Saugerties needs safe, clean drinking water. The proposed project could pollute and drain Saugerties groundwater.

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Development at Winston Farm would change this natural carbon sink into a source of carbon emissions. Both deforestation and disturbing soil structure release stored carbon back into the atmosphere. If Saugerties is truly committed to mitigating the effects of climate change, Winston Farm should remain a carbon sink.

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The Saugerties Public Vision Plan calls for 73% to be left as open space. The developers have no provision for wild, unfragmented open space.

There are 18 types of ecologically significant habitats that will be destroyed.

“Winston Farm is home to many species of plants and animals. Nestled on the ancestral land of the Lanape people in the Hudson Valley Estuary Watershed and the foot of the Catskill mountains, it is an ecosystem, a biosphere. Winston Farm’s many features include wetlands, vernal pools, meadows, hardwood and conifer forests. The Beaverkill creek flows through it, and it rests on top of the deep and ever changing Beaverkill aquifer. The old farm provides seasonal and year round homes to many birds, amphibians, insects and mammals; some of which have been identified as threatened or of special concern, by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation. 

Scientists around the globe found that ecosystem collapse due to human-induced causes have been instrumental in species extinction. Habitat loss is one of the main drivers of species extinction. The unique landscape of Winston Farm should be preserved in its current state to the greatest possible extent for nature (that includes us all) to continue to flourish. We believe that caring for wild spaces is not only an ethical responsibility, it is integral to survival.”

-Janell O’Rourke

Wetlands and Impact of New Regulations

There are at least six (6) wetlands regulated by State between Route 212 (to the South) and Route 32 (to the North) along the Beaverkill. These wetlands are flooded during storm events and snowmelts.

Adding any flow to these events will create permanent flooding along the stream causing eutrophication of existing wetlands and new, immature, larger wetlands along the banks, or a single wetland from the wastewater’s discharge point to Route 32A and Route 32’s culverts (in Katsbaan). Beyond a significant ecological loss, there is also an economical loss to property owners who will no longer use the newly flooded areas and will need to adapt with 300-feet setbacks. Agricultural acreage will be lost.

We need your input on the impact of the 2025 regulations on existing wetlands, and future wetlands caused by permanent wastewater discharges and flooding.

Wildlife and Contiguous Land Preservation

With 840 acres, the Winston Farm property is a contiguous open space worth preserving. It is contiguous to the historic Snyder Farm and contiguous mature forested land to the north forming a unique corridor all the way to Palenville and beyond, into the Catskill Park.

Contiguous land stretches thousands of acres. Wildlife is abundant and well documented by neighbors. It includes preserved species. The loss of 840 acres will stress wildlife as they will need to migrate to less disturbed lands, where wildlife population density will increase.

Living trees do many ecosystem services. The services we notice most are summertime cooling through shade and the year-round sensory pleasure trees give us. Two less-perceptible services at the backs of many minds (and the forefront of some) are annual drawdown of CO2 from the air and the resulting long-term storage (“sequestration”) of carbon in the wood of trunks, roots and branches. New York State needs to increase carbon sequestration in its trees substantially just to have a chance of meeting our 2050 carbon-neutrality goal.

Other services of living trees that we don’t so often recognize but benefit from include these:

• Trees cool the air and soil below them, not only by shade but also by transpiration (evaporation) of water from their wet verdant surfaces. They are natural air-conditioners.

• Aerosols of particulates (e.g. salts, microbes) given off from trees act as nuclei around which moisture coalesces to form raindrops and snowflakes. Large areas of forest (not our backyards) can use this “biotic pump” to regulate the water cycle on a scale from regional to subcontinental.

• Carbon drawn down from airborne CO2 can be stored long-term in tree roots. The soil surrounding those roots, interacting biochemically with them and with the micro and macrobiota therein is also a site of carbon sequestration when not disturbed.

• Tree roots mitigate or prevent erosion.

• Living trees provide food for wildlife, domestic animals and humans.

• Standing trees, living or dead, make a forest or woodland habitat for all manner of living creatures other than humans.

Trees “harvested” - turned into forest products- have a unique place in our economy, as paper or biomass (such as wood pellets) or lumber for building. Such harvest can theoretically be sustainable over a multi-decade time horizon by optimal practices like selective cutting and one-for one replanting with appropriate mixed species. In the short term it hurts the local ecosystem. Removal of trees for no other end than to clear land for non-tree crops or human settlement is unsustainable, ending forever most of the ecosystem services they provided. The harm can be lessened by another pair of optimal practices that are at the outset costly and inconvenient – making biochar or high-quality compost.

That trees are so important in the planet’s carbon budget and to our state’s climate planning does not mean it’s an eco-crime to fell a tree. It does mean that a proposal to clear the trees from 200 acres of forest must pay close and quantitative attention to the true value of the ecosystem services at risk of being lost in the process.

