November 5, 2008, Albany Times Union: Stockbridge-Munsee Sue DOI for Off-Reservation Catskills Casino
Bush administration sued over ruling blocking Native American Catskills casino
The Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans has sued the U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and other DOI officials alleging they arbitrarily and capriciously denied the tribe’s application to take land into trust in the Catskills earlier this year.
The tribe contends the DOI made unsupported assumptions in a supposed “guidance” document that imposed new requirements on the location of off-reservation casinos.
The Wisconsin-based tribe lodged its suit was filed in the United States District Court, Southern District of New York.
The Tribe first submitted its application to take land into trust in Sullivan County to operate a gaming facility in what it says is its ancestral New York homeland nearly seven years ago.
The tribe has offered to settle its claim to land in Madison and Oneida counties for the rights to develop a casino in the Catskills.
“With the largest projected state deficit in recent memory and an economic collapse not seen since the Depression, our proposal for economic stimulation in the Catskills must be given a fair review, as we are entitled by law,” said Robert Chicks, President of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community, Band of Mohican Indians.
Link to article is here:
November 6, 2008, Gadling: Undiscovered New York: Up the Hudson River Valley
Undiscovered New York: Up the Hudson River Valley
Welcome to this week's installment of Undiscovered New York. This week we're going to be heading north, following the path of the Hudson River, one of the great waterways of the Northeastern United States. Many New Yorkers will tell your our city is "the center of the world," and in some ways, they have a good case. But the land bordering the Hudson River up to the capital in Albany has been just as important in shaping New York as the city itself in matters historical, political and cultural.Along the shores of this picturesque valley lie all sorts of fascinating destinations which have shaped New York City, the United States and arguably the world. The Hudson River Valley is home to the mansions of former Presidents and wealthy industrialists, famous enclaves of artists and culinary experts and birthplace of one of our nation's great military schools.
Are you ready to leave the confines of New York City? Come along with Undiscovered New York as we "head up the Hudson."
Stop One: West Point Military AcademyJust fifty miles up the Hudson from New York is West Point, site of the oldest continuously occupied military post in the United States and home to around 4,000 cadets. Though the academy was first established by President Thomas Jefferson in 1802, the site was founded as a military installation in 1778, when it helped deter British troop movements along the river during the Revolutionary War. Visitors who are interested in checking out the grounds can stop by the Visitor's Center where they can arrange guided tours. There's also one of the world's biggest military museums on site, providing a interesting look at the history of U.S. military.
Stop Two: Storm King Art Center
Next on our tour of the Hudson, is Storm King, an outdoor sculpture gallery set against the backdrop of scenic Mountainville, NY. Nestled among over 500 acres of gorgeous rolling hills are enormous sculptures crafted from famous artists like Alexander Calder and Richard Serra. It's a peaceful place to spend the day strolling the grounds or to bring along a picnic and enjoy the outdoors (OK, yes winter is coming, but you never know with global warming these days).
Stop Three: Hyde ParkAs we move further up the Hudson, we arrive at Hyde Park, a historic New York town that dates back to the 18th Century. It's famous for several great attractions, all within close proximity. Perhaps most renowned is the former home of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was born in Hyde Park and spent many years living there during his time as President. In addition to tours inside Roosevelt's home, visitors can also take a look at FDR's Presidential Library with many artifacts from the momentous years of the Great Depression and World War II. Also nearby is the Vanderbilt Mansion, one of the family's many opulent retreats and a monument to Gilded Age excess. Foodies should also make a stop at the Culinary Institute of America, where they can sample world class cuisine from the school's chefs in training.
Stop Four: Woodstock and the Catskills
What trip up the Hudson would be complete without a stop in Woodstock, notorious home of the world's best known music festival and long time hippie enclave? If schlocky tie-dyed t-shirts are not your thing, don't despair - there are plenty of awesome attractions nearby that will make the trip more than worth it. Nature lovers will be pleased to find the Catskills are just minutes away. It's a gorgeous unspoiled wilderness where you can take in the scenery and perhaps check out the Buddhist Monastery that sits at the top of one of the area's many hills. Make sure to finish your day at The Bear Cafe - the food is absolutely outstanding.
