We the undersigned call upon the leadership of the Dutchess Land Conservancy to cancel, void, annul, terminate, shred, toss, grind into dust—what have you—the conditional conservation easements proposed by Peckham Materials in connection with an application to expand their vast industrial quarry operation in the Town of Pleasant Valley. 

The DLC’s arrangement with Peckham, if leveraged into a successful rezoning application, will help strip a neighborhood in the heart of Pleasant Valley of the environmental protections that have endured for the last forty years: that no quarrying may take place on this land. 

While scarlet-clad riders tally-ho across the Millbrook countryside, Pleasant Valley residents will choke on quarry dust and asphalt fumes as their backyards along the Wappingers Creek are blown to smithereens. 

Please don’t allow this to happen.

The quarry expansion will hurt many people. It will cause residents financial ruin, destroy their quality of life, harm the environment, and undermine our local democracy by allowing a corporation’s thirst for profit to shape the fate of huge tracts of land near the Pleasant Valley hamlet.

The lands Peckham is willing to place under easement with the DLC are not in imminent danger. The community in the proposed quarry zone is.

The arrangement with Peckham makes a travesty of the DLC’s mission. We call upon you to use your know-how, your reputation, your resources, your knowledge of the law, your ambition, and your influence to benefit the public good—not to greenwash and abet the maneuvers of a profit-seeking firm. 

Please do the right thing before it’s too late. The wellbeing of an entire community is at stake.