Nyenvironcom

NYenvironcom is a nonpartisan registered nonprofit environmental policy and outreach group established in 2018 by Alex Scilla and Grace Woodard with a mission to promote thoughtful land use and development in New York State that considers the environment, community, and economic values. NYenvironcom works within communities located on the northern side of the southern tier of the Shawangunk Mountains, and Neversink Valley to the Delaware River in Orange and Sullivan Counties in New York state. We believe empowering communities to become an active part of what is happening in their watersheds and neighborhoods leads to positive change. Our work impacts the well-being of our communities and citizens’ ability to advocate for the health of our local environment. There are three main components of our work: Advocacy - led by The Deerpark Rural Alliance (DRA), which serves as the local advocacy arm of our work. Data - led by our programs. Our water quality program, WaterInsight, is a community training and data-collection program that teaches volunteers how to perform do-it-yourself water data collection methods to advance science-based preservation or remediation in land planning. TerraINscape is a land-mapping program launched in 2020, which trains volunteers to develop maps to understand how land impacts water and vice versa. Outreach and Education - presenting the results of our advocacy and data programs, and sharing these platforms with the public for general access and use. Our advocacy and initiatives are defined by our key goals of encouraging re-ruralization, re-urbanization, and de-surbanization.