Photo of a Delaware County sunset by Catskill05, via Flick. http://www.flickr.com/photos/catskill05/ / CC BY-ND 2.0
Ah, Earth Day, one of the most nebulous holidays of the year. Celebrations and commemorations are underway, and it seems like pretty much anything goes.
New York State Environmental Conservation Commissioner Pete Grannis stood on the banks of the Hudson in Albany to celebrate the river's progress from "open sewer" to "renewed resource."
Grannis has spent the past week positioning himself on the banks of various rivers and lakes across the state to make announcements about environmental progress. Somewhere in there, he also found the time to do a Q&A with the New York Times about being the first signer of the original Earth Day proclamation in 1970. The NYT managed to get in a a zingy question about why the DEC "favors" fracking, prompting Grannis to get defensive:
It would be incorrect and an oversimplification to say my agency favors drilling. Natural gas drilling is legal in New York. D.E.C.’s job is to police it, to ensure that the regulatory scheme includes all the necessary environmental protections.
Another revelation in Grannis's NYT interview: when he's unleashed from his desk job, he runs to the Catskills to fish.
The Greene County legislature got an early start on Earth Day last night, when they passed a resolution demanding that the state keep Hunter's Devil's Tombstone campground open admidst the state's budget carnage. Legislative resolutions aren't known for their strong language, and this one, as reported by Woodall's Campground Management, was no exception:
“It is the opinion of the Greene County Legislature that such a closure and the related impacts should be more thoroughly analyzed prior to taking any action with such potentially significant detrimental community effects,” the resolution states.
Meanwhile, in Catskill, a peace march that was tangentially related to Earth Day passed through town.
The Catskills got an Earth Day shout-out in the Huffington Post, where John Adams, the president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, wrote that he wouldn't spend Earth Day anywhere else:
We love this region, and we work hard to protect its forests and streams.
And the owners of the Cluckin' "A" Critter farm, in Greenville, report that for them, Earth Day is just a good day to get things done:
Today's agenda amounts to the following...
1. Pick up layer pellets for the chickens...
2. Go to get shrubs for the flower beds...
3. Fill beds with dirt and plant shrubs...
4. Lay stone around shrubs to protect them and dirt in flower bed...
5. Bring dirt to gift shop for plants and back-fill...
6. Start electrical on gift shop...
7. Call Tru-Cut Lumber to place order...
8. Begin floor framing for turkey house...
9. Calculate 2x4's needed for framing turkey house...
10. Stop at Catskill Mountain Signs to order various signs...
11. Add another day to try to accomplish #3 through 9...
If you haven't scratched your Earth Day itch yet, don't fret: there's more stuff on tap. The Forsyth Nature Center in Kingston is holding a storytelling event and giving out free saplings today at 4pm. And tonight in Cobleskill, Earth Day meets Project Runway tonight in at the TRashion Show & Teach-In, in which models will "show off their fashionably reclaimed outfits." Have fun, and don't litter.
