New Watershed Mapping Tool Available

Here's a new and potentially useful tool for mapping natural resources in Esopus:

"Today, the Hudson River Watershed Alliance in partnership with the Hudson Valley Regional Council, unveiled a new mapping service that will help local decision makers and watershed groups better understand the environmental resources in their communities. The Hudson River Watershed Atlas is a regional online mapping service designed to enable users to visualize, explore, assess and better understand the natural resources and built systems of the Hudson River Estuary watershed.

"The Atlas is built using an Adobe PDF platform, which allows users to select from a menu of 28 informative data layers to customize their own map. There are a total of 20 map panels that together provide geographic coverage of the Hudson River Estuary watershed. Each panel includes 25 different data layers which can be independently turned on and off, with three different possible background layers. Examples of data layers include, among others, streams, hydric soils, wetlands, FEMA floodplains, potential environmental justice areas, MS4 communities, lakes and ponds, fishing and public access points.

"The Hudson River Watershed Atlas can be accessed at www.hudsonwatershed.org. The Hudson Valley Regional Council obtained a grant in 2007 to enhance the capacity of the Hudson River Watershed Alliance and to undertake several projects. The Watershed Atlas has been funded in part by a grant from the New York State Environmental Protection Fund through the Hudson River Estuary Program of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation."

Cap and Trade

I thought to share with you all Annie Leonard's (of The Story of Stuff) new offering, "The Story of Cap and Trade". By all accounts this is an introductory video to a very complex issue. It looks like more windfall profits for the financial industry and polluters with us holding the bag and suffering the consequences for a carbon tax by another name. She has it right, lets spend our effort on real carbon reducing like wind, solar and efficiency and not give the polluters new tools to fleece us. I read tonight that John Kerry is a big supporter of Cap and Trade but has failed to support the Cape Wind energy project in his own backyard. Dave Murray