Through its “Hudson Hills and Highlands Initiative,” Teatown is building on its nearly five decades of work in community-based, open space protection and nature conservation to share its expertise throughout the entire Hudson Hills and Highlands. We assist civic leaders and the public at large to learn about local environmental issues and craft practical solutions. Teatown’s conservationists, educators, scientists, and volunteers are bringing new enthusiasm, leadership, and resources to the region. We are growing a portfolio of projects that aim at nature conservation and regional ecological health -- for the well being of future generations of  people and all species of life.

Current projects, include:

Environmental Leaders Learning Alliance

In January 2008, Teatown launched the “Hudson Hills and Highlands Environmental Leaders Learning Alliance (ELLA),” through a grant from three anonymous donors, the JP Morgan Chase Foundation, and the New York Department of Environmental Conservation’s Hudson River Estuary Program. In 2009 and 2010, ELLA received generous funding from the Westchester Community Foundation.

The Alliance currently brings together 115 members from 28 town and village Conservation Advisory Committees, Open Space Committees, and other environmental committees from across the Hudson Hills and Highlands. ELLA members participate in training workshops, share lessons learned, and build collaborations for multi-town solutions to regional environmental issues. (For more details or to join, see ELLA’s website at www.ellahhh.net.)

Teatown serves as the convener and administrator of the Alliance. Dr.Mike Rubbo, Ph.D., Director of Conservation Science, leads the project with assistance from Teatown staff, Yvonne Beldotti and Phyllis Bock.

In the Hudson Hills and Highlands, town-appointed members of conservation, open space, and other environmental committees serve as volunteer advisors to town councils, planning boards and zoning commissions on critical land use decisions and other important environmental matters. ELLA aims to help these civic-minded individuals to become better advisors, and also provides a much-needed mechanism for improving communication between towns/villages on regional environmental issues that cross political boundaries. The more knowledgeable ELLA members become in relevant technical matters and best management practices, the more effective they will be guiding their town’s zoning and permitting officials, policy decision-makers, and fellow citizens. The Alliance, with its unique learning team approach, also aims to become a model for other regional networks throughout Metropolitan New York, and beyond.

ELLA project highlights in 2010/2011 included: hosting New York State's 2010 Conference on the Environment in collaboration with the New York State Association of Conservation Commissions and the New York State Association of Environmental Management Councils; and initiating the Stream Conservation and Restoration Project simultaneously in 10 towns across the region.

Hudson Hills and Highlands Community Trails Program  

In July 2008, Teatown formed a collaborative trail program with the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference. For nearly 100 years, volunteers belonging to the Trail Conference have helped public agencies provide safe and responsible access to open space from New York City west to the Delaware Water Gap and north to the Catskills. For example, their work has made possible the trails in Bear Mountain and Harriman State Parks, and long-distance footpaths in New York and New Jersey, such as the Appalachian Trail and Long Path. Today encompassing a network of 1,700 miles of trails in New York and New Jersey, the Trail Conference is a coalition of 100 clubs (including Teatown Lake Reservation) and 10,000 individual members dedicated to creating, protecting, and promoting the nation’s finest network of foot trails in a major metropolitan region. The Trail Conference also is well known among outdoor enthusiasts for its outstanding hiking books and maps.

The “Hudson Hills and Highlands Community Trails Program” provides assistance to local trail crews in Westchester and Putnam counties. Leigh Draper leads the program as part of her responsibilities as the Trail Conference’s East of the Hudson Regional Representative.

This new collaborative program reflects Teatown’s commitment to expand its work throughout the Hudson Hills and Highlands, and its belief in the value of partnering with other like-minded environmental organizations. It is also our aim that we can develop an improved regional trail network that provides additional recreational opportunities and increases ecological connections between protected areas by creating trail corridors for wildlife. Highlights in 2010/2011 included building the new 6.5 mile Teatown-Kitchawan Trail and planning new trails for the recently acquired Croft Property.

The success of the Hudson Hills and Highlands Community Trail Program will depend on a strong cadre of volunteers. Trail Conference and Teatown volunteers will have the opportunity to learn about and to participate in trail building, monitoring, and maintenance. At the same time, volunteers will enjoy the outdoors, make new friends, get valuable exercise – and know that they are improving the quality of our regional trails and environment! If you would like to learn more about volunteering for this new program, please contact Leigh Draper at draper@nynjtc.org. Leigh maintains offices both at Teatown Lake Reservation and at the Trail Conference’s headquarters in Mahwah, New Jersey.

