SHAWANGUNK –With the temperature in the 30s, despite the sunshine, a crowd of 50 or so stalwarts gathered at the Shawangunk Grasslands Nature Preserve entrance on Saturday, March 27, to lodge their protest at what they viewed as wasteful government spending.

The spending in question is the $779,000 slated for work in the Grasslands, digging up dirt and covering the runways of the old Galeville airbase. The contract for the work has gone to Ducks Unlimited, a Michigan-based agency that bills itself as a "world leader in wetlands conservation."   > MORE