NY’s 30×30 conservation push: Draft strategies unveiled for public comment

State estimates it needs to protect about 3 million more acres

By Gwendolyn Craig

To reach the Hochul administration’s goal of protecting 30% of its lands and waters by 2030, New York must conserve about three million more acres, state officials revealed Monday.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation and Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation released a draft plan of how they intend to close the gap within the next 5 ½ years.

Their estimate of how much land New York has conserved — about 22% — is greater than previous estimates. A 2018 Center for American Progress report used in the so-called 30×30 legislation suggested about 19% of New York’s land is conserved or protected. Protect the Adirondacks, a nonprofit organization focused on protecting the Adirondack Park, estimated 20%.

The benchmarks Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into law at the end of 2022, piggyback President Joe Biden’s executive order calling for conservation of 30% of the nation’s lands and waters by 2030 “for the sake of our economy, our health and our well-being.”

The goal, nationwide and statewide, is to use conservation to sequester more carbon and help combat global warming, protect biodiversity, conserve wildlife habitat and preserve open space for future generations. 

The strategies of how the state plans to do this are out for public comment until Aug. 30. The state will also hold two virtual public meetings before adopting the final plan.

Protect the Adirondacks, which released a statewide assessment on lands protected, noted that Republican Gov. George Pataki conserved over one million acres during his 12 years in office, starting in 1995. Since 2011, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Hochul, both Democrats, have conserved about 100,000 acres.

If based on land acquisition alone, it would take a tremendous increase in capital to get to three million acres by 2030. The Environmental Protection Fund, the state’s main source for funding land conservation, contains $400 million. Up to $650 million of the state’s $4.2 billion Clean Water, Clean Air and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act of 2022 is allocated for open space land conservation and recreation.

But the DEC, Office of Parks and others are relying on other ways to count conservation.

“In addition to state land purchases for the Forest Preserve or state parks or through new conservation easements, we encourage the Hochul Administration to develop a new private forestland protection program based on long-term carbon storage for landowners across New York,” said Claudia Braymer, deputy director of Protect the Adirondacks, in a release. “Today, there are millions of acres of privately owned forests where landowners are eager to protect their lands and help the State meet its climate change mitigation goals.”

In its draft plan, the state lists existing programs that could help reach goals. The lengthy list  includes farmland protection implementation grants, water quality improvement funds and forest conservation easements.

It also suggests developing new programs and models. One involves focusing on “conservation of habitat connectivity, wildlife corridors, and connective pathways.”

Such strategies would “increase habitat connectivity and ecosystem health by eliminating barriers or creating connections …  have a great impact on overall ecosystem health and biodiversity conservation.” 

That theme supports a wildlife crossing bill legislators passed this session, requiring the state Department of Transportation and New York Thruway Authority to conduct an assessment of such wildlife pathways. The law has yet to be signed by Hochul.

Top photo: An aerial view of Follensby Pond. Photo by Carl Heilman II, courtesy of The Nature Conservancy

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