Village of Red Hook Climate Smart Communities Monthly Report November 2023
Trustee Appenzeller and myself met with a representative of Clean Energy Communities and Climate Smart Communities to discuss Village Plans for certification with Climate Smart Communities. The Climate Smart Communities (CSC) Program provides local governments with a framework to guide their climate action and recognizes communities for their climate leadership. The village did an original assessment plan back in 2018 and made a pledge to uphold the ideas of being a responsible municipality for Climate Smart. This is a multi-pronged approach with numerous actions/projects to complete that allow for certification as a Climate Smart Community.
One of our first steps is to create a taskforce of engaged citizens who can work together to fulfill projects and paperwork to build our profile. We will be reaching out to community members who may be interested in joining this taskforce in the near future but if you are interested in learning more or want to join please contact myself or Trustee Appenzeller.
Village of Red Hook Saw Kill Watershed Community Group Monthly Report November 2023
During the Month of November the Saw Kill Watershed Community Group (SKWCG) met for the first time since the start of the Covid Lockdown in 2020. They are in a period of transition and looking to reassess how to be impactful and beneficial to the greater area beyond just the Saw Kill watershed.
The meeting opened with a welcome and a brief overview of what they had been doing since their last in person meeting. They maintained a small leader group planning that focused on educational materials but are now looking to expand to cover broader issues, engage the community more and are asking what is the future of SKWCG? What best serves the community at large?
They have partnered with other groups such as Winnakee Land Trust, the Town of Red Hook’s CAC and the DWSP2 (Dirking Water Source Protection Program.
Currently they are focused on testing the ground water. They set up water test kits to be available around town for residents to pick up and then return with their water samples to be tested. There was a brief presentation by Lab interns at Bard and the director of the lab about
the process of testing and sampling. This is a pilot and it is the hope to expand into a full fledged study.
Amy Shine discussed the Amphibian Migration road crossing project and are looking for volunteers to go out and help amphibians cross the roads during the migration season for mating and particularly doing counts and collecting data for DEC. This helps with the overall picture of the health of the watershed. It can also shed light on what areas to protect, and conservation. Over the last couple of years it is estimated this projected has saved upwards of 800 amphibians!
The Red Hook Source Water Initiative collaborates with the DEC to help with conservation easements. The SKWCG is working on is the Unnamed streams in the watershed – they are focused on finding the tributaries and naming them if they aren’t already named. *particularly interested in reaching out to the affected communities and historically marginalized communities of the watershed area to help with the naming or finding the existing names.
The president of SKWCG then opened up the meeting to “community conversation” to brainstorm together what the SKWCG can do moving forward and thinking of ways to formalize the question/comment forum for residents.
Submitted by Trustee Bradley‐Rickard who sat in on behalf of Trustee Laing.