ESFPA E-News Volume 3 - Issue 3January 24, 2022A round-up of our interesting stories from the past week. Save the Date! Forestry Awareness DayMarch 1st, VIRTUALESFPA is currently planning Forestry Awareness Day 2022! Once again, we are planning a VIRTUAL day - Participate from the comfort of your own home or office and ZERO travel time! We will keep you posted when registration is set up! ESFPA Summary of the NYS Budget Last week, Governor Kathy Hochul released her first Executive Budget Proposal for FY 2023. You can find her press release here and the full Briefing Book here. ESFPA has been unpacking the Appropriation Bills which detail the State Operations, Capital Expenditures and Aid to Localities funding and the Article VII Bills which include legislation the Governor is asking for to advance her agenda. If you want details, you can find the proposed budget at the Division of Budget website. The Governor’s budget totals $216 billion which is $4 billion higher than last year. The budget leans heavily on $81 billion in federal funds primarily as a result of pandemic assistance. Below is link to the full ESFPA article summary of key provisions in the budget and comes from the Transportation, Economic Development and Environmental Conservation TED Bill and the Revenue Bill. We will be following up with additional details and some Advocacy Campaigns in the coming weeks and many of these items will be the focus of our Virtual Forestry Awareness Day meetings with members of the Legislature the first week of March. John has also requested to testify at the TED Hearing on February 1 which will be a virtual hearing. To read the full ESFPA Executive Budget Proposal Summary, please follow this LINK. Biomass Update from FRA Rice Named APA Executive Director Last week NYS Governor Hochul announced Barbara Rice as the new Adirondack Park Agency executive director. Rice, a Saranac Lake Native will replace Theresa DeFranco Martino who announced her retirement on January 14th. According to an article in the Adirondack Explorer, Rice has deep roots in the region having graduated from Saranac High School and the third generation operator of the Rice Furniture Company. Also joining the APA recently as the new Director of Planning is Megan Phillips. Megan was most recently the Director of Conservation at the Adirondack Council and prior to that with the Executive Chamber in Governor Cuomo’s administration. Securing Northeast Forest Carbon ProgramFunded through a grant from the USDA Forest Service’s Landscape Scale Restoration grant program, the Securing Northeast Forest Carbon Program is a cooperative effort of the State Foresters of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont to secure as much of the private forest carbon in the northeast region as possible in a 3-year period ending 2024. The focus is on working forestland carbon. Each State Forester’s office has a forest carbon lead staffer for the Program and others will be trained as well in how to encourage private forest owners in the region to secure their forest carbon through carbon sales in the voluntary and compliance markets, conservation easements and through special management practices. Sign up for the newsletter here. The Cary Institute is hosting a series of webinars this winter. Descriptions and links are listed below: January 27th, 1 pm - Building Equity into US Green Infrastructure Planning: Discover how cities can build equity into green infrastructure planning and practice. Explore results from an analysis of over 120 green infrastructure plans in 20 US cities. February 1st, 6:30 pm - Governing Green: A toolkit for Equitable Green Infrastructure. Learn how to use a new experiential toolkit based on real-life scenarios to help you incorporate equity into your green infrastructure projects. February 16th, 7 pm - Oh Deer! How Deer Shape Forests in the Catsills & Beyond. Explore the history of deer in the Catskills, how deer influence the composition and health of our regional forests, and strategies to mitigate deer impacts. FRA - Woods To Mill Newsletter Forest Industry Workforce by: Eric Kingsley, FRA NE Regional Coordinator To read the full article please click here. Follow Us! |