 | This article contains content that is written like an advertisement .(February 2019) |
Scenic Hudson is a non-profit environmental organization in New York that was founded in 1963 to oppose a hydro-electric power project in New York.
| This article contains content that is written like an advertisement .(February 2019) |
Scenic Hudson is a non-profit environmental organization in New York that was founded in 1963 to oppose a hydro-electric power project in New York.
Scenic Hudson was founded as the Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference on November 8, 1963, when Hudson Valley residents organized to save Storm King Mountain from being transformed into a pumped-storage hydroelectric plant. The organization successfully mounted the Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference v. Federal Power Commission court case, which saved the mountain and, for the first time, gave U.S. citizens legal standing to challenge development proposals on environmental grounds. Known as "The Scenic Hudson Decision," the case became a cornerstone of environmental law in the United States, and is widely credited with launching the modern environmental movement. [1]
After the Storm King Mountain case, Scenic Hudson gained more visibility. It began working with other local communities to protect important natural resources and adopting sound environmental policies.
The Chair of the Board of Directors of the organization is Kristin Gamble, who succeeded James C. Goodfellow. [2]
The organization has three major focus area: Protecting land, creating and enhancing parks and preserves, and advocating for environmentally responsible policies and development outcomes. [3]
Working primarily along the Hudson River between New York City and Albany, the organization acquires land and conservation easements to create parks and preserves, protect lands of high scenic and ecological importance, and conserve farmland. Much of its land protection work is completed in partnership with private landowners, local land trusts, and local, state, and federal public agencies. Land and conservation easements are typically acquired and held by Scenic Hudson's affiliate organization, The Scenic Hudson Land Trust, Inc. The organizations have protected over 31,000 acres in nine counties. In 2011, the organization received the Land Trust Alliance's National Land Trust Excellence Award. [4]
Scenic Hudson has created and enhanced more than 60 parks, preserves, and historic sites. [5]
Scenic Hudson works with municipalities and other environmental organizations to connect the public with the Hudson River, improve water quality, encourage responsible development practices, and revitalize urban waterfronts. In 2010, the organization published Revitalizing Hudson Riverfronts, a handbook which provides guidance for balancing conservation and development goals on urban waterfronts. [6] More recently, it launched a series of task forces to help riverfront communities adapt to climate change-induced sea level rise. The organization also works with the Hudson Valley Smart Growth Alliance. [7]
Revitalizing Downtown Poughkeepsie
In 2020, Scenic Hudson along with other local partners acquired two old manufacturing buildings and properties in the city of Poughkeepsie. [8] The acquisition is a part of a bigger project slowly underway by Scenic Hudson to revitalize the city’s Northside neighborhood. The spaces will likely be used for office spaces, “parkland,” and public gathering spaces. Another element of the project slightly farther along is the Pershing Avenue Neighborhood Farm, of which the construction started in fall 2020. The farm will consist of a quarter acre plot, with half being used for educational purposes, and all food grown will be distributed through Duchess Outreach, another local non-profit organization. The second half will act as a community garden where community members can rent out space. [9] The hope is that the farm will give the community safer spaces to be outside, as well as a food supply.
The Pershing Avenue Neighborhood Farm is a part of a response to the status of the city of Poughkeepsie as a food desert. A 2014 study found that one in four households in Poughkeepsie was food insecure. [10] This statistic was the same for access to a car, which has been proven to impact food security. Today there are only three accessible food stores within the city limits, two of which are on the outskirts and may be difficult to access without reliable transportation. In 2018, Duchess Outreach Fresh Market distributed 8,000 pounds of food grown in the Hudson Valley region, and the Pershing Avenue Farm will provide an additional stream of local food to that critical source. [11] Additionally, in encouraging local residents to learn to grow their own food, the hope is that there will be a further increase in accessibility to healthy food.
While Scenic Hudson has been a critical actor in this project, a number of other organizations in the area have been instrumental. These include Cornell Cooperative Extension, Nubian Directions, Duchess Outreach, Poughkeepsie Farm Project, Poughkeepsie Alliance, and the City of Poughkeepsie. Additionally, press releases from Scenic Hudson indicate that they will continue to work with community members for insights on planning. All of these moving parts are instrumental in ensuring a grassroots, sustainable approach to revitalizing the dilapidated downtown area.
Scenic Hudson has helped establish and advance numerous environmental initiatives, including the Hudson River Estuary Program, the New York State Coastal Management Program, the Hudson River Valley Greenway, the Clean Water Act, the Hudson Valley Community Preservation Act and the National Heritage Area Designation, and the Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve, a National Estuarine Research Reserve, and created and managed in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Scenic Hudson is currently working with other environmental organizations to facilitate the removal of polychlorinated biphenyl materials from the Hudson River. [12]
Land trusts are nonprofit organizations which own and manage land, and sometimes waters. There are three common types of land trust, distinguished from one another by the ways in which they are legally structured and by the purposes for which they are organized and operated:
The New York – New Jersey Trail Conference (NYNJTC) is a volunteer-based federation of approximately 10,000 individual members and about 100 member organizations. The conference coordinates the maintenance of 2,000 miles of foot trails around the New York metropolitan area, from the Delaware Water Gap, north to beyond the Catskill Mountains, including the Appalachian Trail through New York and New Jersey. It also works to protect open space and publishes books and trail maps. The organization's headquarters are at 600 Ramapo Valley Road, Mahwah, New Jersey.
