A River Runs Through It!
by: Raymond David Cummings III
I’ve always been a dreamer – as a young man, I dreamed about a life spent as a professional athlete. After a life changing knee injury, my field of dreams shifted from pitching to the field of medicine and orthopedic surgery – but I spent my first semester of college not showing up to class and flunked out. As the years went on, the dreams never stopped – I even dreamed of being the Hudson Valley version of Bear Grylles as I basically lived out in God’s field- the natural world chasing adventure. But truthfully, I never dreamed of living in Walden.
Walden has always been in my blood, though. Years of memories play in front of the village as a backdrop, from church on Sunday to spending my days at the Mud Hole during Walden Summer Camp. Afterward I’d meander down the hill to my grandparents until my parents got off work. Back then, the dream was pretty simple: ride a bike to any Walden bridge and drop a line into the Tin Brook.
Fast forward to today, now a father of three and living out a different dream in medicine, I call Walden home to my own family. And while my dreams have changed so much, the Tin Brook has remained steady flowing, enduring its daily changes of flows and weather, season after season, year after year. That’s worth pondering for a moment. Before Walden was founded, the Tin Brook (then an unnamed stream, and according to legend, home to a thriving trout population) meandered undisturbed. And there it is today, woven like blood vessels through the heart of the village that was built around it that we now call Walden.
One day in 2018, after enjoying a solid rainstorm, I took a walk northbound on the Rail Trail. As I came to the end of the fence, I looked down at the Tin Brook flowing in all of her glory. With the fresh run off, riffles, rips, seams, and runs laced perfectly throughout the beautiful river bend. Instantly something shifted for me with a thought that felt revolutionary: What if one day my own kids would be able to ride their bikes to a sustainable trout stream?
In that moment, I realized that my simple childhood dream never really left me- not with all of my travels, aspirations, and failings. It had simply swam downriver until the time, temperature and season of life were right. However, as any dreamer knows, there are often very practical realities that in a moment can dissuade a person from pursuing what felt like revelation the moment before. This dream was no different.
The state of the water and natural structures in a community can be likened to the condition of the blood in a heart. It’s no secret that subsequent years of human development and industrial growth have changed the natural terrain of the aquatic species that preceded us. Eroded banks, runoff from roads, and fragmented habitats had all but eliminated many of the species that used to call the brook home. Most of us wouldn’t think twice about some of the biggest contributors to the Tin Brook’s modern state. Parking lots and buildings are large surfaces that can’t absorb water, which in turn increases stormwater runoff. This excessive flow carries sediments, chemicals, and trash into the stream. The perception of the waterway also had suffered. Many dismissed it as too warm, too dirty, and just beyond help – an attitude that led further to a lack of vigilance about dumping trash into the stream as they did so many years ago.
And it wasn’t just the human aspect; nature had a say as well. In early conversations, it was quickly understood that the Tin Brook’s temperature was too warm for trout to make their home in. Erosion has widened channels, warming the water beyond what cold-loving trout can tolerate.
Not only that, but it floods, it droughts, and it lacks a reservoir that could regulate water flow during each. These aren’t small hurdles to clear when it comes to reestablishing fish populations that could very easily drop back into the Wallkill searching for the colder temperatures – even though they won’t find them there either! And yet, as is no new story in my life, the dream wouldn’t let me go. After all, hope springs eternal, and longstanding rumors of cold springs originating deep beneath the surface fed the excitement that just maybe this was more than a pipe dream. Local projects like the restoration of the Beaverkill showed that a rising number of communities shared a desire to see their waterways restored, and modern methods, though still subject to trial and error, can be of great service in the process.
What was more quickly evident than any other aspect, however, was that a community restoration project needed just that: the involvement of the community.
And that’s where this dream began taking the shape of reality. In 2021, our beloved village manager, John Revella gave me the green light to procure a trout stocking license for the Tin Brook from the NYS DEC. Other village staff and community members like Fred Perna, Mike Bliss, and Josh Dezemo were immediately interested and came to the aid of this dream in its conception. We stocked 220 trout that year out by the rail trail and enjoyed a solid two months of quality trout fishing. The following year, we doubled our contributing finances and bought 500 trout and once again enjoyed a fantastic little spring of trout fishing right in our back yard! The third year is where the entire atmosphere shifted – in 2023 I was blessed to gain the interest of a local hero named Logan Heaney. He had formed a 501.C.3 non-profit organization in honor of his late Father called Barry’s Grove, an environmental group motivated to the restoration of our natural world. His vision for Barry’s Grove perfectly matched what I had envisioned for the Tin Brook and his organization enabled the Tin Brook project to become officially “donatable” – and we raised over $3,000 in that first year as a team! And then, the unthinkable happened – we were contacted by a dedicated 5th grade elementary school teacher named George Hoeffner who wanted to introduce the “Trout in the Classroom” program to his 5th grade class at Walden Elementary. What a great program and an even bigger success! This past year we had over 100 kids take an official field trip to help us release trout into the Tin Brook including the trout that they themselves raised from fertilized eggs in a fish tank! The best part is – we are only getting started! This upcoming year we have several environmental studies planned with my main priority being to find existing cold springs along the Tin Brook using thermal imaging technology. If true cold springs are identified, it substantiates our stocking efforts knowing there are cold water sanctuaries out there!
All dreams, like all waterways, have ebbs and flows. That’s the nature of nature. No river has a straight, consistent current in its entirety. But that is the wisdom of nature. Those pockets, bends, and tributaries create havens for diversity and beauty that could not exist if the river was anything but dynamic. That is what creates and sustains life. I’ve seen personal dreams fail, change, drift, and reemerge. I’ve seen some appear out of nowhere, but most take time. In that process, I’ve had my share of bitter disappointment and discouragement, and have wanted to quit more times than is fun to admit. However, chasing the dream has also made it so that I’ve experienced things I never would have if the journey was anything but dynamic. That’s what makes it an adventure.
This dream isn’t just an environmental project. At worst, if the project fails, a few thousand dollars is wasted. But if it succeeds, it is a blueprint for urban conservation that can inspire others to restore their waterways: the lifeblood of communities throughout time. Reconnecting our community to nature gives something back to our kids (and ourselves) that we’ve lost, simply by allowing them- and hopefully, generations to come after—to hop on their bikes, pedal down to the stream, and cast lines into crystal-clear waters teeming with life.
My 2026 goal is simple: “to go with the flow,” and the flow has already brought me places I had no idea were on the horizon. I’m proud to say that I’ve seen what happens when patience, perseverance, and people come together, and am so proud of what we have done together.
So I write this as a challenge to you, Walden.
A River Runs Through it!