Filed under: Arts and Culture,
link is here:
http://www.gadling.com/2008/11/06/undiscovered-new-york-up-the-hudson-river-valley/print/
Catskills Geology
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Valley and Ridge ProvinceThe erosional characteristics of the sedimentary rock formations exposed along great anticlines and synclines of the Appalachian Mountains are responsible for the characteristic Valley and Ridge topography. Durable layers of sandstone and conglomerate form ridges, whereas less resistant limestone and shale underlie the valleys in the region. Along the eastern margin of the Valley and Ridge is the Great Valley, a broad valley underlain by Cambrian and Ordovician shale and carbonate rocks that weather and erode faster that more durable sandstone and conglomerate that crop out in ridges and plateaus to the west (see Figure 52). It extends southward from the Adirondack Mountains region, encompassing the upper Hudson River Valley between the Taconic Mountains (to the east) and the Catskills (to the west). It gradually bends westward into northern New Jersey, forming a broad, low valley broken by long, low ridges. It is bordered by the Highlands of the Reading Prong on the south and east, and the high ridge of Kittatinny Mountain to the west. In New Jersey and western Pennsylvania, Kittatinny Mountain represents the eastern-most hogback ridge of Middle Paleozoic rocks of the Valley and Ridge. North of New Jersey the characteristic folds of the Valley and Ridge fade into the nearly flat-lying strata of the Catskills region and the Allegheny Plateau region of western New York and Pennsylvania. In the New York Bight region, the Allegheny Plateau and the Catskill Mountains of Pennsylvanian and New York are the northern extension of the greater Appalachian Plateau.
Precambrian age (Grenvillian) crystalline igneous and metamorphic rocks form the basement beneath the sedimentary rocks of the plateau regions and the Valley and Ridge Province. In general, the Paleozoic sedimentary cover above the Precambrian basement increases in thickness from several kilometers in the midcontinent region to nearly a dozen kilometers in portions of the Appalachian Basin region. Throughout Paleozoic time, the Appalachian Basin region was the site of accumulation of vast quantities of sediment derived from uplifts created by the Taconic Orogeny (Late Ordovician), the Acadian Orogeny (Late Devonian), and Alleghenian Orogeny (Late Mississippian to Permian). These three mountain building intervals each left a progressive tectonic impression on the rocks of the New York Bight region and beyond (generalized illustration of these events is shown in Figure 53). Between and following these mountain building episodes were extensive quiescent periods when weathering and erosion stripped away most topographic relief, allowing shallow marine seaways to episodically invade portions of the landscape in the New York Bight region. This is demonstrated by the thick sequence of sedimentary rock formations which crop out through the region extending from the Hudson Valley into the Appalachian Basin (including the Catskills, the Green Pond Outlier, and the Valley and Ridge regions [Figure 54]).
Aftermath of the Taconic Orogeny As the Taconic Orogeny subsided in early Silurian time, uplifts and folds in the Hudson Valley region were beveled by erosion. Upon this surface sediments began to accumulate, derived from remaining uplifts in the New England region. The evidence for this is the Silurian Shawangunk Conglomerate, a massive, ridge-forming quartz sandstone and conglomerate formation, which rests unconformably on a surface of older gently- to steeply-dipping pre-Silurian age strata throughout the region. This ridge of Shawangunk Conglomerate extends southward from the Hudson Valley along the eastern front of the Catskills. It forms the impressive caprock ridge of the Shawangunk Mountains west of New Paltz, New York. To the south and west it becomes the prominent ridge-forming unit that crops out along the crest of Kittatinny Mountain in New Jersey. Through Silurian time, the deposition of coarse alluvial sediments gave way to shallow marine fine-grained muds, and eventually to clear-water carbonate sediment accumulation with reefs formed from the accumulation of calcareous algae and the skeletal remains of coral, stromatoporoids, brachiopods, and other ancient marine fauna. The episodic eustatic rise and fall of sea level caused depositional environments to change or to shift laterally. As a result, the preserved faunal remains, and the character and composition of the sedimentary layers deposited in any particular location varied through time. The textural or compositional variations of the strata, as well as the changing fossil fauna preserved, are used to define the numerous sedimentary formations of Silurian through Devonian age preserved throughout the region. The Acadian Orogeny Uplifts and volcanic centers formed during the Acadian Orogeny in the New England Region shed fine-grained clastic material into an expansive inland seaway that covered most of the southern and central Appalachian region and much of the midcontinent during Middle Devonian time. As the Acadian Orogeny progressed, greater quantities of coarser clastic sediments migrated into shallow sea, building an extensive alluvial plain along the eastern margin of the seaway. The Catskills region was proximal to the Acadian Highlands, and therefore was the site of the greatest accumulation of sediment in the region. (The