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Hudson River Estuary Program Resources and Funding Opportunities

Emily Vail Estuary Program NYS Department of Environmental Conservation State Water Resources Institute at Cornell University

October 15, 2015 2

Presentation Outline . Hudson River Estuary Program . Technical assistance . Habitat mapping and summaries . Natural Resource Mapper . Culvert assessment . Trees for Tribs . WAVE . Watershed planning Trees for Tribs planting at Bayard . Grants Elsbree Park 3

Hudson River Estuary Program Six Benefits: . Clean water . Resilient communities . Vital estuary ecosystem . Estuary fish, wildlife, and their habitats . Scenic river landscape . Education, river access, recreation, and inspiration 4 Albany

Catskill Hudson River Creek Estuary Watershed

New York City 5

Albany Hudson River Estuary Watershed Groups

New York City M. Cunningham M. 6

Albany

Catskill Creek

Stockport

Wallkill River C. Bowser C.

New York City Quassaick Creek 7

Technical Assistance from the Estuary Program . Grants and other funding opportunities . Presentations . Sharing and interpreting data . Natural Resource Summaries . Planning assistance . Reviewing documents . Citizen science, Trees for Tribs 8 Conservation and Land Use Assistance . Habitat Summary reports, maps, and information to assist comprehensive planning and zoning efforts . Seminars and trainings for planning and zoning officials . Habitat mapping: . Catskill Creek corridor . Huyck Preserve 9 Habitat map

. Identify important intact stream buffers . Inform stream restoration or bank stabilization projects . Tool to review development projects . Baseline for monitoring change 10 Hudson Valley Natural Resource Mapper

Interactive web map . Hudson River Estuary . Streams & Watersheds . Wetlands . Forests . Biodiversity

hudson.dnr.cals.cornell.edu/mapper 11 Streams Map Includes: . FEMA flood hazard zones . Dams and culverts . Biologically important barriers . Forest & impervious cover . Stream class, trout status . Water quality 12 Prioritizing Aquatic Barriers . Important culverts and dams to get fish past . Also modeling capacity to pass storm flows 13 Prioritizing Aquatic Barriers 14 Trees for Tribs Provide free native trees & shrubs and technical assistance for planting along streams with local volunteers to protect: . water quality ■ fish and wildlife 15

Trees for Tribs on the Catskill Creek From 2008-2015: . 11 sites (+1 on the Kaaterskill, Town of Catskill) . 1,675 plants (+500) . 180 volunteers (+37) Spring 2013 – Catskill Creek Watershed Awareness Program, Towns of Durham & Rensselearville planted at 5 sites 16

Bayard Elsbree Park in Rensselaerville

Planting Day May 2013 July 2013 July 2014 17 WAVE Water Assessments by Volunteer Evaluators . Volunteers select sampling sites, collect stream bugs that indicate water quality . Included in state and federal water quality reports 18

Watershed Planning

. Brings information together on the land and water . Assess current conditions and prioritize actions for future . Whole watershed or portion . Comprehensive or focus on particular topic (flooding, water quality, etc.) 19

Watershed Planning . Quassaick Creek Watershed Management Plan . 54 recommendations . 10 priority actions . Municipalities (incl Orange and Ulster counties), agencies, citizens . Funding - DOS, DEC, Hudson River Estuary Program 20

Learn about grants and other opportunities . Grants webpage: http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/5091.html . Hudson RiverNet: Hudson River Estuary Newsletter (via GovDelivery): http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/76018.html 21

Hudson River Estuary Program Grants

. Stewardship & Planning – planning, outreach, research, and implementation projects . Tributary Restoration – removing aquatic barriers (mitigating dams and culverts) . Take a handout! 22

2015 Estuary Grants . Village of Catskill, $25,500 Hudson River Shoreline Flooding Plan and an analysis of local zoning changes to address resiliency . Village of Catskill, $42,500 Risk and engineering review of the wastewater system, and implementing recommendations from Catskill Waterfront Resilience Task Force report 23

Thank You

. Emily Vail Connect with us: Facebook: www.facebook.com/NYSDEC . Watershed Outreach Twitter: twitter.com/NYSDEC Specialist Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/nysdec . Hudson River Estuary Program . [email protected] . (845) 256-3145