Students gauge community climate concerns

By Phillip Maughan

On Monday, Oct. 27, students of the Mixed Methods in Environmental Planning course, with the support of the regional Climate Smart Communities coordinator Carlie Leary, hosted a community engagement session to help adapt the City of Plattsburgh to the changing climate. 

The main goal was to gain understanding on the concerns Plattsburgh residents have for the effects of climate change. At the session people were asked to give responses on poster boards created by the students. Using several creative methods to find participants’ level of concern with general issues, what specific issues they had concern with and why they chose to respond how they did, while also giving some background on the local environment.

 The first few boards were hosted by Andrew Doud and listed flooding, winter weather, wildfires and droughts. Participants were asked first to place stickers on a scale for how concerned they are about these effects, and then if they felt the city had adequate resources to address and adapt to the changes.

The next questions from Amelia Sever sought to find which issues had the interest of the most people. Sever listed several dozen topics, including the growing populations of invasive species and harmful insects and growing seasonal flooding and ice storms. Each issue had a description and a tally which participants would place a sticker to add at their choosing.

Sophomore Taygin Jump handed participants a pad of sticky notes and asked them to briefly explain why they chose the issues that they did. 

“It’s very important for what they are doing because it allows them to learn about issues in detail about our area in a way that can’t be learned by other ways of gathering information, “ Jump said. 

Carlie Leary emphasized the importance of community outreach. Climate Smart Communities defines itself as an inter-agency initiative of New York State which provides certifications that make it easier to receive grant funding from state programs. To achieve this certification, communities must meet certain guidelines for adapting to, and mitigating the impacts of climate change. 

As the Regional Coordinator for the Plattsburgh area her job is to provide technical assistance and help activate communities through outreach, planning, education, and capacity building.

Leary said that events like this one are essential for acquiring input. However, they often do so from the people who are most engaged in the community, rather than everyone. 

What were people most concerned about? Well for Leary, as a resident for a few years she is concerned about storm water management, particularly with seasonal flooding from snow thaw. Also that new development within Plattsburgh must account for the amount of permeable land that is available to slow down and absorb some of that water in the spring time. 

Rick Stewart, who has lived in Plattsburgh for quite some time, feels safe because of the area’s geography. His worries are about severe storms in the winter ice and snow.