NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
By Lissa Harris on Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013 - 11:39 am
Willie Janeway, a Department of Environmental Conservation official who heads the agency's Region 3 in the Hudson Valley and lower Catskills, is leaving for a nonprofit job in the high peaks of the Adirondacks.
The Adirondack Council, a prominent... Read more
By Lissa Harris on Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013 - 1:16 am
New York State is slated to miss a key Wednesday deadline in the long march toward issuing regulations on hydrofracking.
State health commissioner Nirav Shah announced Tuesday, in a letter to Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) commissioner... Read more
By Lissa Harris on Monday, Feb. 4, 2013 - 10:10 am
This morning, a joint legislative budget hearing was packed to the gills as Department of Environmental Conservation commissioner Joe Martens testified to legislators about hydraulic fracturing.
Martens began speaking at 9:30am. The Democrat and Chronicle... Read more
By Lissa Harris on Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012 - 3:51 pm
New York State is currently accepting public comments on its latest draft of gas drilling regulations. Helen Slottje, a lawyer who has been prominent in the movement to pass town bans on gas drilling, is hosting a series of public forums this week on the... Read more
By Lissa Harris on Friday, Nov. 30, 2012 - 11:12 am
On Thursday afternoon, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation unveiled its latest set of proposed regulations to govern hydraulic fracturing for natural gas. The new proposed regulations replace an earlier set of draft regulations,... Read more
By Lissa Harris on Friday, Aug. 10, 2012 - 12:42 pm
Above: Photo of emerald ash borer taken at the USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station Laboratory, East Lansing, Michigan. Source: insectimages.org.
The march of the invasive emerald ash borer across the Catskills continues. Today, the state... Read more
By Lissa Harris on Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2012 - 12:39 pm
This week's must-read story for upstate New York: An editorial by Times Union columnist Fred LeBrun, titled "End of the anti-frack world is near." In it, LeBrun claims that a gubernatorial plan to greenlight hydraulic fracturing by the time the leaves... Read more
By Lissa Harris on Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2012 - 12:44 pm
Tomorrow, the Phoenicia Festival of the Voice opens with "The Benefit," an operatic comedy starring Maria Todaro and Michelle Jennings.
But even before the show begins, all eyes will be on another VIP: Ted Blazer, president of the Olympic Regional... Read more
By Lissa Harris on Monday, Jul. 16, 2012 - 8:02 pm
Above: Ulster County executive Mike Hein, with Ulster County Department for the Environment Coordinator Amanda LaValle and Riverkeeper's Kate Hudson, at a press conference on the Draft Consent Order held at the Saugerties Beach last month. Photo courtesy... Read more
By Lissa Harris on Monday, Jul. 16, 2012 - 10:00 am
A little rain over the weekend was welcome, after a summer that's been unusually dry so far. But upstate New York is still pretty parched, raising the risk of wildfires, causing normally gushing streams to run at a trickle, and threatening drinking water... Read more



