Paul C. Huth

Mr. Paul C. Huth, Director of Research at the Mohonk Preserve’s Daniel Smiley Research Center, was the guest speaker for the Klyne Esopus Museum’s Roger Mabie Speaker’s Series on November 12. His talk was titled, “A Conservation Success Story at Mohonk—What we have learned and what you can do.”

Mr. Huth has been a part of the Mohonk Preserve ecosystem research program for some 31 years; as assistant for 15 years to founder Dan Smiley, and as Director for 16 years. He manages a diverse research program consisting of the Daniel Smiley Research Center collections and archives totaling some 60,000 items, and an eight-decade-long ecosystem monitoring and database program.

The Center makes some 4,000 species observations each year. Paul oversees a Research Associate Program accommodating 58 researchers from 30 academic institutions around the country and a center for the dissemination of information to hundreds of academics, authors, students, reporters, historians and area residents. Mr. Huth is a past president of the Klyne Esopus Museum.

He has BA and MA degrees in Biology from the State University of New York. He is the national Weather Service Observer a the110-year old Mohonk Lake Cooperative Weather Station.

The Mohonk Preserve, at 6,500 acres is New York State’s largest member and visitor supported nature preserve. It is located at the northern end of the greater Appalachian Mountains. Founded in 1963, it is part of the Mohonk Mountain House National Historic Landmark, managing an extensive 19th century carriage road network and miles of footpaths in a fragile mountain environment.

The Daniel Smiley Research Center is a field research station for the study of natural and cultural history. Named for a descendent of the founders of the Mohonk Mountain House, Daniel Smiley (1907 – 1989), spent some three-quarters of a century carefully documenting nature and landscape change in the Shawangunk Mountains. Today, Dan Smiley is considered on of America’s premier 20th century naturalists.