Green Ossining Committee

Riverkeeper has been working in the Hudson Valley for 45 years, but we moved to Ossining just a year and a half ago, so we are still getting to know our neighbors.

Come down to our office at 20 Secor Road – the red building right at the train station.

Chat with our staff, enjoy some light refreshments, and learn a little about how Riverkeeper works to protect the Hudson River and our drinking water supply.

Please RSVP to Dan Shapley at dshapley@riverkeeper.org or 914-478-4501 x226.

Please specify which session – morning or evening – you plan to attend. (If you’re interested in visiting but can’t make it on the 26th, let us know.)

You can find directions to Riverkeeper’s office on our website.

See video “What is Nature Worth?” : http://www.worldwildlife.org/sites/videos/nature-worth.html?enews=enews1201t&vid&utm_source=enews&utm_medium=email&utm_content=2012jan&utm_campaign=enews

“Our natural resources continue to be degraded because decision makers do not have a reliable way to assess the true value of the services that ecosystems provide. The Natural Capital Project, [http://www.naturalcapitalproject.org/ ] a partnership among WWF, The Nature Conservancy, University of Minnesota and Stanford University, is working to align economic forces with conservation by mainstreaming natural capital into decisions. Learn more  [http://www.worldwildlife.org/science/naturalcapitalproject/index.html]“

Natural Capital Project

Aligning Economic Forces with Conservation

Capital has often been thought of narrowly as physical capital – the machines, tools, and equipment used in the production of other goods, but our wealth and well being also relies on natural capital.  If we forget this, we risk degrading the services that natural ecosystems provide, which support our economies and sustain our lives.  These services include purifying our water, regulating our climate, reducing flood risk, and pollinating our crops.

One reason why our natural resources continue to be degraded is that decision makers do not have a reliable way to assess the true value of the services that ecosystems provide.  The Natural Capital Project, a partnership among WWF, The Nature Conservancy, University of Minnesota and Stanford University, is working to align economic forces with conservation by mainstreaming natural capital into decisions.

Developing tools that make it easy to incorporate natural capital into decisions

An essential element of the Natural Capital Project is developing tools that help decision makers protect biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Demonstrating the power of these tools in important, contrasting places

InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs) is a unique software tool that models and maps the delivery, distribution, and economic value of ecosystem services and biodiversity.  InVEST helps decision-makers visualize the impacts of potential decisions and identify tradeoffs and compatibilities between environmental, economic, and social benefits.

InVEST is being used to integrate ecosystem services into decision-making in a variety of places around the world through the WWF network and partners:

Sumatra, Indonesia
In Sumatra, commercial logging and conversion to agriculture are risking the home of thousands of rare species, including tigers, orangutans, and rhinos.  With support from the Natural Capital Project, WWF Indonesia is working with regional government authorities to map the distribution and economic value of ecosystem services in priority watersheds under current and proposed land use plans.  The results will provide input to land-use planning.

Eastern Arc Mountains, Tanzania
Agricultural development, logging, and fires have reduced the forests of the Eastern Arc Mountains by 70% over the past decades, threatening thousands of rare species, people’s livelihoods, and water and power resources. The Natural Capital Project is currently working with over 40 collaborators in Tanzania, the UK, and South Africa to map and value the mountains’ many ecosystem services. WWF will use the maps to steer decisions and resources toward forest conservation and watershed management.

Albertine Rift (Uganda, Rwanda, & Democratic Republic of the Congo)
The Albertine Rift is a transboundary, biogeographic region containing rich forest ecosystems and a system of lakes and rivers that are critical for water provision and community livelihoods.  Encroachment, illegal logging, pollution, and mining threaten biodiversity and livelihoods in this region.  The Albertine Rift Conservation Society (ARCOS) hopes to use InVEST outputs to gain government and stakeholder support for biodiversity conservation and to disseminate lessons learned across the countries of this region.  The phases for the project include: quantifying and valuing ecosystem services, assessing how amounts and values of services will change under future climate change and development scenarios, and creating incentives for conservation.

Colombian Amazon
The Amazon Piedmont of Colombia is one of the most biologically outstanding areas of the Northern Andes, and also a landscape of great cultural significance as the ancestral home to several indigenous groups. This region is under threat from climate change and infrastructure development. Starting in 2010, the Natural Capital Project will collaborate with WWF Colombia to map the distribution and economic value of ecosystem services in the Mocoa Forest Reserve in the Amazon Piedmont. This project, funded by the MacArthur Foundation, will provide critical information for developing environmentally sensitive infrastructure projects, and for maintaining ecosystem resilience in the face of climate change.

The Natural Capital Project’s tools are also being used in a variety of other locations, including:

• Sierra Nevada Region, California, USA
• Upper Yangtze River Basin, China
• Hawaiian Islands, USA
• Northern Andes and Southern Central America

Westchester County Government along with the Village of Briarcliff Manor want to protect you against identity theft and help recycle paper at the same time.

This Saturday, December 10^th from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m., you can bring unwanted documents to the parking lot at the Village Hall (1111 Pleasantville Rd.) to be shredded on the spot with the county’s Mobile Shredder.