Nyack Beach State Park is a 61-acre (0.25 km2) state park in Upper Nyack, Rockland County, New York. It consists of a small parking lot and a riverfront pathway, the southernmost section of the Hudson River Valley Greenway. It is known for its physical proximity to the Hudson River on one side of the pathway and the looming cliffs of the Palisades rising 700 feet (210 m) above on the other side.
The Wolf River Conservancy (WRC) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization whose stated purpose is "conserving and enhancing the Wolf River and its environs as a natural resource for public education and low-impact recreational activities." Headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee. It has approximately 1,500 members from throughout West Tennessee, led by an active Board of Directors and staff and advised by the Wolf River Conservancy Trustees. It is a fully accredited member of The Land Trust Alliance.
The Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River is a unit of the National Park Service designated under the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. It stretches along 73.4 miles (118.1 km) of the Delaware River between Hancock, New York, and Sparrowbush, New York. It includes parts of Delaware County, Orange County, and Sullivan County in New York, as well as Pike County and Wayne County in Pennsylvania. Most of the land in this unit is privately owned; the federal government only owns about 30 acres (12 ha).
The Trust for Public Land is a U.S. nonprofit organization with a mission to "create parks and protect land for people, ensuring healthy, livable communities for generations to come". Since its founding in 1972, the Trust for Public Land has completed 5,000 park-creation and land conservation projects across the United States, protected over 3 million acres, and helped pass more than 500 ballot measures—creating $70 billion in voter-approved public funding for parks and open spaces. The Trust for Public Land also researches and publishes authoritative data about parks, open space, conservation finance, and urban climate change adaptation. Headquartered in San Francisco, the organization is among the largest U.S. conservation nonprofits, with approximately 30 field offices across the U.S., including a federal affairs function in Washington, D.C.
Open Space Institute (OSI) is a conservation organization that protects land for clean drinking water, public recreation, healthy communities, wildlife habitat, and climate protection. Established in 1974, OSI achieves its goals through land acquisition, fiscal sponsorship, regional loan and grant programs, park and trail improvements, and public policy and advocacy. OSI is active across the country, including the states of New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Alabama, West Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida.
The Campaign for New York's Future is a coalition of civic, business, environmental, labor, community and public health organizations that supports the goals and strategic direction of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s sustainability proposal, PlaNYC 2030.
The Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy (GTRLC) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Traverse City, Michigan. It is an independent organization with its own by-laws, policies, board, staff, and budget. The organization is funded by private donors as well as local, state, and national foundations. The Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy has a volunteer Board of Directors and a professional year-round, full-time professional staff.
California Rangeland Trust is a conservation nonprofit organization founded in 1998. The Rangeland Trust claims to be the largest land trust in California, having conserved over 371,000 acres (1,500 km2) of rangeland on 90 ranches across 26 counties.
Joshua's Tract Conservation and Historic Trust, or Joshua's Trust, is a non-profit 501(c)(3) land trust operating in northeast Connecticut. Joshua's Trust was incorporated in 1966 to help conserve property of significant natural or historic interest. As of 2011, the Trust protects more than 5,000 acres, maintains 42 miles of trails that are open to the public, holds educational outreach programs, and publishes the Joshua's Tract Walkbook.
The Fall Kill is a creek in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The stream is approximately 38 miles (61 km) long, and joins the Hudson River in the city of Poughkeepsie.
The Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming, also known as Glynwood, is a nonprofit organization in Cold Spring, New York. Its mission is to help save farming in the Northeast, particularly the Hudson Valley, by strengthening farm communities and regional food systems. Located in the Hudson Valley, the Glynwood Center strives to get small- and mid-sized farmers to thrive, "on the land and in the marketplace".
Franny Reese State Park is a 251-acre (1.02 km2) state park located in the Town of Lloyd in Ulster County, New York. The park is managed by Scenic Hudson and is part of the Palisades Interstate Park system.
Frederic C. Rich is an American author, lawyer, and environmentalist. He lives in New York City and New York State's Hudson Valley. Rich's first book, Christian Nation, is a work of dystopian political fiction arising from the counterfactual of a McCain/Palin victory in 2008 followed soon after by John McCain's sudden death and Sarah Palin's ascension to the presidency. It was published by W.W. Norton in 2013. In Getting to Green, a non-fiction book published by W. W. Norton in April 2016, Rich argues that the American environmental movement has lost its way and explains how it can get back on track. The book calls for conservatives to reconnect with their long tradition of support for conservation and for the Green movement to adopt the reforms necessary to restore bipartisan support for the environmental agenda.
Barbara (Sturgeon) Yeaman is the founder of Delaware Highlands Conservancy, an accredited land trust serving Pike and Wayne counties, in Pennsylvania, and Sullivan and Delaware counties, in New York.
The Big Sur Land Trust is a private 501(c)(3) non-profit located in Monterey, California, that has played an instrumental role in preserving land in California's Big Sur and Central Coast regions. The trust was the first to conceive of and use the "conservation buyer" method in 1989 by partnering with government and developers to offer tax benefits as an inducement to sell land at below-market rates. Since 1978, with the support of donors, funders and partners, it has conserved over 40,000 acres through conservation easements, acquisition and transfer of land to state, county and city agencies. It has placed conservation easements on 7,000 acres and has retained ownership of over 4,000 acres.