boundary between the two geologic regions is a line approximating the location of the modern Hudson River; the Acadian Highlands was to the east.) To the west, the marine strand line migrated back and forth through time as the supply of sediments fluctuated and as sea level rose and fell. Sediments of Late Devonian age accumulated as a sedimentary wedge to as much as 7,000 feet in the Catskills region; these sedimentary deposits are thickest in the east and grow progressively thinner westward and southward into the central Appalachian Basin region. Massive accumulations of conglomerate and sandstone exposed along the eastern edge of the Catskills plateau led to an early interpretation that the Catskills formed as a great delta-type deposit, similar to the modern greater Mississippi Delta. However, complexities in the sequence of the sedimentary formations throughout the greater Catskills have been revealed from more recent geological investigations. A new perspective of the Catskills sedimentary sequence is model of fluctuating shorelines and prograding alluvial environments along the western margin of the Acadian upland. Farther to the west massive quantities of organic-rich mud accumulated in a deeper restricted seaway basin. These organic-rich mud deposits represent the oil and gas shales that are abundant throughout Appalachian Basin and the Ohio Valley regions. The pattern and extent of Devonian age outcrops that exist in the New York Bight region provide information about even more extensive Devonian age deposits that existed in the past. The eastern edge of outcrop belt of Late Devonian rock shown in Figure 52 roughly outlines the extent of Catskills. The southern extent of the Devonian outcrop belt is part of the folded strata along the western Delaware River valley along the New Jersey-/Pennsylvania border. Devonian sedimentary rocks also crop out closer to New York City in the Green Pond Outlier, a complex synclinal trough that trends northeastward through the heart of the Highlands region in northern New Jersey and southern New York. Based on the occurrence of marine sedimentary units in the Green Pond Outlier it can be assumed that Devonian sedimentary units were continuous across much of the New York Bight region prior to the Acadian Orogeny. Devonian sedimentary rocks are also preserved in a complex synclinal area in northeastern Connecticut and extending northward into central Massachusetts. Igneous intrusions of Late Devonian age occur in small portions of Westchester County, New York (the Peekskill Granite just east of Peekskill, and the Bedford Augen Gneiss which crops out along the New York/Connecticut Boarder near the Mianus River Gorge). Several massive intrusions of Devonian age occur in the central Western Connecticut Uplands. Some of these intrusions may have contributed to episodes of volcanism in the region. Regional metamorphism during the Acadian Orogeny affected the rocks throughout New England, including the bedrock of the New York City area. Heating and annealing during metamorphism "reset" the geologic ages of most older rocks in the eastern Highlands Province (including the rocks throughout Manhattan and the Bronx) to Late Devonian age. The influence of regional metamorphism associated with the Acadian Orogeny diminishes significantly west of the Hudson River The Acadian Orogeny lasted from Late Devonian into early Mississippian time. This is inferred, in part, by the abundance of igneous intrusions of these ages throughout the Appalachian region. By Late Mississippian time, mountain building in throughout Appalachian region had drastically subsided. This can be inferred from the extensive sequence of marine limestones formed from clear water marine sedimentation preserved as strata of late Early Mississippian age (Meramecian, around 350 million years ago) throughout the western Appalachian Basin region and the midcontinent. By the end of Mississippian time, mountain building was once again proceeding. This is represented in the sedimentary record as the flood of clastic material preserved in association with the Pennsylvanian coal measures throughout the Appalachian Basin region. These coal measures formed in association with alluvial flood plains and inland coastal swamplands that developed along the western margin that of the Appalachian Mountains and in Late Paleozoic sedimentary basin throughout the midcontinent. The Alleghenian Orogeny During late Paleozoic time the ancient Iapetus Ocean (also called Proto-Atlantic Ocean) continued to vanish as the North America continent (Laurentia) collided with Africa (which was part of a larger collection of continents called Gondwanaland). During this time all of the Earth's continents were coalescing to form a single, great supercontinent, Pangaea (beginning roughly 320 million years ago during the Pennsylvanian Period [see Figures 8, 53C, and 83]). In eastern North America the formation of Pangaea corresponded to the Alleghenian Orogeny, the mountain-building episode associated with the formation of great folds and thrust faults throughout the central Appalachian Mountains region. As the continents collided, the rock material trapped in-between was crushed and forced upward into a great mountain range, probably similar in size and character of the modern Alps. With nowhere to go, rocks along the eastern margin of the North American continent were shoved far inland (the same occured in the opposite direction along the margin of the African continent, forming the Atlas Mountains