We are heartbroken in this community. A huge 5 Mega Watt Industrial Solar array is presently being installed along our Town's Scenic Byway on historic farmland located on Route 209 across from Peter's Market. This is an iconic and ancient place that provides us all with a connection to the land and mountains and all of their beauty. Our community was not informed that this was going to be happening and everyone feels betrayed and blindsided. There was no public hearing or feedback period about this project so residents were not able to have their opinion and voices heard. This project has forever changed our beautiful landscape and turned it into an industrial zone with all of the infrastructure and gravel roads and machinery. It will have impacts on our economy and our ability to grow more food locally. We wonder why it wasn't sited on some of the neglected areas of our town and we are wondering what is coming next for our underrepresented and ignored town.

What's so special about this particular land?

The historic farmland this industrial solar array is being installed on is a rare type of soil called Unadilla which is both prized for it's ability to grow food and increasingly rare because of rampant development. This site has been used as farmland since the Lenape and over the last decade the fertile Hudson Valley has seen a spike in farmers coming to the area to tend the land and grow crops for our region. Presently, farmland is in high demand and there isn't enough of it accessible for the rising demand. We know we can choose to create cultural landscapes that provide long term resilience by increasing the diversity, quality and quantity of yields through more farm based economies. We can better the economy and our landscape through ecologically restorative farming, but we must protect farmland and multi functional landscapes in perpetuity with land trusts.

How does growing food locally reduce need for fossil fuels and create more regional food security?

Growing food locally should be a priority for everyone concerned with transitioning our state and region off of fossil fuels. Right now only 10% of the food that is consumed in this region is grown locally. This means that food is brought in by diesel trucks which consume plenty of fossil fuels and release toxic particulate in the corridors where they operate. Prioritizing a regional plan that would include increasing local food production would make our region more food secure, create more jobs, and keep more money in our local economy.

In fact Governor Cuomo just signed a bill sponsored by Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo and Senator Jen Metzger, that focuses on improving resiliency and accessibility of locally produced farm and food products: https://www.morningagclips.com/governor-signs-food-supply-chain-bill/

What do you mean that the solar array could have been sited differently?

While solar is an important renewable technology that will help us decrease our reliance on fossil fuels, it is important that it be sited properly. Industrial solar arrays should not be placed on farm land. These panels going up in the hamlet of Napanoch in the Town of Wawarsing could have been installed on several sites all having good southern exposure for solar in Ellenville including: the old Channel Master site, the Super Fund site along Route 52 & Ulster Heights Rd., the parking lot of the prison, other parking lots and municipal buildings.

Aren't solar panels and all renewable resources good?

Not necessarily. We need to look at what is an appropriate technology for each site. Community members as well as state and local officials have an opportunity to prioritize biological solutions and invest in biogas generators that both produce methane gas that can be used like propane and a liquid compost that can be used on farmland. Burlington Vermont is 100% renewable and is powered in part by fast growing willow coppice agroforestry. Willow is a fast growing producer of burnable biomass that grows back readily after it is cut. We need to look at our lands as diverse systems that can produce several harvests of in demand resources, rather than only solar, or only lumber, or only corn. Planting trees that can be used as perennial nut crops like chestnuts should also be seriously considered as a way to contribute to our regional security and staple crop production as well as infiltrating and cleaning water, mitigating climate change by cooling the land and air, producing oxygen and uptaking carbon dioxide to name just a few functions.

Here is a example of what a regional plan for the Rondout Valley could look like:

https://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/how-to-understand-where-you-live-a-permaculture-guide-to-food-and-energy-independence/

Don't environmental groups have our best interests at heart?

Governor Cuomo is being pressured by several environmental groups including NY Renews to "aggressively" push for powering New York State with 100% renewables by 2030. We call on all environmental groups to rethink their aggressive tactics and re-write the policies to include the conservation of farmland and sites of scenic beauty and ecological sensitivity so that future generation can inherit this healthy abundant beauty. It is clear from these blatant omissions that each regional of New York State needs a master plan that would included GIS mapping to understand the lay of the land better, where the sensitive areas are, where the wildlife corridors are, and where certain industries and technologies should be sited. In addition, all environmental groups should be championing the need for less waste, less consumption and higher efficiency standards so that we need less power to begin with. By not articulating this need for conservation and change we defer that necessity to future generations who will bear the loss and destruction of climate change.

Why didn't local officials warn us?

It is an egregious dereliction of duty that so many local officials and journalists knew about this going back to 2017, and yet no one did anything to warn our community so that we could make our voices heard. A few people we spoke with said that no one wanted to say anything for fear that the state might site the industrial solar array at Colony Farm which is in talks right now to become a gateway for connecting the Shawangunk Ridge and Catskill Mountians. Some said that there was nothing that they could do and so just let the state have it's way with our way of life. We know that in today's climate public pressure is what can move mountains. In this case we are wanting to move industrial solar arrays off of this farmland and out of our scenic byway.

What do we want?

We residents want our voices heard. We want this installation stopped. We want our local and state officials to work to see that all of the infrastructure is removed from the land. We want the land returned to farmland to nourish our region with healthy local food. Cease and desist the destruction of our iconic landscape that is loved and enjoyed by all. 

We want to stop this kind of senseless destruction from happening in other places.