Upper Delaware River (UDR) Network Newsletter

December 2024

Hello!

It’s been a beautiful start to the winter season in the Upper Delaware Region! As we enter this holiday season we are thankful for all the important work we all do that protects and restores the great Delaware River Watershed.

The Upper Delaware River on a beautiful winter day.

A very intelligent person in the Delaware River conservation community once said, “a vision without funding is a hallucination”.  

Our collective efforts to implement river protection and restoration projects and advance conservation policy initiatives in the Upper Delaware River region would not be possible without a sustainable source of funding. 

Thankfully, both the federal government and the state of New York are now making significant investments in the long-term protection of the Upper Delaware River and many members of the UDR Network are benefitting from grant awards that assist and bolster their conservation efforts. 

Here are some recent updates on funding for conservation projects in New York’s Upper Delaware River Watershed.

2024 Delaware Watershed Conservation Fund (DWCF) Grantees

The DWCF is administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation

1.) Connecting Rivers and Community: Brook Trout Restoration in the Upper Delaware River (Total Project: $1,560,100)

NY Grantee - Trout Unlimited

Support implementation of priority nature-based solutions for brook trout passage and habitat restoration in the East Branch Delaware River and Willowemoc Creek. The project will reconnect 9.5 miles of stream and complete designs for future restoration and reconnection projects, continuing momentum for native trout recovery in the watershed.

2.) Stream Restoration and River Access Improvement in the Delaware River Watershed (Total Project: $969,800)

NY Grantee - Friends of the Upper Delaware River

Restore aquatic habitat connectivity and create universally accessible river access in Delaware and Sullivan counties, New York. The project will reconnect 4.5 miles of stream, improve a river-access site with a ramp and invasive species treatment, and bring community members together to engage in river recreation and learn about the importance of the Upper Delaware River.

3.) Building Capacity for Coldwater Habitat Conservation in the Delaware River Watershed (NJ, NY, PA) (Total Project: $701,200)

Grantee - Wildlife Management Institute

Build capacity for cold-water habitat conservation and brook trout population recovery across New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. The project will hire a landscape coordinator to facilitate project planning and a project manager to supervise on-the-ground conservation endeavors, ultimately streamlining implementation, enhancing stakeholder coordination, and bolstering habitat resilience and biodiversity in the watershed. 

4.) Building Capacity for Dam Removals in the Delaware River II (DE, NJ, NY, PA) (Total Project: $126,000)

Grantee - The Nature Conservancy

Expertise by offering on-demand coaching, municipal and county government outreach, informational webinars and in-person training to stakeholders in the Delaware River Basin. The project will strengthen and expand the network of dam removal practitioners and accelerate the pace of dam removals across the basin, ultimately improving wildlife habitats and water quality and enhancing recreational opportunities.

5.) Evaluating Headwater Habitat Conditions to inform Conservation in the Delaware Basin (NY, PA) (Total Project: $725,800)

Grantee - Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University

Assess the impact of temperature fluctuations on macroinvertebrate genetic biodiversity and ecosystem function of headwater streams in the Delaware River. The project will develop a watershed geospatial model to predict headwater stream resilience in response to temperature changes, detect the presence or absence of at-risk species using eDNA analysis, and enhance collaboration with community partners and scientists to improve conservation practices.

6.) Improving Priority Bird Habitat through Collaborative Forest Management (NY, PA) (Total Project: $549,200)

Grantee - National Audubon Society

Connect endorsed foresters with private landowners to deliver bird-friendly forest management plans and implementation projects in the Delaware River Watershed Project will create 800 acres of improved habitat for focal birds, including wood thrush, cerulean and golden-winged warblers, as well as an additional 5,000 shovel-ready acres with management plans completed and ready for implementation. 

For a complete list of 2024 DWCF grants visit: nfwf-dwcf-20240819-gs.pdf

Catskill Mountainkeeper Logo

Featured Watershed Partner - Catskill Mountainkeeper

In this newsletter we are featuring UDR Network member Catskill Mountainkeeper, one of the premier conservation organizations advocating for the protection of New York’s historic and ecologically significant Catskill Mountains. Thanks for everything you do!

“Catskill Mountainkeeper (CMK) was spawned during New York Governor Patakis administration when there was a proposal to build five casinos in the Catskills. Residents here were reacting to the idea of turning Sullivan County into a mini Las Vegas. The Catskill Region, due to the many demographic, economic, topographical, and political variables has historically retained its ecological integrity. This region includes some of the largest protected wild tracts of land in the entire eastern half of the United States. This makes this region and the communities here important not just to New York, but important to the country as a whole. This is the background which spoke to the need for the region to have an organization that is a voice to protect communities and our ecological heritage.

CMK helped mobilize and educate the public on the potentially far ranging effects hydraulic fracturing posed for the region, including possible health impacts to people and the environment. When the state of New York issued a prohibition on this type of drilling in 2014, CMK believed that decision represented the views of hundreds of groups and individuals across NY and was an important example of how organizations can escape their individual and organizational silos and work together despite differences.

Since then there have been many fights and collaborations we have been involved with. The first Climate March in 2014 in NYC, keeping a tar sands boiler and oil pipelines out of Albany, establishing community solar projects, forming NYRENEWS, and passing the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. All of this works speaks to collaborating across sectors. There are many ongoing issues to address such as protecting pollinators, fighting a garbage incinerator, stopping route 17 expansion and urban sprawl, with an onslaught of oversized inappropriate development.

The Delaware is the longest free-flowing (un-damned) river in the United States east of the Mississippi, from Hancock, NY, to the mouth of the Delaware Bay. When you include all the unobstructed tributaries you realize we live in an incredibly important ecological and cultural bioregion. There is an immeasurable value of this region to the people who live and work here, the folks that come to fish, hunt, hike and build relationships with the natural world.  We are blessed with a rare and important island of biodiversity, clean air and water.  There is a need for us to get out of our respective silos and work together to protect our home for future generations.

This is why we love working with Friends of the Upper Delaware(FUDR) . They think outside the box and are willing to meet with folks from across the political and cultural divides that usually keep us from succeeding. Bringing together community voices with state and local regulators to find our common goals is what is needed most in today's world, FUDR is one of the organizations that does this work.” 

Catskill Mountainkeeper Website Banner

Thanks for taking a moment to read the UDR Network Watershed Newsletter! We hope it helps you gain a broader understanding of all the work happening in the watershed and provides you with an opportunity to meet new partners, learn new strategies, and identify opportunities to strengthen your watershed work! 

If there is an activity or event that your organization would like featured in the next newsletter, please email info@fudr.org. To learn more about the UDR Watershed Network, visit our website https://www.udrwatershed.org.

-The UDR Watershed Network Team

Activities and Important Dates