of Morocco and the western Sahara). The sedimentary rock in the eastern Appalachian Basin region was squeezed into great folds that ran perpendicular to the direction of forces. The greatest amount of deformation associated with the Alleghenian orogeny occurred in the Southern Appalachians (North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia). In that region a series of great fault developed in addition to the folds. As the two continents collided, large belts of rock bounded by thrust faults piled one on top another, shortening of the crust along the eastern edge of North America in the North Carolina and Tennesee region by as much as 200 miles. The relative amount of deformation gradually diminishes northward. The fold belt extends northward through Pennsylvania and gradually peters in the vicinity of the New York border. The Kittatinny Mountains in northwestern New Jersey mark the northeastern-most extension of the high ridges of the Valley and Ridge Province. The influence of Alleghenian deformation on the regions east of the Valley and Ridge Province must have be even more intense, however, there is little evidence preserved. Rocks of Mississippian, Pennsylvanian, and Permian age are missing in the New York Bight region. A great unconformity beneath the Triassic sedimentary rocks of the Newark Basin series represents an extensive period of erosion of uplifted rocks and sediments during and after the Alleghenian Orogeny. In the New York Bight region, this unconformable surface is flooded beneath the lower Hudson River below the Palisades, and in New Jersey it is covered by younger sediments of the Coastal Plain. Field Trips Destinations in New York, New Jersey, and eastern Pennsylvania: Hudson River Valley Region The Shawangunk Mountains, New York The Green Pond Outlier, New York and New Jersey Kittatinny Mountain, New Jersey and Pennsylvania
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U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey Maintainer: WESP team webmaster contact FOIA || Privacy Statement || Disclaimer || Accessibility URL: http://3dparks.wr.usgs.gov/nyc/valleyandridge/valleyandridge.htm This site last updated July 22, 2003 (ps) |
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Catskills Geology
THE CATSKILLS
Devonian conglomerate crops out along the ridge top of the east-facing Catskill front in North Lake State Park (near Tannersville, NY).
Uplift from the Acadian Orogeny in the New England Region resulted in the erosion and deposition of large quantities of sediments into a fluctuating shallow sea that covered most of eastern North America during Devonian time. The Catskills region was proximal to the Acadian Highlands, and therefore received a vast supply of sediments. (The boundary between the two geologic regions is a line approximating the location of the modern Hudson River; the Acadian Highlands was to the east. To the west was an alluvial plain that grew and shrank with the rise and fall of sea level.) Sediments of Devonian age accumulated as a sedimentary wedge to as much as 10,000 feet in the Catskills region; these sedimentary deposits are thickest in the east and grow progressively thinner westward and southward. Massive accumulations of conglomerate and sandstone exposed along the eastern edge of the Catskills plateau led to an early interpretation that the Catskills formed as a great delta-type deposit, similar to the modern greater Mississippi Delta. However, complexities in the sequence of the sedimentary formations throughout the greater Catskills have been revealed from more recent geological investigations. A new perspective of the Catskills sedimentary sequence is model of fluctuating shorelines and prograding alluvial environments along the western margin of the Acadian upland. Farther to the west massive quanities of organic-rich mud accumulated in a deeper restricted seaway basin. Today, these organic-rich deposits represent the oil and gas shales that are abundant throught the Appalachian basins and plateaus of the Ohio Valley region.
Today the Catskills are an erosionally-dissected plateau. Like the entire New England region it displays the effects of Pleistocene continental glaciation. The outcrop belt of Devonian rock in map below 2 roughly outlines the extent of Catskills. The southern extent of the Devonian outcrop belt is part of the folded strata along the Delaware River valley along the New Jersey/Pennsylvania border. Devonian sedimentary rocks also crop out closer to New York City in the Green Pond Outlier, a large syncline in northern New Jersey and southern New York containing middle and upper sedimentary Devonian rocks. Devonian sedimentary rocks are also preserved in a complex geologic area in northeastern Connecticut and extending northward into central Massachusetts.
Upper Paleozoic rocks of the Catskills and Valley and Ridge Province. Image generated from Portrait USA CD-ROM with permission from the American Geological Institute, Joint Educational Initiative Group.
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November 2, 2009, Mid Hudson News: Home Sales Rebound in Hudson Valley and Catskills
Home sales rebound
HUDSON VALLEY-CATSKILLS – Sales of existing single-family homes in the Hudson Valley and Catskills have made somewhat of a comeback.
While most, if not all, counties faces losses for the past several months, a number saw increased sales in September 2008 when compared to the same month last year, according to the New York State Association of Realtors.
