Wetlands, Woodlands, and Water: What Local Decision-Makers Need to Know

Saturday, March 17th 9:15am - 12:30pm

Columbia-Greene Community College – 4400 Route 23, Hudson

A workshop for municipal boards and interested residents on the importance of wetlands and woodlands for healthy water resources, the role local communities can play in protecting these resources, and the planning tools that can be used.. Featured speakers included Marilyn Wyman, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Greene County; Laura Heady and Karen Strong, Biodiversity Outreach Coordinators, Hudson River Estuary Program. The workshop included an exercise led by Gretchen Stevens, Director, Biodiversity Resources Center, Hudsonia Ltd.

Local municipalities can play an essential role to ensure the availability of clean water for future generations. Under their authority to regulate land use, our towns and local decision‐makers are really stewards of the land. Thus, we need to understand how every action that alters our landscape also affects the natural processes whereby our water resource are recycled and renewed. We all know that water is the single most important element for sustaining life. What we may not understand is the importance of land covers like our forests, wetland and waterbodies for sustaining a clean and adequate water supply. And while there are some regulatory protections for wetlands, forests are often taken for granted.

This workshop will help you understand the value of forests and wetland in Columbia County, the local role in conserving these resources, and the tools you can use to protect them in your community. Featured speakers include Marilyn Wyman, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Greene County, on the benefits of our forests and woodlands; Laura Heady, Biodiversity Outreach Coordinator, Hudson River Estuary Program, on the benefits of wetlands systems and the limits of their protections; and Karen Strong, also Biodiversity Outreach Coordinator, Hudson River Estuary Program, speaking on planning resources and tools that you can use in local planning. The workshop will conclude with an exercise on how to apply some of those tools, led by the speaker team with the assistance of Gretchen Stevens, Director, Biodiversity Resources Center, Hudsonia Ltd.

Event Materials & Agenda

Additional Resources

  • Conserving Small Wetlands in the Hudson Valley
  • NY Natural Heritage Program
  • Environmental Resource Mapper
    Web-based, interactive map that includes locations of:

    • Freshwater wetlands regulated by the State of New York (outside the Adirondack Park).
    • New York’s streams, rivers, lakes, and ponds; water quality classifications are also displayed.
    • Animals and plants that are rare in New York, including those listed as Endangered or Threatened (generalized locations).
    • Significant natural communities, such as rare or high-quality forests, wetlands, and other habitat types.
  • Conservation Guides
    Web-based animal, plant, and community guides include description, habitat, distribution, places to see, conservation issues, developed by the New York Natural Heritage Program. Once you’ve used the Environmental Resource Mapper to find which rare plants and animals or significant natural communities are near your land, use a conservation guide to learn more about them.
  • New York Nature Explorer: A Gateway to Biodiversity Information
    A web-based tool for finding out about the animals, plants and habitats in your neighborhood or in your area of interest – most of it at a county level. As a gateway to biodiversity information, New York Nature Explorer is intended for landowners, land managers, citizens, municipal officials, planners, consultants, project developers, researchers, students, and anyone else interested in the natural world.
  • USFWS Wetlands Mapper
    Web-based mapping platform that displays the National Wetland Inventory.
  • The municipal official’s guide to forestry in NYS

Major sponsorship from the Hudson River Estuary Program and NYSDEC/Cornell University. Co‐sponsored by Hudsonia Ltd., Cornell Cooperative Extension of Columbia & Greene Counties, the New York Forest Owners Association, the Columbia County Environmental Management Council


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