The oppressive heat might have kept many of us indoors with the air-conditioners cranking this week, but when you have a chance, take a look out the nearest window. What do you see?
For many of us, the answer might be streets, offices and buildings. Some might see the Hudson River, and others may have green backyards, woods and trees. As different as those landscapes all might be, they have at least one thing in common – they all foster a unique habitat of plants and animals, life easily disturbed by the changes of development and regional growth. Recognizing the importance of these varied habitats is vital to maintaining the character of the communities we call home, and initiatives like the habitat mapping study currently under way in Hyde Park will prove to be essential in the years ahead.
The study, a joint effort featuring volunteers from the town’s Conservation Advisory Council and Hudsonia, Ltd. and funded through a grant from the Hudson River Estuary Grant Program, will take a look at some of the unique habitats in northern Hyde Park to determine which may contain rare species or areas of ecological importance. The area, encompassing 5,000 acres and home to rare species like the Blanding’s turtle, Indiana bat and swamp cottonwood tree, among others, has the benefit of several unique environmental features, according to Michael Rubbo, a member of the CAC and the Daniel Kampel Director of Environmental Stewardship at the Teatown Lake Reservation in Ossining. Those features, including Hudson River shoreline, vernal pools and large undisturbed tracts of forests and wetlands, face increasing pressure from encroaching development and deserve to be carefully examined before drastic changes occur.
There’s a tendency to make a snap judgment whenever development is discussed – the NIMBY crowd gets it reputation for a reason – but growth is sometimes necessary, especially in Hyde Park, where expanding the tax base and adding businesses to the community has been a longtime goal. But having a clear idea of how that development might potentially affect some of the area’s more delicate species must be a concern as well. And the town is taking the opportunity to conduct the study at the right time, before development on still-pristine northern areas of town continues. In a second phase, the volunteers will also map 2,500 additional acres and continue to monitor the affect of development on the town’s habitats. “The town is going to change and develop … how do we do that well?” asked councilman Robert Linville (D), and his question is a good one. It’s also at the root of the efforts of the CAC and others to make sure that development doesn’t adversely affect the variety of species that inhabit some of the town’s unique ecosystems, and to help preserve the character of the area for years to come.