The best source for local news from Marbletown, Rochester & Rosendale
Published the 1st and 3rd Friday of each month | Vol. 27, Issue 1
January 7, 2022 | 75 cents
Summit Ridge Energy will not pursue permit extension for Bennett Solar Farm Sara Trapani BSP Reporter The large solar farm project in Kripplebush has been discontinued. On Nov. 29, Summit Ridge Energy communicated to the Marbletown Planning Board that it will not pursue an extension of the special use permit issued on Oct. 29, 2020, to build a 12-acre solar array on the property of Scott Greathead and Juliette Bennett of 170 Kripplebush Road in Stone Ridge. The project was approved by the Marbletown Planning Board with a vote of 5-1 to allow the solar array to be built on upper fields of the approximately 30-acre property that lies within proximity to a historical district. The project has long been a source of contention between the property owners,
neighbors, the Marbletown Historic Preservation Commission, Town Board and Planning Board members, and the Friends of the Kripplebush Historic District, a group that banded together in opposition to the project and formed a Facebook group of more than 250 residents and their friends and associates. A smaller group of those individuals ultimately filed an Article 78 lawsuit in December 2020 in an effort to stop the project. They succeeded in that the lawsuit was discontinued and the Special Use Permit was allowed to lapse. An Article 78 proceeding is when an individual(s) asks a state court to review a decision or action of a New York state body or officer. The lawsuit challenged the decision of the Planning Board to grant conditional
Yard signs used in the effort to contest the solar farm in Kripplebush
site plan and special use permit approval. The petition claimed that the “Negative Declaration” resolution was in violation of
the “procedural and substantive requirements” of the State Environmental Quality Review Act. “The Planning Board failed to identify the relevant areas of environmental concern and failed to take the required ‘hard look’ at the areas of concern,” states the petition. While the Article 78 suit was stalled in the court system the special use permit expired, and, as mentioned, on Nov 29 Summit Ridge Energy communicated to the Planning Board that they would not choose to go through the renewal process. Chris Ottness, the project contact from SRE, did not reply to a request for comment on the company’s decision-making
See Solar, page 18
Some migrants birds are sticking around ... and other news from the Christmas Bird Counts Ann Belmont BSP Reporter
Common redpoll, female cardinal, redbellied woodpecker Photos by Mark Deidrich
Every animal has a place Page 16
There are almost 2,000 individual Christmas Bird Counts (CBCs) in the U.S. every year between Dec. 14 and Jan. 5. Thousands of citizen scientists go out walking, driving, looking and listening for any and all wild birds they can find on their assigned day, often from before dawn until dark. Each "count circle" is a geographical circle with a 15-mile diameter, a standard set by the Audubon Society, which collects all the data sent in by all the CBCs. Locally, there are three separate counts: the Minnewaska/Shawangunk circle, the Ulster/ Dutchess circle, and the Ashokan/Mohonk circle. The Ashokan/Mohonk been going now for 72 years. Steve Chorvas has been a participant for at least 40 of those years, besides compiling the count data for the last 20. Chorvas, then, is the man to ask about trend-spotting. “What we’re counting here in the CBC are permanent residents, the birds that are here year-round,” Chorvas said. As far as that population goes, according to the
CBC data, “birds are increasing.” He qualified that statement by saying that there are also increasing numbers of people volunteering to count them. “Birding has become very popular. More people seem to be willing to devote their time in volunteer efforts like this.” With more eyes and ears, more birds get found. “We also have access to more … nature preserves, rail trails that didn’t exist 20 years ago. So that helps a little … [but] by and large, numbers are increasing. You can attribute that to global warming – a lot of birds are expanding their range northwards and spending the winter here in greater numbers.” For example, “Carolina wrens. When I first started doing these counts, it would have been very rare to find one in the CBC in New York state. Now, they’re very common.” Another: the red-bellied woodpecker.” “There are a few species that seem to have declined,” Chorvas added. What birds are becoming rare locally? The ruffed grouse, once fairly common in the Rondout Valley, is one. “Now they’re pretty much limited to the Catskills … Some think that’s because the coyote population expanded. The grouse nest on the ground.” Another vanishing visitor
Public hearing on fences in Marbletown Page 3
to feeders is the vividly colorful evening grosbeak. “They used to descend in large flocks and go through your sunflower seed … now, most winters, they don’t seem to be around.” The CBC, naturally, doesn’t keep track of the neotropical migrants who spend their winters in far southern locales. “Those are the ones that are adversely affected by insect populations,” and some, Chorvas said, are declining along with the numbers of the insects they mainly feed upon, “moths and other pollinators.” How do the volunteers know they’re not counting the same bird twice? “We divide the circle, which is 15 miles in diameter, into sectors. We assign a field party to each area.” The parties stick to their sector. “That’s another reason to do the count in just one 24-hour period, so the birds don’t shift too much. That pretty much eliminates double counting. With some species, like a large flock of Canada geese that might fly from a cornfield to, let’s say, a body of water, and then back again, we try to keep track of that … If two different groups have the same number of Canada
See Bird Count, page 15
Looking back on 2021 in pictures Pages 6 and 7