Field Trips

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Registration Deadline for all trip registration is August 21, 2008.
Please note: if the minimum numbers of participants is not met, each trip is subject to cancellation. Participants will be reimbursed for the full cost of the trip should this occur.

If you have any questions or would like more information about the Retreat Trips, please contact our Site Coordinator:
Arnold Barkus: plana@nyc.com

1- Feeding the Region - First Day
Begin time: 9:00am
End time: 4:30pm
Trip cost: Saturday: $37 includes lunch, transportation and food tasting
Issue areas: sustainable agriculture, local culture and natural resources, farm workers’ rights, immigration policy, regional food systems, transit issues
Group size: Minimum: 8 Maximum: 23
Activity level: Medium
Age restrictions: None
Family Friendly: Yes

This food lover's tour will take place over two days, exploring how a diverse array of New York's activists are building on the sustainable foods movement to create an equitable, ecologically savvy food system for the New York region. Participants will be able to attend one or both days.

The tour departs by subway on Saturday morning at 9:00 am to the Hunt's Point section of the South Bronx, home to some of the most innovative foods systems and environmental justice work.  We’ll tour the Food Bank of New York City, the distribution center for all of the City’s soup kitchens. Kathy Goldman, a 40 year veteran activist on food policy and hunger issues in the City will speak to us, as well as Zena Nelson, founding director of the recently launched South Bronx Food Coop. We will subway back to the southern tip of Manhattan and travel by water taxi to Red Hook, Brooklyn to meet with Added Value co-founders Ian Marvy and Michael Hurwitz as well as youth leaders from this socially responsible urban farming enterprise. We will finish the day at the Habana Outpost, an eco-friendly eatery located in nearby Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Be prepared to use a bike to blend your own smoothie!

2- Going, Going, Green
Begin time: 10:00am
End time: 4:00pm
Trip cost: $75 includes breakfast, lunch and transportation
Issue areas: LEED certification, green jobs, urban development, environmental justice, consumption conservation
Group size: Minimum: 8 Maximum: 23
Activity level: Low
Age restrictions: None
Family Friendly: Yes

With advertising keywords like “LEED,” “green building” and “green jobs” being sold by search engines like Google for five times the price of your average word, isn’t it time you learn what the buzz is really all about? Join EGA colleagues and the nation’s premier experts on green building and green jobs, including: Russell Unger, the Executive Director of the New York Chapter U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC); Barbara Batshalom, founding Executive Director of the Green Roundtable (GRT); Omar Freilla, founding Executive Director from the Green Workers Cooperative and Sustainable South Bronx’s Founder and Strategic Advisor, Majora Carter, and Executive Director, Miquela Craytor. These visionary leaders of the growing green movement will get you up to speed on the issues, showcase illustrative local applications with national implications and even give you a sneak look into what’s ahead for New York City and the nation when it comes to LEED certification, green design, and green jobs and training. Tour sites are likely to include EGA’s own retrofit offices, the Hearst Tower, The Kalahari, Sustainable South Bronx and the Greenworkers Cooperative. Breakfast and lunch will be provided.

3- Wilderness Is Not Just in the Wildlands
Begin time: 9:00am
End time: 4:00pm
Trip cost: $65 includes lunch, transportation and canoes
Issue areas: urban ecology, youth leadership, activism, environmental justice, water access, Bronx River history
Group size: Minimum: 8 Maximum: 23
Activity level: Medium to High
Age restrictions: None
Family Friendly: Yes

Take a walk on New York City’s wild side! Throughout New York’s five boroughs, there are pockets of wilderness. This trip will examine ways these natural ecosystems and the urban environment interact and coexist. We’ll meet on Saturday morning in Central Park where we will forage for our breakfast as “Wildman” Steve Brill leads us on a hike throughout the park to seek out edible wild plants and mushrooms, and learn about the park’s ecology. We’ll then head up to the South Bronx, where we’ll explore the Bronx River by canoe, and learn about its important role in New York City. Over lunch, we’ll hear about environmental justice issues and an innovative program to engage youth on a variety of issues, and develop new community organizers and leaders. We’ll then travel back to Manhattan to visit two exciting projects that address the ecology of Manhattan's lower-west side: The River Project’s initiative to improve water quality by restoring New York Harbor’s oyster reefs, and the currently being constructed High Line which will re-use a historic rail structure as a public park.