Cooling: shade and transpiration

Making rain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKL40aBg-7E

Regulating the global water cycle

https://soilcarboncoalition.org/walter-jehne-water/

Drawing down CO2 annually storing C seasonally or for longer term

Long-term C storage in above- and below-ground woody mass

Long-term C storage in forest soils near roots

Stabilization of soil by roots

Production of food for wildlife, domestic animals and humans

Aesthetic value, habitat value, recreational, spiritual “forest bathing.”

Certain trees cut down can have uses for humans, by becoming firewood or paper or biomass e.g. wood pellets or lumber for building

Removing trees or parts of them may be called harvesting when their wood can be turned to fill some perceived human need firewood or paper or burnable biomass like wood pellets or lumber for building. Stumps can be left in the ground. Purposeful reforestation should follow, but does not always.

Getting rid of thousands of trees to make space for agriculture or human settlement often requires grubbing out stumps and root masses with heavy machinery. Because tree roots are intimate with surrounding soils, the soils of the one-time forest are disrupted. They are liable to release to the air as CO2 most of the carbon stored in them and, unless carefully mulched or seeded lose their capacity to continue sequestering carbon.

On page 106 (6.10.2.E) of the Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement that was made available to the public last August we read that under the sponsors’ preferred plan about 206 acres would be cleared of trees. It is not stated that “clearing” means uprooting and removal of all trees, bushes and shrubs on those acres; page 155 speaks of “selective clearing.”

Assuming that the major reason for removing trees in the proposed PDD is to change land use to settlement such as residences and roads, “selective clearing” would make creation of shovel-ready lots for residences very impractical. In thinking about the environmental impacts of clearing 206 acres of forest or woodland for human habitation on relatively small lots it is best to assume that all trees, shrub and bushes will be pulled out and taken somewhere else.

Many rare mammal, amphibian, reptile, bird, and plant species will lose their home.

When an animal species is lost, a whole set of characteristics disappears along with it – genes, behaviors, activities and interactions with other plants and animals that may have taken thousands or millions – even billions – of years to evolve.

-E.O. Wison

The Hudson River Valley is one of the richest regions in New York State for biodiversity; 85% of NYS Amphibian Species, 73% of NYS Reptile Species, 87% of Breeding Bird Species and 92% of NYS Mammals. Winston Farm is part of the Hudson River Estuary, the mixed geography provides unfragmented, ecologically significant habitat. The most important dilemma facing wildlife in an increasingly urbanized world, is lack of safe passage and continuous open space. A healthy, intact ecosystem means survival for both resident and migratory animals in our region and provides foraging, nesting, breeding and cover habitat for all species. Wildlife biologists have identified animals and plants that are designated as threatened under the Endangered Species Act on the Winston Farmlands; among them - the Red-Headed Woodpecker, Four Toed Salamander, Bald Eagle and the Indiana Bat. Of special concern are the Wood Turtle, Eastern Bluebird and the butterfly species Monarch, Tawney Emperor and Northern Oak Hairstreak. To date, Monarch butterflies will get federal protections as a threatened species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to add the butterfly to the threatened species list by the end of 2025.

Several rare plant species were identified on Winston Farm: Winged Monkeyflower, Small flowered Agrimony and Green Rock Cress are listed as endangered in NYS.

Winston Farm is covered with high quality and uncommon plant community types such as Red Maple-Black gum Swamp Forests, Chestnut-Oak Forests, Vernal Pools and Palustrine wetlands; these provide exceptional habitat for biodiversity. In fact, according to the Hudsonia report, there are 18 types of ecologically significant habitats, comprising 782 acres which amounts to 97% of Winston Farm. There are many animals that live on the lands of Winston Farm, to name a few: Beavers, Black Bears, Red Foxes, Coyotes, Great Blue Heron, Red tailed Hawks, American Kestrels, Barred Owls, Wild Turkeys, White Tailed Deer, Little Brown Bats, a variety of Amphibian and Reptile species, Minks and Fishers. All are indigenous to North America.

We believe that responsible and compassionate action is urgent in this time of biodiversity collapse. We are committed to the conservation of habitat on Winston Farm to protect our wild neighbors who have every right to be there unharmed. We believe in the intrinsic value of nature which we are part of. Environmental education is key to our mission. Winston Farm has what it takes to promote smart, minimal-impact land use with practices that foster and protect native plants and animals, water preservation and soil ecology for a healthy, productive ecosystem; in return our community will gain climate resilience and a rich biodiversity - the tapestry of interwoven life which is essential to the health of our one and only earth. We strongly advocate for this unique ecosystem and envision a non-intrusive sanctuary that benefits all living beings for generations to come.