I am writing to tell you about a project Catskill Mountainkeeper is involved in to support our region: FarmHearts -- an important new partnership to support and protect small family farms, the backbone of life in the Catskills for generations and an essential driver for our region’s economy.

Small farms play an integral role in our communities, providing healthy produce and dairy for our families and broader markets, and protecting open space that is critical for wildlife habitat and the overall heath of our environment. Unfortunately, without our help, the rich tradition of small family farms in the Catskills is at risk of becoming just a fond memory. As the market for agricultural products skews in favor of huge industrial farms, small farms are increasingly being squeezed out of business.

I’m writing to you today from the Delaware River Basin Commission’s (DRBC’s) meeting in New Jersey where Catskill Mountainkeeper is demanding that the commission ban fracking and all related activities in the Basin. Earlier this year DRBC proposed to ban fracking, but its draft rules would still allow fracking companies to use the basin as a storage area or a dump for dangerous, toxic fracking wastes. We need Governor Cuomo to use his power as a member of the DRBC to demand a COMPLETE ban against fracking and all its activities. Call Governor Cuomo and tell him to push the DRBC for a complete ban in the Basin.

The Catskills' hemlock trees are a foundation species for the forests' unique ecosystem. The hemlocks are beautiful and strong, providing homes for animals and shade to keep our streams cool enough for trout and other fish native to our area. Without the hemlocks, New York State would be a different place entirely, and right now these these amazing trees are threatened by a voracious invasive insect called the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA). Watch our new video to learn more.

New York's dairies are under attack. It's been an awful couple of years for the dairy industry--milk sales are down, output is up, and there's a huge glut of milk on the market creating the low milk prices that are driving farms out of business. With the recent announcement that Walmart's supplier is canceling contracts with local farms and processors in order to open its own mega-processing facility in Indiana to bottle 100 million gallons of milk per year, things have gotten dire.

April 24, 2018

Livingston Manor, NY – Today the New York State Assembly again passed the Climate and Community Protection Act, a bill that establishes and codifies necessary climate pollution reduction goals, ensures that environmental justice and low income communities long left behind are put front and center in the transition to renewable energy, and prioritizes solid, sustainable jobs.

The following response is attributable to Wes Gillingham, Associate Director.

“Yesterday more than 1,500 people from every corner of New York State marched in Albany asking legislators and the Governor to stop all natural gas infrastructure, move to 100% renewable energy sources, and make polluters pay for the health and environmental impacts their climate pollution has on New Yorkers each and every day. Today the Assembly again led the nation, passing the Climate and Community Protection Act (CCPA). Catskill Mountainkeeper thanks and applauds Assemblyman Englebright and Speaker Heastie for leading our government in the right direction. Now the New York State Senate and Governor Cuomo need to pass and enact the bill so NY can begin a just transition to a new energy paradigm.”

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Catskill Mountainkeeper was a key community partner in advocating for the restoration of the iconic Beaverkill Covered Bridge, which was showcased in this really great article from the April 2018 issue of New York State Conservationist Magazine.

Today Rolling Stone Magazine covered a story you won't want to miss: a new report co-authored by Catskill Mountainkeeper's own Senior Research Director, Kathy Nolan, shines a light on the hazards posed by fracking to our families, communities, and the environment. As Rolling Stone said, it's "the most authoritative study of its kind."

Welcome to Watershed Wednesday! Each Wednesday from now until March 30, Mountainkeeper will send out reminders and sample comments to make it easy for you to urge the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) to say no to fracking and drilling activities in the Delaware River watershed. There's no limit to the number of comments you submit.

Since today is Valentine's Day, we're focusing on love; our love of clean, pure, uncontaminated water. Water that hasn't been poisoned by fracking wastewater. Please tell the DRBC to ban fracking wastewater in the watershed.

TODAY: Submit a comment to the DRBC. Tell the commissioners: fracking wastewater cannot be regulated in the watershed--it must be banned.

Livingston Manor, NY – In response to Governor Cuomo and Comptroller DiNapoli’s announcement that New York will cease new investments in oil and gas companies and develop a plan to invest the Common Fund in clean energy technologies, Catskill Mountainkeeper issued the following statement, attributable to Ramsay Adams, Executive Director.

"Governor Cuomo's announcement that he and Comptroller DiNapoli will cease investing New York's pension in dirty, dangerous fossil fuels is exactly the type of leadership we need. It sends a strong message to the industry that we will not continue to support companies that are killing us and destroying our climate. Now New York needs to take the next bold move: funding the future by charging polluters for their emissions and investing revenues in our communities and renewable energy.

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From today's Times Herald Record

“There was a barrier to community solar in the past because you couldn’t get any sort of financial incentive for participating,” said Katherine Nadeau of the Livingston Manor nonprofit Catskill Mountainkeeper, which is helping locals sign up with solar farms. “If you produced more solar energy than you used, there was no way to sell the energy back to the grid.”

To learn more and sign up to go solar, visit renewableny.org