Riverkeeper Joins Hudson Valley Task Force

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Riverkeeper’s Alex Matthiessen has joined the Land Use, Energy and Environment Task Force, one of six Task Forces which include some of New York’s most creative thinkers and leaders on issues affecting the Hudson River and Valley, to develop innovative, far-reaching and practicable ideas intended to shape the region’s future.

Developed as a legacy project of the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial celebrated in 2009, the work of the Task Forces responds to ideas and issues that emerged from a “Listening Tour” held in the Valley last fall. Sponsored by the Quadricentennial Commission, these Listening Tour workshops were well-attended in Hudson, Kingston, Manhattan, Newburgh-New Windsor, Troy and Yonkers.
The Task Forces have addressed these themes:

• Land Use, Energy and Environment Task Force, co-chaired by Ned Sullivan, President of Scenic Hudson, and Alex Matthiessen, President of Riverkeeper, Inc.
• Culture and Education: How We Live and Learn, co-chaired by John Haworth, Director, George Gustav Heye Center, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, and Dr. William H. Schlesinger, President, Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies
• Economic Development: How We Earn Our Living, co-chaired by Mary Kay Vrba, Director of Dutchess County Tourism and President of Hudson Valley Tourism, Inc., and Allan Shope, Listening Rock Farm, Architect
• Agriculture and Food: How We Eat, chaired by Judith LaBelle, President, Glynwood Center
• Transportation: How We Get Around, co-chaired by Richard Maitino, Vice President, Parsons Corporation, and Anthony E. Shorris, Director of the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management, New York University.
• Mechanisms for Action: How We Work Together, co-chaired by Robert W. Elliott, Board Member, Hudson River Greenway Communities Council, and Jeffrey Rumpf, Executive Director, Clearwater

Over the next few weeks, Task Force reports will be released to the media and will be available online for members of the public to read, evaluate and post their own thoughts.

For more information, go to www.OurHudson.org