May 2025

Sustainable Warwick Minutes 

May 21, 2025

Meeting chair: Bill Greene

Sustainable Warwick welcomed a new member to the Steering Committee - Kate Debold. Kate is very active on the compost committee, Helpsy committee, and several other Sustainable Warwick activities. We are grateful for her increasing commitments to Sustainable Warwick.

Committee Updates
 

Green Calendar: Earth to Warwick: Christy updated us on this way of following all the green events in the Warwick Valley. Everyone is encouraged to enter their Green events through the end of June at this link. This calendar is available on the Sustainable Warwickwebsite, Wickham Works, Facebook and Hello Warwick Valley sites. In addition to publicizing the events, it can help event planners avoid overlapping dates for their events.

Zoom Garden Plot: This season our hyperlocal gardening discussions are being led by Cody Gao with the assistance of Sara Werling and Mark Palczewski.  Zoom sessions are held on the second Monday of every month at 6PM and the topics are always about what’s going on in local gardening. The next meeting will be on June 9, 2025. To receive the Zoom invitation, send your request to garden@sustainablewarwick.org.

Green Screen: The candidates running for the School Board Elections were interviewed by the Green Screen, Geoff Howard, Bill Green and Christina Thomas. This is a good way to ask candidates to identify local issues that SW cares about, such as their views on electric buses and student environmental clubs. We will start planning questions for the upcoming Town Board elections. Two seats will be voted for in November, so the Green Screen will start the process in September.

Sustainable World Book Club: Bill and Mary spoke about The Serviceberry, by Robin Wall Kimmerer.  Everyone enjoyed this concise book, which describes connections between the natural world and the human world and how the potential for wealth through cooperation and generosity are sadly overlooked in our competitive world.  Our next title is Becoming Earth, by Feris Jabr for the meeting on June 10th. This will be the Tenth Anniversary of the book club and we are currently compiling a list of our 10 favorite titles from our archive list. Contact BookClub@sustainablewarwick.org to get the Zoom link.

Food Scraps to Compost: Kate updated us. Food scrap collection at this time of year is relatively small, as the crops have not yet ripened for the Farmers Market.  Also there are now year round options for residents to drop off food scraps, thanks to the deal we worked out with a local business, Goodmaker Acres. If you'd like to get involved, reach out to the committee at Garden@sustainablewarwick.org.

Climate and Energy Committee: We are currently planning a Neighborly Seminar on Solar Panels and Community Solar at Albert Wisner Public Library on June 17th at 6:30PM. Please join us at the seminar. You can register here.


SW Hikes: On Sunday, May 18th, 10 of us spent a couple great hours hiking along a section of the Appalachian Trail. Once again Sona Mason led the hike and pointed out Pink Lady Slippers and other native plants. Another hike is planned for late June/early July, depending on when the mountain laurels are blooming in Wawayanda State Park. If you'd like to get the details in advance of the hike, let us know at garden@sustainablewarwick.org.

The Coolest Recycling Drive: The Coolest Recycling Drive has now collected 1,100 refrigerant-containing appliances statewide since Sustainable Warwick started this project in 2023. CleanEnergy@sustainablewarwick.org
 

SW Pollinator Pathway: They are always looking for more volunteers to help with the project at Mountain Lake Park. They meet there each month on the 2nd Tuesday at 9:00AM and occasionally at other times. Reach out to them for more information at Pollinators@sustainablewarwick.org.

Our next monthly meeting will be on Wednesday, June 18th at 6.00pm at Wickham Woodlands Pavillion. This will be a zero-waste potluck dinner, so bring a dish you would like to share with others as well as your own plates and cutlery.

Volunteers wanted! 


More Local News
 

Transformation Trails: Geoff updated us on the progress, 50 trees planted. New pollinator patches started. Help needed for planting this Tuesday! Join in the fun as they plant the seeds for a wildflower meadow at TT this Tuesday, May 27th at 5:00PM. Bring gloves! They are aiming for an auditorium/arena, a sculpture garden and an education base (organized by Elizabeth Zahn) to teach students about the environment, pollination and insects. Kate and Julia advised that the $300 that has been raised by the Helpsy bins may be directed by the Town to support Transformation Trails. They will follow up on this.

Climate Smart Communiities: Bill Mafoske advised that the first meeting  of the Town of Warwick's Climate Smart Communities is coming up.  He is on the committee with Greg and Michael. Education events can earn points so Sustainable Warwick will be working closely with the town on these as related to EVs, solar panels, heat pumps and so on. Completing and documenting actions in the Climate Smart Communities program earns points, and earning enough points leads to opportunities to receive grants and other support from the state. Inquiries for the committee can be sent to CleanEnergy@sustainablewarwick.org.

PDR Fund: over 5,000 acres have been protected by PDR. This includes farmland, forests and parks, such as Mountain Lake Park. State Senator Skoufis and Assemblymember Brabenec have proposed legislation that would change the use of funds collected through PDR, so that at least 60% of the funds would continue to go for purchasing development rights for new parcels, while up to 30% can be spent on management and stewardship programs for already preserved land, and up to 10% can be used for water quality improvement projects.

Christy ErferComment