Archived Morehouse Town Blog Posts
New York State 30×30
CONSERVING 30 PERCENT OF LANDS AND WATERS BY 2030
In 2022, New York State enacted new amendments to the Environmental Conservation Law (ECL) to enhance conservation of the state’s unique and globally significant biodiversity, and continue efforts to adapt to climate change:
New York’s 30×30 legislation (30×30) directs Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) to develop draft strategies and a methodology to achieve the 30×30 goal by July 1, 2024. The strategies are to involve the following highlevel objectives:
● Conserving lands prioritized through the New York State Open Space Conservation Plan
(Plan);
● Providing protections for water sources, sole source aquifers, and watersheds;
● Preserving biodiversity through habitat conservation and restoration, and means for wildlife migration, with a focus on endangered and threatened species;
● Expanding public access to nature and the outdoors;
● Including considerations of urban, suburban and rural natural areas, wetlands, and forests;
● Protecting food sources through farmland preservation; and
● Increasing climate resilience, including reducing risk from extreme weather events, cooling
urban landscapes to advance the state’s Extreme Heat Action Plan, and the prevention of
erosion and flooding.
This report provides a set of definitions and tools to achieve the state’s 30×30 objectives, including a combination of permanent protections and persistent protections, detailed in the “Defining Conservation” section below. Based on the definitions developed in this document, the estimated baseline of currently conserved area totals approximately 22 percent of lands, inland waters, Great Lakes, and ocean areas.
Adirondack Road Salt Reduction Task Force Assessment and Recommendations
The impacts from road salt on the environment can be long term. Once road salt dissolves in winter it can run off into surface waters through snow melt and stormwater or find its way onto surfaces where, even later in the year, it can continue to leach further into ground waters. As a result, the road salt applied for public safety during the winter can elicit wide ranging impacts on both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and sources of drinking water.
Through its investigations, the Task Force found that while most monitored waterbodies in the Adirondack Park met existing regulatory guidelines for contaminants typically found near road salt applications, a limited number of instances of regulatory guideline exceedances were identified which could result in impacts to human health and the environment. Task Force members with subject matter expertise also found that more recent scientific literature may indicate existing water quality standards are not protective enough to prevent impacts to the Adirondack Park’s sensitive natural resources and ecosystem.
Click the folowing link to view the full report:
Road Salt Reduction Task Force Report