4- Water, Water Everywhere
Begin time: 9:30am
End time: 6:00pm
Trip cost: $70 includes lunch, outdoor activities, transportation and cocktails
Issue areas: water issues, history of New York City, drinking water system
Group size: Minimum: 8 Maximum: 15
Activity level: Low to Medium
Age restrictions: Yes
Family Friendly: No

New York City delivers some of the world’s highest quality drinking water to nine million residents through a system of reservoirs and tunnels that begin upstate in the Delaware, Catskill, and Croton watersheds. But the history of relations between the City and upstate communities is complex and sometimes tortured, especially in recent years as New York has stepped up efforts to protect the reservoirs from pollution caused by increasing development. We invite you to a fun and informative visit to the Delaware, deep in the watershed to learn more about the wonder, tensions, and challenges of this giant example public works project. The tour will embark from Mohonk by van at 9:30 am. We will travel by bus (45 minutes) to a private cabin, owned by EGA member Dan Plummer, where we will have a conversation with Eric Goldstein of Natural Resources Defense Council, who will explain the history of the New York City drinking water system. He will be joined by local experts from the Upper Delaware Rivershed describing the effects of the City’s actions on upstream communities. We will travel to Hancock for a delicious lunch at the Bluestone Grill, followed by an afternoon of river floats, fishing, or hiking (your choice). The trip will conclude with beer and cocktails at Dan’s cabin. The van will return to Mohonk by 6 pm. There will be an option for attendees to drive on their own if they would like to stay for evening fly fishing.

5- Kanienkehaka Mohawk Visit and Hike
Begin time: 9:30am
End time: 5:00pm
Trip cost: $85 includes transportation and lunch
Issue areas: indigenous people, land rights, sustainable agriculture, cultural preservation
Group size: Minimum: 8 Maximum: 23
Activity level: Medium
Age restrictions: None
Family Friendly: Yes

 Since the 12th century, the Mohawk Valley has been home to the Kanienkehaka (People of the Flint or Mohawk) who are members of the Iroquois Confederacy of Nations, or Haudenosaunee. Many were displaced by European settlers in the 17th century. On Saturday, come join a tour that will leave Mohonk and travel to the Mohawk Valley’s Kanatsiohareke, a 322- acre farming community where a small group of Kanienkehaka has returned. We’ll hear from Tom Porter, renowned leader in the Mohawk Community since the 1960s, and hike through Indian Country. Kanatsiohareke encompasses artesian wells, pastures, organic gardens, a stream, forest trails, and a riverfront dock. The Kanatsiohareke Mohawk Community strives to promote the development of a community based on the traditions, philosophy and governance of the Haudenosaunee, and to contribute to the preservation of the culture of people as a framework for a blend of traditional native concerns with the best of the emerging new earth friendly, environmental ideologies that run parallel to these traditions. They conduct programs in the culture & traditions of the people; foster an active accumulation of spoken Mohawk language by members of the community; and work to continue the oral traditions, stories, songs and dances in the unique spirit of the Mohawk path.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Registration Deadline for all trip registration is August 21, 2008.

6- Feeding the Region – Second Day
Begin time: 10:00am
End time: 2:30pm
Trip cost: Sunday: $75 includes breakfast, lunch and transportation
Issue areas: sustainable agriculture, local culture and natural resources, farm workers’ rights, immigration policy, regional food systems, transit issues
Group size: Minimum: 8 Maximum: 23
Activity level: Medium
Age restrictions: None
Family Friendly: Yes

Sunday, we will start at 10 am with NYC's best bagels and cream cheese as the Feeding the Region tour shuttles off to pastoral Glynwood Center in ColdSpring, NY. The Center's President, Judith Labelle will highlight their efforts to help communities address change in ways that conserve local culture and natural resources while meeting the economic challenges in sustaining local agriculture.Reverend Richard Witt and a youth activist from the Rural and Migrant Ministry will discuss how New York's migrant farm workers are addressing the challenges of a globalized marketplace. Following a delicious, locally produced, organic lunch at Glynwood Center, participants will travel by bus to Mohonk, arriving by mid-afternoon.

7- Rollin' on the River
Begin time: 9:30am
End time: 4:00pm
Trip cost: $140 includes transportation and lunch
Issue areas: water issues, Hudson Valley history, Love Canal Anniversary
Group size: Minimum: 25
Activity level: Medium
Age restrictions: None
Family Friendly: Yes

Celebrate the 400th Anniversary of Henry Hudson's world changing cruise up the Hudson and the 200th Anniversary of Robert Fulton's successful steam voyage into history, on this much more comfortable, but equally enthralling journey from the tip of Lower Manhattan to the glorious Mid-Hudson Valley. The Hudson tells the story of environmentalism, from pioneering efforts focused on environmental health to contemporary struggles for environmental justice. Experts steeped in the history of the river and environmental activism in the Hudson River Valley will speak on subjects ranging from innovative land preservation initiatives, to water quality remediation, to cutting edge brownfields redevelopment. Our "water taxi" will bring us to Beacon, New York, where we will briefly board and tour the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater. This 106' replica of a classic ship once common on the Hudson is the namesake of the pioneering organization created over 40 years ago by the legendary Pete Seeger to defend and restore the river. What better way to get from the New York City to Mohonk Mountain House, than experiencing the Hudson and enjoying this "floating environmental seminar" on a river with over 400 years of stories to tell.