Ulster County and City of Kingston Discuss Rights for the Hudson River

By Rebecca Martin

The City of Kingston and Ulster County are both discussing the Rights of the Hudson River. It’s time.

With major threats that include PCBs, anchorages, transmission cables, radioactive discharges and more, community members in the City of Kingston and Ulster County have been working with elected officials to bring forward legislation and memorializing resolutions to imagine providing rights to the Hudson River and its watershed.

Ulster County: FACEBOOK EVENT

Ulster County Legislator Phil Erner has been collaborating with community members from The Eco-Assembly to bring forward legislation for Rights of the Hudson River.  On June 1, the Ulster County Legislature’s Energy, Environment and Sustainability Committee passed a resolution for a public hearing on July 18. LISTEN to that discussion that begins at 10:00.

The request will go to the full legislature on June 13 for approval.

City of Kingston:   FACEBOOK EVENT

In the City of Kingston, Paul Tobin and Chief Mann, the Turtle Clan Chief of the Ramapough Lenape Nation with the support of Julie Noble, the city’s Environmental Education and Sustainability Coordinator, recently introduced Memorializing Resolution #95 calling for a “Bill of Rights for the Hudson River, Also Known as the Mahicantuck, and its Watershed and Ecosystem” to the Kingston Common Council’s Laws and Rules Committee that passed unanimously in May and that will go to the floor on June 6.  The council is discussing many important items that we are following, this being one of them.

Please join our Facebook events linked above for important updates and to learn how you can participate. 

 

RESOURCES

LISTEN: On the Green Radio Hour with Jon Bowermaster “Does nature have rights? A conversation…”