My research has turned up amazing facts, including:
New York’s Hudson Valley ranks third in the world in the number of species of turtles - 13 species, including the endangered Bog Turtle.
The Hudson Valley also ranks second worldwide in the number of dragonflies and damselflies.
I learned this at the presentation I attended last night. I was motivated to attend because I wanted to know more about a grassroots group that has successfully saved thousands of acres of open space and set a legal precedent to boot.
The presentation was hosted by SPARC who negotiated an agreement that saved 7,000 of open space from sprawl. It turns out that, despite signed agreements, the recent settlement (November 30, 2005) is not settled.
The guest speaker, John Gebhards, is Director of the Orange County Land Trust. He has a gift for building coalitions, and has dedicated his life to open space preservation. He helped bring SPARC and the the Sierra Club together back in the late 1980’s, when this open space challenge began.
I was amazed to learn that Orange County NY, (located on the west side of the Hudson River, about an hour north of New York City) has $3.5 million of matching funds available to help area towns purchase lands dedicated to open space.
There are currently 9 open space sites in the region, each with grassroots support and growing public support for preserving farmlands and other large tracts of undeveloped land.
In geopolitical terms, the US Government includes the Hudson Valley in what they call the Highlands Region, 2-million acres stretching from the Central Appalachian Mountains to the Berkshires. There are local watchdogs working to protect the watershed, habitat and endangered species from sprawl and to foster sustainable land use in future human communities.
NY State has a bill pending which, if it passes would provide protection to watersheds and wetlands no longer protected by the US Government. Riverkeepers has detailed information.
My notebook is filled with details I haven’t begun to digest - history of park land acquisitions, endangered species, local initiatives.
In 1963 Rachel Carson wrote, “The serious student of earth history knows that neither life nor the physical world that supports it exists in little isolated compartments. On the contrary, he recognizes that extraordinary unity between organisms and the environment. For this reason he knows that harmful substances released into the environment return in time to create problems for mankind.”
It’s an ongoing struggle with political, ecological and historical components. But there are people who fight the good fight. I intend to meet as many of those people as I can.