Environmental stewardship award seeks nominees

MILLBROOK — Those who volunteer to help their local environmental community may qualify for two new annual awards offered by the Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County (CCEDC). The first will recognize a Dutchess County municipality for its outstanding local environmental stewardship and the second will single out a Dutchess County volunteer of the year. “There is a lot of great work going on at the local level and we see this every year at our round table; there are about 20 Conservation Advisory Councils (CAC) in the municipalities,” said Allison Chatrchyan, program leader for environmental and energy program. “Each municipality can pretty much have a CAC and every year they come in and report on what they are working on. We know there is a lot of good work that volunteers are doing and we wanted to pull that up as a model and reward them for their great work.”Chatrchyan said CCEDC has received reports from local CACs doing such work as organizing educational events for their town’s residents and working on climate action plans for their towns. Now the cooperative wants to award such efforts.The first award is for any municipal entity, like a town board, planning board or CAC, that has taken action to support or promote its environmental resources. The second award is for a Dutchess County resident who volunteers on one of those boards or committees. The winner will be given a plaque, as well as the honor and recognition for their hard work.In order to nominate a municipality or a specific volunteer, one must fill out a nomination form, which can be found on the CCEDC website, www.ccedutchess.org, and return it to the CCEDC by Friday, March 23, at 5 p.m. Additionally, CCEDC plans a celebration for Earth Day in April, although the date of the event has yet to be decided. It is at the Earth Day celebration that the two awards will be presented.“I would encourage anyone that knows a volunteer that has done a lot of work to protect local natural resources to nominate someone like that,” said Chatrchyan. “I would also add if there are folks that are interested in joining a CAC in Pine Plains, Amenia, North East and Washington [to do so]. They always need volunteers. They can contact me or contact their local supervisor at their town hall.”For more information on the environmental stewardship awards contact Chatrchyan at 845-677-8223, ext. 114, email at acs26@cornell.edu or check the CCEDC website www.ccedutchess.org.

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