Nearly 600 Pristine Acres Added to Catskill Park – On Tuesday, Catskill Mountainkeeper joined the Nature Conservancy, Catskill Center, New York Department of Environmental Conservation (NYDEC), the Catskill 3500 Club and New York/New Jersey Trail Conference to celebrate the acquisition of 590 pristine acres in the Catskill Park. This land includes three parcels on the slopes of 3,600-foot Balsam Mountain, one of the 35 peaks over 3,500 feet in the park. Thanks to the efforts of the Catskill Park Coalition (CPC), and especially Alan White of the Catskill Center, this property was transferred from the Nature Conservancy to the NYSDEC, and added to the Catskill Park Forest Preserve... 

President Obama is coming to Cooperstown, NY this Thursday, May 22^nd, and it's critical that we show up in force to rally against fracking! Lately, President Obama has been making headlines stressing the importance of addressing climate change. But his support for fracking completely undermines this message.  Not only does fracking cause widespread water contamination, dangerous air pollution, and terrible health and community impacts, but it is a major contributor to global warming. Tell Obama to ban fracking now!...

This Monday, May 12th, join Catskill Mountainkeeper in Albany for the Fracking Lobby Day.  This legislative session there are five fracking bills under review by New York State legislators and we need you to tell your elected representatives that we want them to support bills to keep fracking and fracking waste out of New York State. Just last week, a hazardous waste bill that would have eliminated the import of fracking waste from out-of-state operations failed to make it out of committee for a full Senate vote by just ONE vote! We can’t let this happen again...  

These days, there’s a lot of crude oil from the nation’s heartland running through New York State and if the oil companies have their way, there’s going to be a lot more. Production from shale fields in the nation’s interior and Canada has dramatically increased.  Since there’s limited capacity for shipping petroleum products by pipeline, energy companies are turning more to rail transportation to ship its crude to coastal refineries, and then export. As a result, the nation’s oil industry now wants to make Albany, our state’s capital, a major refining and export center.   Help us stop the expansion of crude oil transportation - send a letter to Governor Cuomo today!...

In January, the Cuomo administration released a draft of its New York State Energy Plan, and the window to submit comments is quickly closing. To submit your comments by the April 30^thdeadline, click here today! What are State Energy Plans? State energy plans help to guide and build consensus among stakeholders in moving toward a shared goal of meeting future energy needs in a cost-effective and sustainable manner....  

Please attend the nearest hearing and also submit written comments. In February, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) released the draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the proposed Constitution pipeline, which would run across 120 plus miles of the western side of the Catskills from Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania to Schoharie County, New York. Time is running out on the comment period – which ends April 7^th– and the only public hearings are this week. Hearing Schedule: Monday, March 31, 7:00 pm. Cobleskill-Richmondville High School Tuesday, April 1, 7:00 pm. Oneonta High School Wednesday, April 2, 7:00 pm. Afton High School Thursday, April 3, 7:00 pm. Blue Ridge High School New Milford, Pennsylvania For more information and to submit comments, visit http://www.stopthepipeline.org

What do the Polar Vortex in the Northeast US, decimating drought in the Southwest US, devastating flooding in England and the warmest winter Olympics in history have in common?  They are all new and extreme weather events that are indicative of the coming instability of our climate as a result of human caused climate change...

The Fight Continues Against Fracking in Upstate New York: Catskill Mountainkeeper ramps up effort at local government level By Betta Broad High-Volume hydraulic fracking is not currently taking place in upstate New York, but the threat that this process poses to our environment continues to grow in other ways. Right now a de facto moratorium exists in New York to allow the state's Department of Health and Department of Environmental Conservation to research the health and environmental impacts of proposed fracking. We continue to wait for their initial findings but the struggle to prevent gas and oil companies from bringing fracking, its infrastructure, and its waste to New York goes on. As the oil and gas industry expands fracking in neighboring states, trucks carrying toxic frack waste from sites in Pennsylvania and Ohio travel our roads in New York....

By Ramsay Adams