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Conservation Advisory Council highlights tree inventory, Tree City USA work and food-scraps expansion
Summary
Jan Malillo, chair of Peekskill’s Conservation Advisory Council, told the council the CAC secured a $75,000 grant for a tree inventory and contracted with Eocene Environmental Group, continued Tree City USA plantings, advanced a climate-action survey and expanded the city’s food-scraps drop-off program.
Jan Malillo, chair of the Conservation Advisory Council, presented the CAC’s 2024 annual report and outlined 10 initiative areas the committee advanced.
“The tree inventory will provide information for the planning, design, planting, maintenance, and removal of community trees,” Malillo said, noting the city secured a $75,000 grant and awarded a contract to Eocene Environmental Group. She described Tree City USA follow-up in 2024 that included plans to plant 40 to 50 trees and about 50 designated planting sites, climate-action outreach including a community survey and a draft city Climate Action Plan, and CAC participation on the Hollow Creek Watershed Management Team to protect drinking-water sources.
Malillo also reviewed outreach and programming the CAC ran this year, including a film event focused on sustainable water use that helped prompt a council resolution related to Hudson River PCBs, and work to expand a downtown food-scraps drop-off option and to host tours of an industrial composting facility in Cortland. She closed by inviting residents to apply for two vacant CAC seats.
Why it matters: The tree inventory and planting plan are positioned to guide city street and park plantings, help mitigate urban heat-island effects downtown and shape upcoming climate-adaptation work that the council will review when the CAC submits a vulnerability-assessment chapter for possible adoption.
