Sites of interest

• Sustainable Orange County - a one- stop resource to find rebates, incentives, and grants available to the community of Orange County.
• Orange County Municipal Planning Federation (OCMPF)established in 1974, provides educational programs and information on planning, zoning, land use and related topics. OCMPF is supported by the Orange County Planning Department and the Orange County Citizens Foundation.
• Orange County Soil & Water Conservation District (SWCD)
• Green Infrastructure in Orange County - This new page site from the Orange County Soil and Water Conservation District is intended to highlight locally designed and installed storm water management practices that achieve the ‘GI’ goals of reduced runoff and increased groundwater recharge (mimicking natural hydrology) as well as water quality improvement.
• Orange County Land Trust

• New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
• New York State Climate Action Council
  • New York State Climate Action Plan - Interm Report
• NY State Association of Conservation Commissions (NYSACC)
• NYSDEC Draft 2009 Open Space Conservation Plan
• NYSDEC’s Hudson River Estuary Program
  • Citizen Science Opportunities with the Estuary Program

• ELLA - Hudson Hills and Highlands Environmental Leaders learning Alliance.
• EPA - US Envronmental Protection Agency
• Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies - Founded in 1983, the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies is one of the world’s leading independent environmental research organizations. Areas of expertise include freshwater, the ecology of infectious diseases, environmental chemistry, invasive species, and climate change.

Environmental Projects:

• Trees for Tribes
• Solarize Hudson Valley - Solarize Hudson Valley is a regional campaign to make it easier and more affordable for households and small businesses to go solar.
• Wallkill River Watershed Alliance - The Wallkill River Watershed Alliance is committed to making the Wallkill swimmable, fishable, and ecologically healthy for present and future generations
  • map of Wallkill with access locations
  • Kleine Kill
• Hudson River Watershed - they are an alliance of groups and individuals throughout the Hudson River Watershed from Lake Tear of the Clouds in the Adirondacks to and including New York Harbor. Their mission is to protect, conserve and restore the water resources of the Hudson River Basin.
• Riverkeeper
  • water quality monitoring data is now online at the Riverkeeper website! Visit the site and explore the data here: https://www.riverkeeper.org/water-quality/hudson-river/.
  • Each watershed has a page with information on citizen scientists, water quality permits, best uses and other monitoring data, and there is also a new collection of Tools & Databases for Waterway Research

Events:

• Hudson Valley Green Drinks - Green Drinks is a monthly networking event where people in the environmental fields and the sustainably minded meet over drinks (alcoholic or non), usually in an informal setting to exchange ideas, find out who’s doing what and spread the word on what you're doing, find employment leads and make new friends and contacts.

Other Sites of Interest:

• Links to Online Environmental Resources for CACs
• Acres for America - Acres for America is a partnership between Walmart Stores, Inc. and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The Acres for America program was established to provide funding for projects that conserve important habitat for fish, wildlife, and plants through acquisition of interest in real property. The goal of the Acres for America program is to offset the footprint of Walmart’s domestic facilities on at least an acre by acre basis through these acquisitions. During the next five years, Walmart and NFWF will focus on preserving lands critical to protecting migration routes, iconic wildlife, watersheds and forests.
• Riverkeeper - the Riverkeeper is a member-supported watchdog organization dedicated to defending the Hudson River and its tributaries and protecting the drinking water supply of nine million New York City and Hudson Valley residents.
• Hudson Estuary Watershed Resiliency Project - The Hudson Estuary Watershed Resiliency Project is a combination of research, demonstration, and educational outreach projects to address the challenges of flooding, stream and watershed management, and climate change. Also check out http://blogs.cornell.edu/estuaryresilience/

• Grants Program for the Hudson River Estuary