Photo of Esopus Creek watershed group kayaking by Gail Porter.
We spoke with Emily Vail and Simon Gruber (executive director and co-founder/former board president, respectively) of the Hudson River Watershed Alliance about everything from the organization’s beginnings at a series of Mohonk Consultations conferences on water (see links at the bottom of this post) to how they have met the challenges of 2020.
One in a series of conversations with organizations that grew out of Mohonk Consultations programs, as a way of marking our 40th Anniversary.
MC: How did the Hudson River Watershed Alliance get started?
EV: Simon Gruber, a member of the founding Steering Committee for the Hudson River Watershed Alliance in 2005 and the president of the board from 2010-2019, remembers the organization’s beginnings at a series of Mohonk Consultations conferences in 2003 and 2004. The organization’s steering committee members were ratified by acclamation at a founding meeting in November 2005 at Mohonk Mountain House.
SG: My clearest early memories include Fran Dunwell, who leads the Hudson River Estuary Program, helping to lead some discussions at the earliest conferences, and Manna Jo Greene leading the discussion in November 2005 when we formed the Steering Committee, which evolved into our Board of Directors. After this, I clearly remember the satisfaction and excitement as the room filled at our annual one-day watershed conferences, where we had many notable speakers over the years. One favorite memory was from the Hudson River Watershed Alliance Annual Conference held at the Mohonk Mountain House on October 12, 2012—Soil and Sediment Management from a Local and Regional Perspective.
EV: The timing was especially important in that it was one year after Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee had major impacts on sediment in the Hudson River and its watershed. [Hurricane Sandy hit just 10 days after the conference on October 22, 2012—ed.]
SG: The entire day was devoted to discussing sediment in the Hudson River and its watershed. We’d committed to do this for a grant and I had wondered for years how on earth we could make a conference about sediment lasting a whole day seem interesting to most people. But our main staff person at the time, Barbara Kendall, did an amazing job and put together a wonderful program that was quite fascinating — you can feel it in the room when you’ve got people’s attention.
Then in 2016, our keynote conference speaker, Wallace J. Nichols, a marine biologist, talked about his book, Blue Mind, and the ways our experience with and in water makes people happier. During the panel discussion that day, we talked about the importance of recognizing the power of love as part of our work, and hearing this was a first for me, and probably others, at a conference like this.
After some volunteer citizens and environmental professionals developed the concept for a new organization to connect local watershed groups in the region, we started as a project of Hudson River Sloop Clearwater. The development process received crucial, early support from the NYS DEC’s Hudson River Estuary Program and the Park Foundation. We gradually built the Alliance into a formal nonprofit, tax-exempt educational organization that’s now recognized as an important part of the region’s environmental network.
EV: One of our key founders, Manna Jo Greene, still works at Clearwater.
SG: Yes, and Ryan Palmer, who was a younger staff member at Clearwater back then, is now the Chair of the HRWA board. Both of them have been instrumental to the organization’s development and success.
MC: Looking back over the history of your organization, what achievement(s) give you the most satisfaction and joy?
EV: Simon noted recently that over all these years, meetings of the Alliance’s board and staff were almost always friendly and, in fact, fun. He’s quite proud of the way the organization’s culture embodies patience, kindness and maintaining good relationships as a foundation for doing environmental work.
SG: HRWA chose to be a non-advocacy, educational organization and this has served us well…it’s been very satisfying to see how some much larger organizations in the region view us as a trusted partner and key player for working with dozens of watershed organizations in the region. For example, we’ve continued to work with the Hudson River Estuary Program ever since, and more recently worked over several years with The Nature Conservancy on some important community outreach about resilience as the climate is changing.
Above: HRWA Newburgh Clean Water Project conference. Photo by Emily Vail.
MC: How has the coronavirus affected your work and how have you shifted to respond?
EV: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Hudson River Watershed Alliance has shifted all of our education and capacity-building programs online. Clean water is critical during a pandemic, and we’re still working to meet the needs of our local watershed partners. Our online programs have included our monthly lecture series as a webinar, an online roundtable for watershed group leaders to share questions and strategies, and a watershed conversation series to provide additional technical assistance on specific topics. We’re working on planning two webinar series workshops and an online conference in October [2020]. We’ve also made our Zoom account available to watershed groups to hold their meetings or educational programs remotely. One of the advantages of online programs is that people from across our 13,400 square mile watershed are able to participate, without the need for travel.
MC: Looking ahead, what do you see in terms of your aims and vision for serving the community?
EV: Looking ahead, we remain dedicated to supporting local watershed groups, helping municipalities work together on water issues, and communicating as a collective voice across the region. We’re currently working on a Hudson River watershed needs assessment, based on interviews with 32 watershed group leaders. This information will guide our specific programming in the future. We see more clearly than ever that watershed health is connected to individual and community health. We also see that we must do much more to support our watershed communities that have been impacted by environmental racism. We’re focused on our mission to unite and empower watershed communities, providing a collaborative network that works together to ensure a healthy and resilient Hudson River watershed.
The below Mohonk Consultations events concerning the health, security, and protection of Hudson Valley waters, held at Mohonk Mountain House, helped HRWA form and develop:
2003 Forum, What Water Crisis? Global and Local Perspectives.
2003 Conference, Keeping Our Heads Above Water; Protecting Fresh Water for Our Future. Co-sponsored with http://www.clearwater.org/
2004 Conference, Forming a Hudson River Watershed Partnership. Co-sponsored with Hudson River Sloop Clearwater.
Once it had been formalized, the Hudson River Watershed Alliance developed the following events in partnership with Mohonk Consultations (in addition to its other activities):
2004 Conference, Hudson River Valley Watershed Alliance Anniversary Gathering
2007, Watershed Connections: Economic and Ecological Values of Streams, Buffers, and Floodplains. Co-sponsored by the Hudson River Watershed Alliance, Mohonk Consultations, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Hudson River Estuary Program, and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection.
2008 Conference, Meeting the Climate Challenge—Taking Action in the Hudson Valley. Co-sponsored by the Hudson River Watershed Alliance and Mohonk Consultations.
2013 Conference, A Watershed Moment—Changing Climate and the Future of Our Water Resources. Co-sponsored by the Hudson River Watershed Alliance and Mohonk Consultations.