Wetlands Seminar: Thursday, June 30, three CAC members, including
myself, attended the wetlands seminar that was held at the Environmental
Management Council (EMC) at the Farm and Home Center on Rte 44 in the town
of Washington. The evening was very informative and we learned many
things such as: that wetlands are fed from above and below the surface of
the ground so in essence they will never totally dry up nor will
consistent mowing dry out a wetland either. It was a basic wetlands
refresher course and it was great for new members and anyone interested in
learning about wetlands.

Discover Nature Walk & Scavenger Hunt: Sunday, July 10, the CAC
hosted a Discover Nature Walk & Scavenger Hunt on the Harlem Valley Rail
Trail. We had a great time! People learned a lot. We saw at least 2
dozen or more Painted Turtles and other turtle species in the wetlands.
Identified different plants, trees and birds and tasted the edible
vegetation along the way. We had a very nice write-up in the Millerton
News by the reporter who took the walk with us.

Amenia Hills: The CAC has been closely following the Amenia Hills
development project. The CAC feels that several issues were not resolved
regarding the FEIS and that we are following up within the SEQR process.

Biodiversity Assessment: CAC chairman Dave Reagon is currently
taking the Biodiversity Assessment short course given by Hudsonia, which
runs from Tues. Aug. 16-Thurs. Aug. 18. (24 hours of training in total).
The CAC is currently looking into doing a Biodiversity Assessment for the
Town of Amenia that will last approximately 10 months. We feel that this
will be a great plus for the town of Amenia as it will assess all of our
natural resources and species and compliment the Natural Resources
Inventory that we recently previously updated.

Wetlands Survey: The CAC is currently working on improving our
survey of wetlands that we currently have for the town of Amenia. We have
approximately 30 or so registered wetlands in the town of Amenia. We are
dividing up the wetlands among our members and we are each going out and
assessing their conditions with visual inspections, photos and brief
written reports. We hope to have an educational wetlands display
available soon to exhibit in the town hall.

Water Testing Kit: We have purchased our water testing kit and the
CAC hopes to start our water-testing program for the streams and wetlands
in the town of Amenia very shortly. This will give us an idea of the
general health of these water bodies in our town.

Dutchess County Land Use Leadership Training and Certification:
Saturday, October 15, 8:30am-4: 30pm. The Land Use Center of Pace Law
School will conduct a program at the Farm & Home Center on Rte 44 designed
to benefit Board members by developing and reinforcing local land use
decision-making skills and by providing Board members with the tools they
need to address regional land use issues of critical importance. CAC
members will be attending this training and we are urging members of the
Town Board, Planning Board, and Zoning Board of Appeals to attend this
training along with us. This training will greatly benefit the town of
Amenia.

Adopt-A-Highway Program: The CAC is looking into Adopting-A-
Highway in the Town of Amenia. Our CAC members have
participated in the town clean-ups over the past year and we thought what
better way to continue that then by adopting a highway to help keep our
town looking clean and inviting.