The addition of a beautiful 435-acre parcel (photo) along the Southern Gunks Greenway to Huckleberry State Forest depends upon funding for land preservation in New York's EPF.
New York State Budget 2014-15: Enhance the Environmental Protection Fund to Expand Economic and Environmental Benefits
The Friends of New York’s Environment is a partnership of more than 100 environmental, public health, agricultural, recreational and urban groups that supports the Environmental Protection Fund. The Trail Conference is a member of the coalition. For the upcoming year, we seek $200 million for the EPF.
Established in 1993, the EPF is the State's dedicated source of funding for critical environmental programs that protect what we love about New York - our clean drinking water, our magnificent parks, and our family farms. It is primary source of funding for open space protection in the state, a key focus for the Trail Conference. The Governor proposes to invest just $20 million in land protection in the next fiscal year.
Sadly, No money to protect land on the Shawangunk Ridge is in the Governor's land protection budget proposal.
This, despite the fact that the state has identified the Ridge as a priority area for open space protection, worked with the Trail Conference in the past to add land to ridgetop state forests, and is funding Trail Conference efforts to promote a Gunks Greenway on the Shawangunk Ridge.
Our goal is to increase EPF funding overall, to $200 million, and to increase the land acquisition budget in particular. Click here to take immediate action by sending a letter to support the EPF. (You can edit the message with your personal comments.)