Catskill Mountainkeeper has been busy this winter, laying out our advocacy work for 2020 and cooking up fun events for our region. We’ve released our 2020 Action Agenda, outlining our top policy priorities for the year, and we’re working with partners to secure funding for the Catskill Park and Region, planning for a snowshoe fun run and walk on the O&W Rail Trail, and spreading the word about the Climate Action Film Festival. Read on to learn more about each of these actions and events, and thanks so much for all you do to make our region such a great place to work, play, and live.

January 20, 2020 -- 

Albany - Governor Cuomo announced the introduction of a bill to permanently ban fracking as part of his New York State 2020 Budget. Advocates and environmental organizations across the state applauded the Governor’s leadership on this important bill to permanently protect the public health and environment of New Yorkers for generations to come. 

In 2015, Governor Cuomo’s administration, including the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation and NYS Department of Health, announced the completion of the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) process and a public health review that found high-volume hydraulic fracking was a danger to public health and the environment and therefore it would be not permited in New York State. Since that time, more than a thousand additional peer-reviewed scientific studies have been published that overwhelmingly confirming the serious public health and environmental risks and harms of fracking. Governor Cuomo’s announcement today was welcomed and applauded. 

Actor and long-time anti-fracking advocate Mark Ruffalo, "Today Governor Cuomo showed our state and the nation once again what real climate leadership looks like by announcing a legislative fracking ban as part of NYS 2020 Budget. By listening to the science, he is on the right side of history in working to ensure that NY's fracking ban becomes the law of the land.”

“Governor Cuomo’s bold announcement to pursue a permanent fracking ban will protect New Yorkers’ health, water, and the communities we cherish, and we call on the New York State Legislature to make the ban law” said Ramsay Adams, Catskill Mountainkeeper’s Executive Director. “Between today’s announcement and the nation-leading Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, New York is walking away from powering our grid with fossil fuels. In the years since Governor Cuomo implemented the regulatory ban on fracking in New York, the science has become indisputable: fracking isn’t safe.”

January 8, 2020 - In the 2020 State of the State address, Governor Cuomo announced plans for a $3 billion bond act. Catskill Mountainkeeper issued the following statement in response, attributable to Ramsay Adams, Executive Director.

January 2, 2020--In response to a strong public outcry from concerned citizens like you, on January 22, 2020 the Town of Kingston Planning Board will revisit the environmental review of a disastrous proposal to build a huge steel and concrete fabrication plant right next to Onteora Lake and Bluestone Wild Forest. These beautiful wild lands are an important Catskills ecosystem and a wonderful recreational resource, and to protect them fully the planning board should issue a Positive Declaration of significance under the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) and require the applicant to complete a comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment (EIS), allowing Mountainkeeper and other concerned parties to require consideration of all environmental impacts.

To demonstrate the important regional significance of Onteora Lake, Pickerel Pond, and the Bluestone Wild Forest, please add your signature to our new petition, calling on the Town of Kingston Planning Board to conduct a full, fair, and thorough review of this proposed project.

December 11, 2019--Catskill Mountainkeeper released a new report detailing how open space and recreational lands in the Catskills are worth millions of dollars annually to the local economy. The report concludes that recreational opportunities on publicly owned lands in the Catskill Park and the Catskill-Delaware Watershed, plus private lands open to the public, draw over 2.7 million visitors annually, visitors spend an estimated $170,031,580, and create an additional economic impact of $123,889,686 while supporting 1,882 jobs.

Check out our media release, and read the full report here. 

2019 has been a big year for Catskill Mountainkeeper. From a big victory on climate, to helping shift a polluting peaker plant proposal to a battery storage solution, fighting a proposed steel and concrete fabrication plant, and working to shut down an illegal dumping operation, and moving a bill to protect pollinators, we moved the needle on environmental issues in New York and beyond.

Click here to check out what the Mountainkeeper team achieved in 2019!

Bees, butterflies, birds and other pollinators are threatened because of neonicotinoids, habitat loss, and declining water quality and they need our help. Explore our pages to learn why pollinators matter, and take action: check out our toolkit for what you can do as an individual and what your community can do to save our pollinators and ultimately the planet! And take action: click here to tell your lawmaker to support the Birds and Bees Protection Act. Watch our award-winning eight minute short film below, and watch an expert panel discuss the film and take questions on pollinators here.

We invite you to a Catskill Mountainkeeper benefit dinner on December 7th featuring a talk on the climate crisis by Robert Thurman, renowned author, academic, and expert on Tibetan Buddhism. The evening, hosted by Sarah Johnson and Greg Cornell at their spectacular White Feather Farm in Saugerties, will benefit Mountainkeeper’s work to fight the climate crisis and advance our clean energy future. It’s going to be a great night, and we really hope you’ll be able to join us.

Catskill Mountainkeeper is fighting a proposed steel & concrete plant near Onteora Lake and adjacent to the Bluestone Wild Forest, and we need your help. 

Earlier this year, the Town of Kingston Planning Board received an application to permit a very large steel and concrete fabrication plant on Route 28 in the Town of Kingston, adjacent to Onteora Lake, Pickerel Pond, and the Bluestone Wild Forest. At the same time, the Open Space Institute was just completing a purchase of over 200 acres contiguous to the proposed concrete plant, with the goal of constructing new hiking and mountain biking paths on gorgeous nearby forest lands and eventually adding this parcel to the Catskill Park and Forest Preserve.

Unfortunately, the company, 850 Route 28 LLC's permit application didn't even acknowledge the nearby protected lands or how important the lands are to the public. As the result of omission, Catskill Mountainkeeper believes this application is inadequate and incomplete.

Based on the incomplete permit application, the Town of Kingston Planning Board issued a Negative Declaration under the State Environmental Quality Review Act, essentially stating the plant would have no environmental impacts and thus short-circuiting the environmental review process. 

Since that decision, Catskill Mountainkeeper, the Woodstock Land Conservancy, and local grassroots advocates have been requesting that the town reverse the "Neg Dec" and conduct a full and rigorous environmental review of the proposal.

To fight this plant and make our voices heard, we're asking you to sign and share an online petition "Town of Kingston Planning Board -- Keep Onteora Lake and the Bluestone Wild Forest Pristine." You can read more and sign the petition here.

This is an issue of protecting the Catskill Park, and the goal is to let all who love Onteora Lake, Pickerel Pond, and the Bluestone Wild Forest defend these irreplaceable treasures!

Thank you for acting to protect the Catskills!

Sincerely,

Ramsay Adams, Executive Director

TravelStorys App provides free GPS guided tours that share the stories of the Catskills

LIVINGSTON MANOR and ARKVILLE, NY – The stories of the citizens and settlers of the Catskills illustrate the uniqueness of the region, and today Catskill Mountainkeeper and the Catskill Center release new TravelStorys audio tours that allow listeners to hear the stories of the Catskills as they travel at the pace of their own curiosity.

The Gateway to the Catskills: Livingston Manor, Roscoe and more! and Catskill Mountains Scenic Byway audio tours are both available through the free TravelStorys app (available for download on smartphones). TravelStorys bringsthe little-known stories about the land to life, and by using GPS technology, stories on the tours automatically play as listeners pass through each site.