Environment DEC
From the November 2009 issue
Funds Awarded for Land Conservation and Water Quality Projects
$1.4 Million Awarded to Public/Private Partnerships for Land Conservation
The Orange County Land Trust will create new community gardens in Port Jervis and Middletown and improve the "Peoples Garden" in Newburgh.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Land Trust Alliance joined members of the state legislature to announce more than $1.4 million in Conservation Partnership Program grants. The grants, which are included in the dedicated Environmental Protection Fund (EPF), will help enable 47 land trust organizations to dramatically increase the pace, improve the quality and ensure the permanence of land conservation, resulting in significant environmental and economic benefits in communities across the state.
The Conservation Partnership Program is a public-private initiative funded through the EPF and administered by the Land Trust Alliance, in coordination with DEC. A total of $1,417,500 in grants will be awarded through this program to help local not-for-profits sustain critical programs. The funding will help create land trust jobs, strengthen key partnerships with local and state governments and support programming that advances farm and watershed protection and other community projects statewide.
The New York Agricultural Land Trust will use the grant to hire a full-time Director of Farmland Conservation Programs.
Forty-seven land trust organizations across New York will receive funds, including the Peconic Land Trust, North Shore Land Alliance, Manhattan Land Trust, Hudson Highlands Land Trust, Mohonk Preserve, Dutchess Land Conservancy, Mohawk-Hudson Land Conservancy, Agricultural Stewardship Association, New York Agricultural Land Trust, Tug Hill Tomorrow Land Trust, Genesee Land Trust and Western New York Land Conservancy.
State Announces $1.7 Million in Clean Water Planning Projects
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation announced the award of $1.7 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to planning boards and commissions across the state to improve local water quality. The federal stimulus funding will help communities develop and implement an array of projects, ranging from collecting water quality data to improving stormwater management to analyzing opportunities for installing "green" infrastructure. The 11 awards listed below were selected through a competitive process.
Great Lakes Commission - $254,695 - Collect phosphorus data for Lake Ontario tributaries.
Hudson Valley Regional Council - $285,000 - Develop a green infrastructure planning program in at least seven communities and plan for at least ten projects in each participating community.
Lake Champlain-Lake George Regional Planning Board - $130,625 - Catalog, assess and prioritize sites in the basin that are vulnerable to erosion, and develop an action plan.
Interstate Environmental Commission - $232,893 - Provide Long Island-wide stormwater management planning assistance.
Herkimer-Oneida Counties Comprehensive Planning Program - $95,000 - Develop and maintain stormwater planning.
Central NY Regional Planning and Development Board - $237,500 - Conduct regional green infrastructure planning and carry out stormwater management activities that address Onondaga Lake phosphorus.
Southern Tier Central Regional Planning and Development Board - $285,000 - Develop a regional action plan for the Chemung and Susquehanna river basins for ecosystem-based management.
Genesee/Finger Lakes Regional Planning Council - $97,369 - Assess and inventory stormwater needs to determine potential green infrastructure projects.
Interstate Environmental Commission - $28,500 - Collaborate with the Croton-Kensico Watershed Intermunicipal Coalition to develop a regional stormwater map.
Interstate Environmental Commission - $87,171 - Conduct wet and dry weather sampling and modeling of the Byram River (Westchester County).
Genesee/Finger Lakes Regional Planning Council - $13,887 - Provide online information about impervious areas of the nine-county region for use in long-term stormwater planning.
