News from the Noteworthy from Otsego County Conservation Association

Making Community Connections in Conservation

The Otsego County Conservation Association was established in 1968 by a group of concerned citizens who wanted to protect the natural resources in our community.

Over the years, we have been nimble in our work and tried to stay on top of the conversation concern of the hour. In this new and constantly changing landscape for environmental conservation, we have doubled down on strengthening our sense of community with community science and stewardship opportunities. Over the past year, we have developed new community science teams who perform water quality testing, culvert assessments and invasive species management. We also have stewardship teams who work on local trails and “adopt” water bodies and highways in order to maintain them.

One of the teams that we would love to engage more people in is our Community Advocacy Team. This is a group of concerned, conservation-minded community members who are interested in connecting with local news outlets, communicating with our legislators, and helping spread the word about policy and law changes that affect us locally and impact our daily lives. We provide information, scripts and background; you provide your voice to the cause.

Right now, we are encountering large numbers of community members who feel alone. With the whirlwind of changes happening in federal policy, nonprofit funding and human rights, many people don’t know what action they can take to help. This overwhelming feeling of disconnection is natural in the situation, but the way to combat that is through community. Coming together with people who have a shared understanding and sense of responsibility to do something is the first step in making real change and progress. Once you take the first step—even if you are not sure what comes next—being around other passionate, motivated people who want to see our community thrive is the key to emotional resilience. Not only does it fortify our sense of well-being; it also leads to real, on-the-ground projects and activities to help the community from all angles to create a place we want to live in.

We are currently raising funds to leverage a state program to hire a full-time fellow to head up this work and build our internal capacity to get back to our grassroots community advocacy work of the past. Our goal is to raise $20,000.00 to leverage the NYSERDA program for an additional $40,000.00.

Our other new community science effort involves Lake Shore Monitoring Teams, scheduled to launch on Otsego and Canadarago lakes this summer. These teams will be on the lookout for harmful algal blooms, invasive species and any other threats to the lakes they may encounter.

This data will be used to determine potential blooms in different sectors of the lakes. We are also launching a notification system for HABs. Once information is collected, it will be e-mailed out to the community. Please visit our website or the Otsego County HAB Safety site to sign up for the notification list to be informed throughout the summer.

All are welcome, and you can sign up for HABs notifications and any other community science group via our website at www.occainfo.org

Amy Wyant is the executive director of the Otsego County Conservation Association.