Prospect Park Bird Sightings & North Brooklyn Nature News: Fwd: [ALERT] Protect 567 Acres in the Fort Edward Grasslands

Monday, September 29, 2025

Fwd: [ALERT] Protect 567 Acres in the Fort Edward Grasslands

"I hope I can be the autumn leaf, who looked at the sky and lived. And when it was time to leave, gracefully it knew life was a gift." — Dodinsky

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Ryan Goldberg <ryan.goldberg@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Sep 29, 2025, 10:07 AM
Subject: Fwd: [ALERT] Protect 567 Acres in the Fort Edward Grasslands
To: Peter Dorosh <prosbird@gmail.com>

Maybe if you want to share on your blog.

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Erin McGrath, Audubon New York <audubonconnect@audubon.org>
Date: Mon, Sep 29, 2025 at 10:02 AM
Subject: [ALERT] Protect 567 Acres in the Fort Edward Grasslands
To: Ryan Goldberg <ryangoldberg@gmail.com>

ALERT: Help Us Protect the Fort Edward Grasslands Important Bird Area!

Short-eared Owl sits on ground, camouflaging amidst dried grasses.

Dear Ryan,

Audubon's Fort Edward Grasslands Important Bird Area (IBA) and the vulnerable grassland birds that rely on it need your help. This IBA in Washington County contains 13,000 acres of exceptional grassland habitat that supports a diverse array of grassland birds, but it is at risk of being degraded by a proposed solar installation.

The Fort Edward Solar project would take 567 acres of habitat currently used by the state-endangered Short-eared Owl and threatened Northern Harrier in the core of the IBA. The development of renewable energy is critical, but we cannot let the urgency of our fight against climate change diminish our efforts to protect threatened and endangered species.

Urge the NYS Office of Renewable Energy to commit to protecting Audubon's Fort Edward Grasslands Important Bird Area by requiring adequate mitigation.

The project applicant, Boralex, proposes to mitigate the project's impacts by providing funding for habitat management on 216 acres of grassland on a nearby property. Providing only 216 acres of mitigation will not replace the ecological function of the 567 acres of grassland habitat being taken by this project.

Short-eared Owls and Northern Harriers each require hundreds of acres of contiguous grassland for wintering and breeding habitat, and the proposed property is unlikely to support the same number of individuals.

Your support is critical. Tell NYS ORES that they must commit to protecting the grasslands and the vulnerable birds that rely on them by requiring adequate mitigation.

Thank you for speaking up in support of vulnerable grassland birds.

Sincerely,

Erin McGrath
Director of Policy