REGENERATING
THE LOWER HUDSON RIVER VALLEY
"From the beginning the water and the land, the flora and the fauna, the geography and the geology, the light and even the smells, have combined to make the Hudson River Valley a unique place in America. The natural river and the valley through which it flows have served as a vast stage on which we have acted out our ambitions and desires, however noble or ignoble they might be. And always the Hudson's rich landscape has helped to shape our actions.”
— from Thomas Lewis's The Hudson, A History
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The Hudson River originates at Tear of Clouds Lake on Mt. Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains and outlets into the Atlantic Ocean in New York City. Called by the indigenous Mahicantucks the "river that flows two ways," it is, between New York Harbor and Troy, New York actually a tidal estuary where salty sea water meets fresh; where, today the five boroughs of New York City meet the suburban and rural communities to their north.
The first peoples to inhabit the Hudson River Valley were hunters and gatherers and, some, agriculturalists. When Europeans arrived in the area beginning in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, two tribes dominated the region—the Mohicans of the northern valley and the Lenape in the southern valley. In 1609 Henry Hudson "discovered" his namesake river on what was ultimately a failed search for a passage East, commissioned by the Dutch East India Company. Since then, as Lewis notes, the Hudson River Valley has been a landscape where the complexities and contradictions of America’s western cultural and economic history have been playing out, for better and for worse. In a series of paintings he created between 1833-36 entitled The Course of Civilization, Thomas Cole, the founder of the renowned Hudson River School of landscape painters, depicts the rise and fall of a city against the backdrop of a river that is much like the Hudson. The series reflects Cole's deep despondency as early industrialists of the region despoiled the Hudson Valley landscape, seeming to care only for the economic value they could extract from it. Cole, thankfully, did not live to see the river further poisoned by industrial waste during the first half of the 20th century nor, unfortunately, did he get to witness its revitalization in the mid-20th, led by pathfinders Scenic Hudson, and Pete Seeger and his Clearwater sloop. Here we are beginning to shape the story of the Lower Hudson River Valley through a holistic lens, tracing the patterns of the new learning and infrastructure networks being designed by inspired practitioners—across finance, industry, agriculture, and the arts— who believe there is another, better way for us to live and thrive in this beautiful and vibrant bioregion. Theirs is a bold, collaborative effort, often unobserved and, we believe, never before chronicled as a unified story, that is changing the economic landscape of the Hudson Valley and restoring its human and natural communities to systemic health. —Susan Arterian Chang, Director, The Field Guide |
NEWBURGH ADDRESSES POVERTY FROM THE INSIDE OUT
After witnessing how top-down initiatives failed to address poverty, Newburgh's ESPRI creates partnerships with trusted local leaders that make them architects of community rebirth.
HUDSON VALLEY FARMER’S REFLECT
A healing relationship with the land has been the basis of Hawthorne Valley's Biodynamic approach to farming for over 40 years. HV farmers speak of the challenges and rewards of this work.
HAWTHORNE VALLEY — GROWING DEEPER IN PLACE
Over the past 45 years, The Hawthorne Valley Association has been quietly demonstrating what it truly means to commit to live and work in harmony with all natural systems, guided by a spirit of reciprocity and mutuality.
DESIGNING THE HUDSON RIVER VALLEY FOODWAYS
How a Central New York farmer; the director of a new Hunts Point food hub; a food service manager at an NYC not-for-profit; and a chef who operates a Manhattan teaching kitchen are co-creating a new Greater Hudson Valley farm-to-institution pipeline.
HOT BREAD KITCHEN
Under NYC's Metro North Railroad's elevated tracks, hope is rising along with what's baking in the ovens as women acquire skills to launch careers and fledging entrepreneurs grow businesses in one of the world's most competitive food capitals.
THE NEW PIONEERS OF NORTHEAST NUT FARMING
Meet 3 pioneering Greater Hudson Valley farmers who believe that one day nuts will provide the basis of a new, ecologically restorative agricultural polyculture, replacing corn and soybean monocultures.
BROOKLYN'S REGENERATIVE BANKER
Samira Rajan is an intuitively regenerative banker — helping BCoop’s members build and retain more their hard-earned wealth, and keep it circulating, inside the changing neighborhoods the credit union serves.
BED-STUY FRESH & LOCAL
A new-generation corner grocer with a big heart brings healthy, affordable foods to its neighborhood as it converts to a worker ownership model.
STORM RESILIENCY ON STATEN ISLAND
An award-winning storm resiliency project on Staten Island that seeks to empower a community to address the damage done to its marine systems, not just by Superstorm Sandy, but by the march of what some call "progress."
BRONX COOPERATIVE DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE
A shining exemplar of regenerative community development in progress, drawing on a community’s own knowledge of its assets and needs, and a formal systemic approach to building lasting community wealth and well being.
FINANCING COOPERATIVES IN NYC
Offering financing to start up and early stage worker cooperatives structured such that investors realize returns only when the coops generate real, economic value.
REGENERATING NYC's SOUTHERNMOST VILLAGE
From oystering, to strip malls, to a community of ongoing learning—searching for the path to 21st century revitalization by restoring human networks.