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Representatives from municipalities and businesses throughout the Hudson Valley converged at Marist College this week for a Hudson Valley Smart Growth Alliance (HVSGA) conference aimed toward discussing strategies for development while maintaining biodiversity.
“It’s difficult for developers to get halfway through a project, and then realize that the land they are developing may have much more of an ecological value than they originally thought it did,” said Manna Jo Greene, environmental action director for Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc. Greene moderated the event, which attracted more than 100 people on April 29.
The HVSGA is a regional partnership of diverse interests including environmental, land conservation, economic development organizations, builders, realtors, tourism officials and planning agencies who have come together to promote local and regional solutions to sprawl. The alliance is endorsed by a number of organizations throughout the Hudson Valley, and has been hosting conferences for the past seven years.
Authority for land-use planning throughout New York State is largely decided upon by municipalities, and decisions made can have long-lasting effects on an area’s biodiversity. The Hudson Valley is growing rapidly, and so too is the information available to assist communities in making informed decisions about the potential impact of development.
“There’s been a real awareness of the impact of development throughout the Hudson Valley,” said Hudson River Estuary Biodiversity Outreach Coordinator Laura Heady.
Heady works with local and regional partners to integrate biodiversity and habitat protection with smart-growth strategies. At the conference she offered planning resources available for developers, and tools for protecting nature in “your” community.
“I hope that if people think of land-use planning and biodiversity, they realize that they can coincide successfully,” she said.
Keynote speaker Dr. Michael Klemens agreed. “The Hudson Valley is a rapidly growing area, so it’s important to create strategies to protect biodiversity,” he said.
Klemens is the director of conservation science for Scenic Hudson, and has been a member of the scientific staff of the American Museum of Natural History since 1979. He holds a doctorate in conservation biology and ecology from the University of Kent, in the United Kingdom, a master’s degree in zoology and a bachelor’s degree in education – both from the University of Connecticut. Klemens’ work motivated him to establish the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Metropolitan Conservation Alliance (MCA) in 1997, and through the MCA Klemens has translated biological data and conservation concepts into planning tools that achieve multi-town conservation compacts.
So far the MCA has established five compacts with communities in New York and Connecticut, and provides outreach to more than 90 municipalities throughout the Hudson Valley and beyond.
Klemens joined Scenic Hudson this year, and his focus is to urge developers to protect existing habitats, while identifying opportunities to improve degraded areas.
At the HVSGA conference he addressed local and regional strategies for the effective presentation of biological communities. According to Klemens, combating sprawl through conservation planning requires all levels of government, and because a majority of land-use decisions are made locally, an engaged and informed citizenry is crucial.
“Ultimately, it’s the municipalities that will make or break biodiversity in the Hudson Valley,” said Klemens.
