Columbia County awarded $60,000 CAP grant; task force outlines committee, RFP and data partnerships

Columbia County’s climate task force announced the county has been listed as a recipient of a $60,000 climate action plan (CAP) grant and began laying out next steps on forming a CAP committee, drafting an RFP and using new forest and land‑cover data to guide priorities.

Task force participants heard that an official contract and notice have not yet been received; staff said formal billable work is not expected to start until around March 15, and the county’s process will require committee appointments and procurement review before an RFP can be issued. Committee appointments are expected to be made by the board chairman and may follow committee review and a full board action. Participants discussed a realistic schedule that could produce an RFP draft in April–May, with issuance and contractor selection later in the summer.

The CAP committee will be asked to help develop the consultant scope of work, evaluate proposals and oversee stakeholder engagement and outreach. The task force emphasized keeping the advisory committee relatively small (roughly 5–10 members) and composed of representatives who can commit to meetings and follow the plan’s broad sector needs — buildings, transportation and energy infrastructure were specifically mentioned.

Speakers also described a forthcoming data partnership with SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY‑ESF). Staff said SUNY‑ESF’s Climate Applied and Forest Research group (CAFRE) will provide statewide forest canopy and biomass layers clipped to Columbia County and is developing a shrubland land‑cover layer using lidar for 2016 and 2022. That dataset, participants said, can show where shrubland is likely to succeed in becoming forest, helping the county target conservation and restoration work to maximize carbon sequestration.

The task force’s land‑use subcommittee is piloting agricultural emissions work using the USDA COMET‑Farm model and will engage graduate students this spring to estimate recent emissions and sequestration opportunities for field crops. Those modeling efforts and the SUNY‑ESF layers are expected to inform consultant scopes and prioritization of actions under the CAP.

The group also discussed coordination with the countywide conservation plan being led by CLC; CLC will hold a public virtual town hall on January 23 (6–7:30 p.m.) and task force members were encouraged to attend to avoid stakeholder fatigue and identify overlaps.

Next steps: staff will prepare candidate lists for the CAP committee, circulate a draft scope/RFP for early review, and follow up once the NYSERDA contract arrives. The task force scheduled continued discussion at its next regular meeting.