While there continued to be negative sales numbers, counties like Columbia, Putnam, and Rockland saw increases.
Existing home sales grew by 17 percent in Columbia County, by almost 12 percent in Putnam County and by almost 10 percent in Rockland County. Sales rose by almost four percent in Greene County and they eked up by one percent in Ulster County.
Sales of existing homes fell by 44 percent in Delaware County, by 23 percent in Sullivan County, by 18 percent in Westchester County and by 15 percent in Orange County.
Statewide, home sales year over year in September fell by four percent.
Westchester County continued to have the highest median priced homes sold at $635,000. Delaware County had the lowest at $120,000.
Homes sold in Columbia County for $230,000, for $297,250 in Dutchess, for $275,750 in Orange, for $340,000 in Putnam, for $450,000 in Rockland, and for $240,000 in Ulster.link to full article is here:
http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/November08/02/Home_sales-02Nov08.htm
October 31, 2008: New York Times: View From the Blog about the Catskills
View From the Blog
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Mr. Baily’s father had recently bought a place in the Catskills, and visiting his home the couple realized how much they liked it there. Soon enough, Ms. Phillips and Mr. Baily thought about buying a getaway of their own.
“It’s tough to go into a sort of rural area, where everyone’s been there forever,” said Mr. Baily, the director of publicity at Shore Fire Media, a Brooklyn-based public relations and online marketing firm. “There’s a real barrier for entry. You stay at a B & B and think, oh, wouldn’t it be nice to have a place here? To go from thinking about buying a place to looking at places — seriously, it’s a big jump. It’s a little scary. You just don’t know what a good deal is; you don’t know the landscape. You can’t go buy a manual. You need to find someone you can trust.”
A Web search led Mr. Baily to blog.catskill4sale.com, a blog about the real estate scene in Sullivan County, N.Y., written by David Knudsen, a broker at Catskills Buyer Agency. On his widely read site, Mr. Knudsen ruminates upon everything from current market conditions to energy drilling and new restaurant openings. Mr. Baily said he read “pages and pages” of the blog, and not only was he convinced he’d found his real-estate agent, he said, but he also gained confidence in his decision to buy a home in the area.
That real-estate agents have an online presence is nothing new. (According to a 2007 study from the National Association of Realtors, 84 percent of home buyers use the Internet in their search.) What’s changing, however, is the growing importance that blogs play in the real-estate world in general, and in the vacation-home market in particular.
For brokers, blogs are, of course, a handy marketing tool: they’re economical, practical and easy to update. But for prospective buyers, a sophisticated blog — one with more than an agent’s plea, “check out my new listing” — can help potential buyers forge a connection to a faraway community, learn the landscape of an area and, ultimately, make informed purchasing decisions.
“Blogs are a medium that are well suited to a mix of information, opinion and personality,” said Mr. Baily, who, working with Mr. Knudsen, bought a fixer-upper Victorian on 22 acres in Bethel, N.Y., in August. “If the person is well-informed and has the background to contextualize the information for you, it’s a really great way to keep your finger on the pulse of something.”
Ultimately, agents’ blogs are tools to attract new clients. “If you’re going to sell a home in the mountains, you’re going to have to sell the mountains,” said Elwin Wood, a real estate broker who is also chairman of community and economic development for the Sullivan County Legislature.
Nonetheless, comprehensive vacation-home blogs — ones that address everything from details on the real estate market (Is inventory on the rise? Is it possible to buy a waterfront home for under $500,000?) to quality-of-life questions (Is there cellphone service? Can I get a pizza delivered?) — can help potential buyers get a sense of a community that they may have visited only once, twice, or never.
“The thing about a second-home market, it takes people three, four trips to an area before they buy something,” said Mike Kennedy, an agent at Railey Realty in McHenry, Md., and a prolific poster on his company’s blog (realty.railey.com/blog) about vacation homes at Deep Creek Lake. “You’d spend half the time looking at houses, half the time in the car answering questions about the area.”
With the blog, he said, “you work through some of those things up front, as opposed to the three, four trips that it takes people to get educated.”
Joanne Hanson, a broker-blogger, agrees. The clients who come to her via her blog, www.mountain-living.com/blog, “come to us much more ready to buy,” said Ms. Hanson, leader of the Mountain Living Team at Coldwell Banker Colorado Rockies Real Estate in Frisco, Colo.
