Scenic Hudson

Scenic Hudson is a not-for-profit environmental organization in New York that protects land, creates and enhances parks, and advocates for environmentally responsible policies and development practices.

Scenic Hudson was founded as the Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference on November 8, 1963, when Hudson Valley residents organized to save Storm King Mountain from being transformed into the world's largest pumped-storage hydroelectric plant. The organization successfully mounted the Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference v. Federal Power Commission court case, which saved the mountain and, for the first time, gave U.S. citizens legal standing to challenge development proposals on environmental grounds. Known as "The Scenic Hudson Decision," the case became a cornerstone of environmental law in the United States, and is widely credited with launching the modern environmental movement.

After the Storm King Mountain case, Scenic Hudson gained more visibility, and began working with other local communities to protect important natural resources and adopt sound environmental policies.

Scenic Hudson adopted three principles:

The organization has three major focus area: Protecting land, creating and enhancing parks and preserves, and advocating for environmentally responsible policies and development outcomes.

Working primarily along the Hudson River between New York City and Albany, Scenic Hudson acquires land and conservation easements to create parks and preserves, protect lands of high scenic and ecological importance, and conserve prime farmland within New York City's agricultural foodshed. Much of its land protection work is completed in partnership with private landowners, local land trusts, and local, state, and federal public agencies. Land and conservation easements are typically acquired and held by Scenic Hudson's affiliate organization, The Scenic Hudson Land Trust, Inc. The two entities have protected over 31,000 acres in nine counties in the Hudson Valley. In 2011, the organization received the Land Trust Alliance's National Land Trust Excellence Award.

In January 2015, as a part of the Save the Land That Matters Most campaign, Scenic Hudson acquired a conservation easement of the 62 acres of productive farm fields and watershed lands adjacent to South Bay Creek, allowing a group of young farmers, who had previously been leasing the property, to purchase it, creating the Letterbox Farm Collective.

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