck, and the villages of Red Hook and Tivoli. In 2021 we added two adjacent watersheds to our maps: the Stony Creek to the north and Mudder Kill to the south. Our main focus remains on the Saw Kill, but this extends the reach of some of our projects and includes most of the Town of Red Hook.