Such was the case for Jeff Geslin, a Houston-based geological adviser for ExxonMobil. Earlier this year, he and his wife, Lorna Campbell, decided to buy a mountain home in Summit County, Colo., about 90 minutes from Denver, where Mr. Geslin’s family lives.
“We weren’t familiar with the real estate in the area, and we weren’t familiar with having a second home that we were going to rent out,” said Mr. Geslin, who said his agent pointed him toward Ms. Hanson’s blog for answers.
Throughout the spring, the couple did an enormous amount of research online and looked frequently to Ms. Hanson’s blog for advice. “When we showed up in June, we had a pretty good idea of our price range, what we were interested in and how we were going to manage it,” said Mr. Geslin, who visited 15 properties in a single day, revisited two on the second day and made an offer on a furnished two-bedroom condo on the third. “It made for a very effective trip.”
Sometimes it’s the nitty-gritty market details on a blog that help buyers take the plunge. Kathy Murray, along with her husband, Rob Murray, her father-in-law, Bob Murray, and his girlfriend, Christine Prettyman, were interested in purchasing a home at Deep Creek Lake, in western Maryland. The family, who plan to rent out their home when it’s not in use, knew they wanted a place with multiple master bedrooms — but, thanks to the Railey Realty blog, expanded their must-have list.
“The blog gave us insight into the rental market,” Kathy Murray said. “We knew what we liked; they had a different perspective.”
Ms. Murray said what they hadn’t considered were the little extras that help a property do well in the short-term rental market, such as a great view or interesting architecture. Looking at the blog, they realized that there were “a lot of factors to consider when buying a rental home,” she said. “You need to have a pool table, Ping-Pong, some sort of entertainment. I could care less if there was a pool table. But in the rental market that we’re going to go into, that appeals to people.”
In late September, the family closed on a five-bedroom, five-bath newly built chalet with a “fantastic view,” according to Ms. Murray, where there’s plenty of room for the pool table.
For agents, a blog can provide an avenue for a slightly softer sell. Karin Elliott, an agent with IBA Mountain Homes in Big Canoe, a resort community about an hour north of Atlanta, said that every three or four posts on her blog (ibamountainhomes.com/wordpress/), she writes about a listing — to little effect. “People blow past that — they don’t want to read that,” said Ms. Elliott, who focuses on life’s little details, like mushroom hunting and the local Oktoberfest. “I just write about the stuff that doesn’t stress people out.”
Kelli Clay and her husband, Brett Newsom, bought a two-bedroom cottage in Big Canoe in March. Ms. Clay said she discovered the community, as well as her future vacation home, via Ms. Elliott’s blog. “It’s not a hard sell,” said Ms. Clay, who lives in suburban Atlanta and as a wellness instructor helps families live healthy lives. “It talks more about the day-to-day life in Big Canoe. It’s a warmer feeling, in terms of the draw. It kills two birds with one stone in a very nice way: there might be a soft-sell point to it, but you can completely ignore the selling point if you’re not interested.”
“A good second-home blog is a little bit like an opinionated Web cam,” said Mr. Knudsen, who, thanks to his blog, is something of a celebrity in Sullivan County. “With second-home blogging, you’re communicating information to people at a distance — a little bit like an electronic newspaper for people who don’t have ready access to the local newspaper, who aren’t stopping into a local bar or restaurant and picking up local gossip and tidbits.”
In fact, some find these blogs better than the local newspaper. During his Catskills home search, Mr. Baily had the local newspaper delivered to his Brooklyn Heights home. “I read it every day,” he said. “I didn’t renew it. What I read from David’s blog was much more helpful.”
2008 Sullivan County Second Home Owner Study
2008 Second Home Owner Study
Between 2001 and 2007, the County experienced a 65 percent increase in second home ownership. For example, the Sullivan County Division of Planning, using tax roll data from the Sullivan County Office of Real Property, established that 6,089 second home owners existed 2001. In 2007, the Division, again using tax roll data, revealed that 10,085 persons owned a second home in Sullivan County, and an additional 6,196 people owned vacant land in the County with a full-time residence outside of Sullivan County.
2008 Second Home Owner Synopsis
Appendices
B. Raw Data of Second Home Owner Responses
If you have any questions or would like additional information, please contact us.
October 30, 2008, New York Times: Amid Talk of Hidden Deals, Wind Firms Agree to Code of Conduct
Two of the state’s largest developers of wind power agreed on Thursday to follow a new, stringent code of conduct created by Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, who has been investigating the companies over allegations that they bribed or intimidated municipal officials to approve wind projects.
