Ben Murdock is a native of the hamlet of Hartwick in Otsego County. He spent his youth traipsing around the hills overlooking the Otego Creek valley. After graduating Cooperstown high school Ben attended college at SUNY Potsdam and received a bachelors degree in philosophy. In 2004 Ben joined the Catskill Outdoor Education Corps, an Americorps program sponsored in part by SUNY Delhi. For the past two years he has volunteered as an outdoor educator leading aquatic ecology and watershed education programs, as well as facilitating low-ropes courses, running chainsaws, cutting and laying blue stone, kayaking, skiing, and leading trail-work crews throughout the western Catskills. He was hired in August of 2006 as the Watershed Educator for the Catskill Center and looks forward to exploring the streams and forests in his new home.