Residents of Westchester County can bring up to 4 file-size (10”x12”x15”) boxes of confidential personal papers per household.  Please remove all large binder clips and covers.  Papers from businesses, institutions or commercial enterprises will not be accepted. County staff will inspect all paper to be shredded and will reject any paper identified as commercial or institutional.  Businesses should contract with a Paper Shredding Company for this service.

Service at the events works on a first-come-first-served basis. Be advised that on occasion, at a highly attended event, the Mobile Shredder unit can reach its maximum capacity for paper shredding before closing time. Although infrequent, residents should be aware of this and open minded of the possibility of an early closure. Also, in extreme weather, when working conditions are deemed unsafe, events may be cancelled or terminated early.  On the day of an event, residents can call the county’s Recycling HelpLine at (914) 813-5425 to check on a cancellation or early closure.

For more information about shredding, visit www.westchestergov.com/mobileshredder or call 813-5425.  Additional recycling information is also available at www.westchestergov.com/recycling.

Sustainability Expert Visits Ossining High School

Posted by Ellen Lane | November 21, 2011

When nationally recognized sustainability expert Jamie Cloud visited Ossining High School Thursday, she got more than she bargained for. And she couldn’t have been happier.

Cloud didn’t just hear from students who promised to turn off the lights when they left the room or use less water or recycle bottles and cans – all practices that support environmental sustainability.

She heard from students who wanted to know how to incentivize environmentally friendly practices at the corporate level, or how to transition safely and effectively from non-renewable energy sources to renewable energy. In other words, she heard from students who were thinking deeply about the problems related to ensuring that Earth’s resources can sustain future generations.

Please visit the original article for more details and photos of the event on Ossining-CrotonOnHudson-Patch.com…
http://ossining.patch.com/announcements/sustainability-expert-visits-ossining-high-school

Click here for the link for the Audubon International Survey referenced below…

Audubon International Press Release

Research on the “State of Small & Rural Community Sustainability” Launched by Audubon International

In the face of mounting economic, social, and environmental challenges, community leaders are increasingly embracing the idea of sustainability to achieve healthy and vibrant communities. In an effort to understand where small and rural communities across the United States stand in regard to this emerging concept, Audubon International is working with graduate students from Antioch University to survey the state of sustainability in small and rural communities across the United States through initial survey of practices.

“There is little information on state of sustainability policies, plans, and practices in small and rural communities across the country,” according to Kevin A. Fletcher, Ph.D., Executive Director of Audubon International. “Building on the success of our Sustainable Communities Program and the lessons we’ve learned, it’s clear there’s a need to develop a better understand around this topic and specifically the types of sustainability indicators being used to capture and communicate ongoing progress in communities. This initial survey is our first step in developing a more comprehensive online ‘sustainability indicators database’ to better disseminate best practices to interested communities.”

Much of the current research on sustainability efforts has been limited to large cities or regional entities. The survey results and The State of Sustainability in Small and Rural Communities report to follow will provide a resource for sustainability planning at the local level. The report will allow small and rural communities to gauge their successes and challenges in relation to their peers. It is also intended to help provide a platform for sharing best practices, case studies and lessons learned.

Citizens are invited to join Audubon International in providing much needed information for local municipal governments and agencies, elected officials, landowners, and anyone who has a stake in the long-term viability of a small community. All community leaders, elected and appointed officials, planners, town staff, and citizens in small or rural communities (population under 40,000) are encouraged to complete the survey. Click here to complete the survey.

For more information about the Audubon International Sustainable Communities Program, contact Suzi Van Etten, Program Manager by phone at (518) 767-9051, ext. 124, e-mail at svanetten@auduboninternational.org, or visit the website at www.sustainablecommunitiesprogram.org.

About Audubon International

Audubon International is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) environmental education organization dedicated to providing people with the education and assistance they need to practice responsible management of land, water, wildlife, and other natural resources, thus leading to more sustainable communities.  To meet this mission, the organization provides training, services, and a set of award-winning environmental education and certification programs for individuals, organizations, properties, new developments, and entire communities.   Through the Community Engagement, Planning & Action Initiative, and the Sustainable Communities Program, Audubon International works to help community leaders and stakeholders embrace environmental stewardship and sustainability as a central element of planning, policies, and practices.

The Economics of Happiness

WHEN: Wednesday, November 9th at 7:00 PM

WHERE: Ossining Public Library Theater, 53 Croton Avenue, Ossining, NY

Both hard hitting and inspiring, ‘The Economics of Happiness’ demonstrates that millions of people across the world are already engaged in building a better world; that small scale initiatives are happening on a large scale. ‘The Economics of Happiness’ features a chorus of voices from six continents calling for systemic economic change. The film shows that countless initiatives are united around a common cause: rebuilding more democratic, human scale, ecological and local economies – the foundation of an ‘economics of happiness’

“It is good news indeed to find so persuasive an explanation of our ailing world as ‘The Economics of Happiness’. This film connects the dots between climate chaos, economic meltdown, and our own personal suffering, stress, loneliness, and depression. It presents the localization movement as a systemic alternative to corporate globalization, as well as a strategy that brings community and meaning to our lives.” (Joanna Macy, author World as Lover, World as Self)

For more information please email contact@transitionossining.org or visit www.transitionwestchester.org.