By agreeing to follow the code of conduct, the companies, Noble Environmental Power and First Wind, agreed not to hire or give gifts to town officials responsible for approving wind power projects. The companies also agreed not to compensate the relatives of officials involved in deciding the fate of wind power installations, which have become a major source of income in many upstate communities.
In July, the attorney general’s office began investigating a growing number of complaints from community groups, residents and law enforcement officials in upstate towns where wind farms were either built or being developed. No one has been prosecuted as a result of the investigation.
But Mr. Cuomo expects that the Wind Industry Ethics Code will stem abuses and threats in communities where wind power companies are eager to install turbines. Mr. Cuomo expects other wind power companies to agree to follow the code as well.
“Wind power is an exciting industry for the state that will be a cornerstone of our energy future,” Mr. Cuomo said in a statement. “But it is important to make sure that this alternative-energy sector develops in a way that maintains the public’s confidence, and that is what this new code of conduct does.”
Mr. Cuomo’s office also set up a task force to monitor compliance with the new code. The group includes three district attorneys, the executive directors of the New York State Association of Counties and the Association of Towns of the State of New York, and a director from the New York Public Interest Research Group.
Companies caught violating the code of conduct can be fined up to $50,000 for a first offense and up to $100,000 for a second offense. Dozens of companies either have wind farms upstate or are trying to develop them.
The attorney general’s office has received many complaints about board members and other officials in upstate towns who received favors in return for approving the construction of windmills. In some cases, the complaints said, officials owned businesses that were hired by wind power companies. Mr. Cuomo is investigating whether different companies colluded to divide territory and avoid bidding against one another for the same land.
Nine large wind farms housing 451 towers, each with a turbine, are operating in New York, with at least 840 more towers planned for construction. The towers are one of the few economic bright spots in some upstate counties.
The statewide guidelines governing wind companies could become a template for the policing of conflicts of interest in other industries, Mr. Cuomo said. “There’s no reason it shouldn’t pertain to hotel developers, casino developers and road construction companies,” he said.
The attorney general dismissed concerns that the code of conduct would slow investment in wind power. Instead, he said, more projects probably will be approved because many opponents of wind farms have cited conflicts of interest by municipal officials as their reason for trying to block or slow construction.
But Carol E. Murphy, executive director of the Alliance for Clean Energy New York, a trade group of environmental advocates and wind power producers, said opponents simply do not want the windmills in their backyards. “The reason it’s difficult to do business in New York is Nimby-ism and people not wanting to look at windmills,” she said.
While Ms. Murphy said the code of conduct was sensible, she is worried that the new task force will become an additional way for opponents of wind power projects to try to block construction. “The unfortunate thing is it singles wind out with a task force and gives an additional place for Nimbys to go to,” she said.
link to article is here:
October 29, 2008, Star-Tribune: Study shows wildlife-watching generates billions
By WES SMALLING
Star-Tribune staff writer
Wednesday, October 29, 2008 9:54 PM MDT
A new federal report shows how the rapidly growing outdoor pastime of watching wild animals has become an economic powerhouse.
Released in October, the new addendum report tacked onto the federal government's "National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation," which is published every five years, concludes that expenditures from wildlife watching equal the revenues generated from all spectator sports, amusement parks and arcades, casinos without hotels, bowling alleys and ski resorts combined.
"Wildlife Watching in the U.S.: The Economic Impacts on National and State Economies in 2006" concludes that in that year wildlife watchers generated $122.6 billion in total industrial output for state and national economies.
The country's growing interest in watching birds and other wild animals is no surprise to Jessica Lynn, community naturalist for the Murie Audubon Society in Casper. At the Audubon Center at Garden Creek, she greets more than 500 student visitors a month and, depending on the season, about 100 adults a month. They come to peer through binoculars at birds and walk the nature trail that's near the base of Casper Mountain.
"You just missed a flock of 30 turkeys that were right here," she said, taking a break last Friday afternoon from setting up for a children's Halloween event at the Audubon Center.
What does surprise her about the report is the massive amount of money generated by observing wildlife.
"I had no idea it was that much," she said. Then it started making a little more sense to her as she added up her own usual birding expenses: gas money for trips and gear, all that gear.
"Binoculars, backpacks, birding guides and maps, clothing for all four seasons," she said.
People spend all that money on watching wildlife because observing the animals helps put them in touch with nature, she said.
"There's just that connection to the natural world, and with so many people who live in town, live in cities, it's seeing something different, getting away from all the hustle-bustle and the noise."
