The birth of Catskill Mountainkeeper

The birth of Catskill Mountainkeeper

Seeking a vision

By FRITZ MAYER

MONTICELLO, NY — A new environmental and planning group aims to create a vision for the region and prevent “ill conceived, out-of-scale development.”

The group’s name is Catskill Mountainkeeper, and is modeled after Riverkeeper, the environmental group that played a crucial role in bring the Hudson River back to life after it was nearly killed by industrial pollution in the middle of the 20th century.

Mountainkeeper launched itself on May 10 with a news conference on the lawn in front of the Sullivan County Government Center. The organization boasts an impressive list of supporters.

The board includes the president of the Open Space Institute, the organization that buys land to be preserved as open space in the Catskills. Another board member is on the board of the National Resource Defense Council, the group that is battling the proposed Mohawk casino over environmental issues. Another board member is a member of the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development. And another board member is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Joseph Martens, the chairman of the Mountainkeeper board, said the group’s main mission is to establish a vision for the seven counties situated in the Catskill Mountains: Sullivan, Ulster, Delaware, Greene, Otsego, Schoharie and part of Albany County.

Martens said the Catskill region is at a crossroads, and Mountainkeeper intends to create a “network of citizens” to advance the goals of smart planning.

Ramsey Adams, the executive director of Mountainkeeper, said the organization, which will open an office in Youngsville in July, would be funded through individual donations, grants and fundraising events.

Wes Gillingham, a local organic farmer who is the organization’s program director, said the group would be joining the fight against the New York Regional Interconnection power line project. He said farmland protection would also be at the top of the group’s agenda. “These mountains have shaped the kind of people we are, ” he said. He hoped that Mountainkeeper would help ensure that his children will be able to continue to enjoy the same quality of life that he has as a lifelong resident of the region.

More information about the group can be found at www.catskillmountainkeeper.org.

Discovery Center CEO remarks

Patrick Dollard, CEO of The Center for Discovery, the largest private employer in Sullivan County and an organization that has been at the forefront of green technology initiatives here, spoke at the Mountainkeeper news conference.

He said in his role with the center, which treats people with disabilities, he has become convinced that the environment is inextricably linked with the development of human genes. He said he is seeing more and more that grandparents are becoming concerned about how pollutants such as mercury and PCBs are having a negative impact on the health of their grandchildren. He said there is evidence that environmental conditions may be linked to diseases such as autism and neurological disorders, and certainly to ones like cancer.

He said, “People need to pay attention to human environmental impacts, to what we’re doing to our food, water and air.”

He envisioned that Catskill Mountainkeeper could play an important role in pursuing that agenda.