NY Program On Flood & Climate Change Preparedness A Success

The Hudson Estuary Watershed Resiliency Project is an educational initiative designed to help municipal officials and stream-side landowners throughout the Hudson Valley prepare for floods and climate change. The program has been moving forward, and is being heralded as a successful one.

Educators from the Cornell Cooperative Extension associations in Columbia, Greene, Dutchess, Orange and Putnam counties have been teaching flood preparedness to officials and landowners in 37 Hudson Valley municipalities.

The team incorporates local knowledge of how streams work into understanding stream dynamics, and have taken an active role in post-flood stream repair, helping communities adapt to climate change while striving to improve the long-term health of the ecosystem.

The project has launched a seminar series, which began Thursday at Sand Lake Town Hall, with a focus on dams and flooding: The next seminar is Wednesday, October 16th at the Rensselaerville Town Hall, which will cover headwaters, flood hazards and habitats.

Carolyn Klocker, a senior water resource educator at Cornell Cooperative Extension in Dutchess County, says many people have questions and seek information about flood insurance and the National Flood Insurance Program.

The New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation's Hudson River Estuary Program has issued 12 grants worth a combined $564,000 for water resiliency projects throughout the state.

The funding became available after Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee both rocked the region in 2011. The DEC is working in partnership with the non-profit New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission on the grant program.