Green Schools Coalition of Westchester County - more

The Green Schools Coalition of Westchester (GSCW) was formed in 2009 by Teatown Lake Reservation, Children’s Environmental Literacy Foundation (CELF) and New York’s Westchester County to offer the support and resources that Westchester schools need to meet the challenge posed by the Westchester Climate Change Action Plan for K-12 Schools. The Westchester County Climate Action Plan calls on all sectors in Westchester (county government, municipal governments, businesses, educational institutions, and households) to work together to address the problem of climate change by dramatically greenhouse gas emissions and planning to adapt to its impacts by focusing on sustainable development.

Teatown, in collaboration with CELF and Westchester County, is serving as convener and administrator of the Green Schools Coalition of Westchester by recruiting K-12 schools/school districts throughout Westchester, coordinating workshops, developing collaborative projects, and providing resources online that will help schools work together to implement the recommendations contained in the Westchester Climate Action Plan for K-12 schools. Essentially, we are building a learning organization for stakeholders to address climate change issues in our schools. Currently, 31 schools/school districts have been recruited (each participating through five-member teams) to advance education and best practices for sustainability by sharing experiences and collaborating on joint project. The current members in the Coalition represent organizations that together serve nearly 130,000 students across Westchester County. With its unique learning team approach, the Green Schools Coalition of Westchester aims to positively influence future sustainability decisions in Westchester school districts and surrounding communities, and to become a model for other counties in New York and beyond.

As more schools recognize sustainability as an essential umbrella context for teaching and learning 21st Century skills and understandings, there is an increasing need for strategic planning and curriculum mapping support in order to expand efforts “beyond the choir.” GSCW will provide a network for communications between Member Schools to facilitate sharing of best practices and processes that address this need. With support of Teatown and CELF, the Coalition is uniquely positioned to address how nature conservation and sustainability directly supports existing educational goals and what curriculum exemplars in sustainability education “look like.” Schools that have identified sustainability as a priority for educational reform or curricular enhancements can share their curriculum, knowledge and pedagogy with GSCW members). GSCW will provide teachers and administrators with resources, notifications re: training opportunities, and strategic planning assistance to help them fully implement a sustainability lens throughout their facility management, curriculum and instruction, and outreach to their local community.  Highlights in 2010/2011 include membership expansion and conducting two member workshops.

Environmental Leadership in Regional Conservation

Dr. Mike Rubbo, Teatown’s Director of Conservation Science advises local municipalities on land use issues and biodiversity conservation. Recent examples of Mike’s work include: developing habitat assessment guidelines for environmental consultants, biodiversity mapping of the Indian Brook – Croton Gorge watershed, preparing stream restoration plans for local communities, and the initiation of a vernal pool identification and mapping project in northern Westchester County. Mike also directs scientific research at Teatown that addresses issues such as the influence of land use on wetland biodiversity and water quality, invasive species management, and the management of overabundant species. His work has been published in a number of peer reviewed journals and the popular press.

Other Teatown staff also serve in regional leadership roles.  Phyllis Bock, Teatown’s Director of Education, serves on the Yorktown Conservation Advisory Committee and Westchester County Park's Conservation Café Planning Committee, and she is also active in the New York State Outdoor Educators Association.

Lower Hudson Valley Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management (PRISM)

Teatown is a member of a regional partnership of local agencies and non-profit organizations, led by The Nature Conservancy’s New York Eastern Chapter and the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, to coordinate efforts to more systematically control invasive plants and animals throughout the Lower Hudson Valley, New York.

This is and important issue for Teatown because its 893-acre preserve has many ecologically damaging invasive plants living on our preserve: Japanese barberry, garlic mustard, Japanese stilt grass, oriental bittersweet, black swallow-wort, mugwart, and more.

What is an Invasive Species?  When living in their native ranges, plant and animal populations are kept in balance by natural controls like predators and limited food supplies. When a new  species from another part of the world  (“non-native”) is introduced, accidentally or intentionally, these balances can be disrupted and the result can be harmful to other species and the ecosystem. While not all non-native species cause problems, some spread unchecked, out competing native plants and animals. Once these non-natives are doing ecological or economic damage, they are called "invasive species." 

Invasive species are increasing, and now contribute directly to the decline of one-half of all threatened and endangered species in the United States! They are costing us hundreds of millions of dollars each year in lost ecological services and agricultural damage to farm pastures. Did you know that 20% of the approximately 1,300 plant species living in the Hudson Hills and Highlands are “non-native”? Controlling invasives will require citizen participation through support of new legislation, better management of our own private lands, and by volunteering your labor to remove invasive plants and other pests from the region.