While participation in wildlife watching grows, federal surveys show how the number of hunters and anglers continues to decline. That national trend is most likely a result of the country becoming more urban, said Nicolas Throckmorton, spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Wildlife and Sportfish Restoration Program. The program distributes wildlife conservation grants to states and other entities from the revenues raised on a tax on hunting and fishing equipment.
"It's a disturbing trend, because hunters and anglers provide the dollars for wildlife conservation," he said. "There's an 11 percent excise tax on hunting and fishing equipment. There is no tax on wildlife watching equipment."
According to the surveys, wildlife watching is one of the most popular types of outdoor recreation in the country.
In 2006, nearly a third of the U.S. population, about 71.1 million people, enjoyed observing, feeding and photographing wildlife -- an increase of 8 percent since 2001. Wildlife watchers spent $45.7 billion in 2006 on travel, gear and other related expenses. According to the report, those expenditures had a ripple effect across local, state and national economies generating $122.6 billion in industrial output and resulting in more than a million jobs and billions of dollars in tax revenues.
Together, hunters and anglers spent more in 2006 -- $76.7 billion on travel, gear and other expenses of their sports.
In Wyoming, participation in fishing has declined 31 percent over the last decade, and there has been a slight decrease in the number of hunters. The state has had a slight rise in wildlife watchers who come from all over to visit the state for its wildlife, most notably at Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. The parks receive millions of visitors each year who come to camp, hike, see geysers and snap photos of bison, elk, grizzlies and wolves.
The big hit in the Casper area for birders is watching the showy springtime mating displays of sage grouse. There's a growing local interest in the unique birds, and some people come from other states to see them, said Robin Kepple, spokeswoman for the Casper office of Wyoming Game and Fish, who teaches wildlife watching classes at Casper College.
"There aren't many other places where you can go experience something like that," Kepple said of watching sage grouse in the Casper area. "We do have some amazing wildlife populations in Wyoming, and it's great you can just jump in your car and drive 15 minutes or so and see them."
Like Lynn, Kepple is surprised at the billions of dollars generated from wildlife watching. As a baseball fan, she's especially shocked that watching wild animals has more of an economic impact than pro sports.
"If that's the case, it makes you wonder why professional athletes are making so many millions of dollars while wildlife are always scraping for habitat funding."
The numbers are in
Recently released federal surveys conducted in 2006 show that during that year:
* Nationwide, 87.5 million people spent $122.3 billion hunting, fishing and watching wildlife.
* Anglers numbered 30 million and there were 12.5 million hunters, with 8.5 million participating in both pursuits. Combined, hunters and anglers spent $76.7 billion.
* Wildlife watchers numbered 71.1 million, an increase of 8 percent since 2001. They spent $45.7 billion, which generated $122.6 billion dollars in industrial output and resulted in 1,063,482 jobs, federal tax revenues of $9.3 billion, and state and local tax revenues of $8.9 billion.
* The top five states ranked by economic output for wildlife watching are California, Florida, Texas, Georgia and New York.
* In Wyoming, 762,000 people hunted, fished and watched wildlife. About 203,000 of those fished and 102,000 hunted, while wildlife watchers numbered 643,000. Note that the sums of anglers, hunters and watchers exceeds the total number of participants in wildlife-related recreation because many people engaged in more than one type of activity.
Over the last decade, Wyoming has seen a 31 percent decline in the number of people fishing in the state. Hunting participation in Wyoming has remained relatively steady, showing only a slight decline. Wildlife watching has shown a slight increase in Wyoming.
The federal reports, "Wildlife Watching in the United States: The Economic Impacts on National and State Economies in 2006," the "2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife Associated Recreation" and state-by-state breakdowns are available for download online at the Web site of the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service's Wildlife and Sportfish Restoration Program at:
http://wsfrprograms.fws.gov/
October 31, 2008, AP: States petition for mercury reduction
States petition for mercury reduction
Friday October 31, 2008
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP)
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Vermont is one of seven states petitioning the federal Environmental Protection Agency to take stronger steps to reduce mercury pollution from power plants outside the region.
The states, also including Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island and New Hampshire, have formally requested the EPA to convene a conference of all states whose mercury emissions contaminate lakes and rivers in New York and New England.
The conference would be convened under a provision of the Clean Water Act with the purpose of crafting an agreement on how to meet mercury reduction targets.
New York's environmental commissioner, Pete Grannis, says airborne pollution from upwind coal-fired power plants is the primary source of mercury in Adirondack and Catskill waters.
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