Lower Hudson Group of Sierra Club holds a General Public Monthly meeting online. These meetings are for all of our members, activists, and the public in Westchester, Putnam, and Orange County, as well as Rockland members. They are usually on the third Monday evening of the month.

At these meetings, we try to address the most important local and larger environmental issues and actions to address those and other issues.

See below also for videos of past meetings.

In addition to our General Public Monthly meetings, a group of Sierra Club LHG activists and Executive Committee members meet to plan upcoming events, discuss activist priorities, political endorsements and pending legislation and handle decisions about spending, communications, policy, etc.   We often meet with individuals or representatives from other community groups who want to inform and work with us on certain actions or local issues.  

These meetings are via Zoom, usually on the 4th Tuesday of each month.

Our next Executive Committee Business meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, April 28, 2026 starting at 7:00 PM.

To attend this meeting, email lowerhudson@gmail.com, with "Executive Committee Business meeting" in the Subject.

Thursday, April 8, 2026 at 7pm
LaGrange Town Hall

Jeff Seidman of Vassar College will inform us about the current status of BESS - Battery Energy Storage Systems - to inform the public and local officials in communities where BESS is being proposed, such as LaGrange, Ulster, Highland, Saugerties.

The Mid-Hudson group will be holding this event at the LaGrange Town Hall, 120 Stringham Rd, LaGrange, NY. Come hear from a panel of experts on battery systems, their role on the electrical grid, fire safety considerations, and more.

Saturday, April 25, 2026 10am - 6pm
Louis Engel Waterfront Park, river side of Ossining Train Station

Sunday, April 26, 2026, 3pm - 5pm
Westchester Community College

David Swope Student Center
75 Grassland Road, Valhalla, NY, Parking Lot A

Monday, April 27, 2026 at 7:00 PM (ET)
(Rescheduled from April 20, apologies for any inconvenience)
Online via Zoom

The Sierra Club Lower Hudson Group invites community members to join a Climate Candidates Forum for New York’s 17th Congressional District.

As we kick off Earth Week 2026, this virtual forum will give voters an opportunity to hear directly from Democratic candidates who will appear on the ballot in the June 23 primary election. Candidates will discuss their priorities for addressing the climate crisis, protecting public health, advancing environmental justice, and accelerating the transition to clean energy.

The discussion will be moderated by Michelle Deatrick, Founder & Chair of the Democratic National Committee's Council on the Environment & Climate Crisis.

Register by clicking HERE.

Join us as we empower voters and elevate climate leadership ahead of the 2026 primary election.

Co-sponsored by Sierra Club Mid-Hudson Group, Food & Water Watch, CCoHOPE.

Find here events of both Sierra Club and other groups. Sometimes there are links to a video of the event, press coverage for the event, or to a movie that was the core of the event.

March 12, 2026
See video link below.

Dustin Partridge, PhD, NYC Bird Alliance

North America has lost around a quarter of its bird population just since 1970. What is causing this loss of biodiversity?

The good news is that conservation efforts can make a real difference. What are the concrete steps we can take individually and as a society to reverse this loss of birds?

Dustin Partridge, Ph.D., the director of conservation and science at NYC Bird Alliance and adjunct professor at Columbia University, is a pioneering scientist in urban green space conservation research in North America. His work, focused on wildlife conservation in New York City, has driven cities to reconsider the ecological value of small green spaces. Dr. Partridge is a scientist whose approach to conservation is based in using science to drive solutions that benefit both wildlife and people. He shared practical steps individuals can take for conservation.

Click HERE to see the video from this event.

Co-sponsored by the Rockland Audubon Society.

This event was part of our General Public Monthly Meeting series.

49 folks attended this event.

Photo credit: BCNH_AdobeStock_391501156_AGAMI

Renewable Energy, Rising Energy Costs, and the Climate Crisis

February 23, 2026 
See video link below.

Speaker: Roger Downs, Conservation Director, Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter.

As the Trump administration continues to gut the most basic climate regulations and defund renewable energy projects, this is the moment for New York State to step up as a leader on climate action. And yet, Gov. Hochul proposes to delay implementation of essential climate goals, citing rising energy costs, among other factors. 

To what extent is the transition to renewable energy to blame for rising energy costs?  Gov. Hochul is pushing for  nuclear energy as her signature energy policy, despite the very high costs of nuclear policy. She  is also proposing delaying implementation of a critical cap and invest program - and may even be considering revisions to the groundbreaking climate legislation.  

Sierra Club’s Atlantic Chapter Conservation Director Roger Downs discussed the pushback to New York’s climate progress and key strategies to ensure a strong climate program for New York State.

To see the video for this event, click HERE.

Co-sponsored by Sierra Club Mid-Hudson Group. 

This event was part of our General Public Monthly Meeting series.

68 folks attended this event.

Photo attribution: https://www.istockphoto.com/legal/license-agreement

Monday, January 19, 2026
See video link below.

New York State passed groundbreaking climate legislation in 2019. Then why are we still finding ourselves fighting new gas pipelines and the expansion of existing pipelines? And where does Gov. Hochul stand on the expansion of gas?

Given the absolute urgency of stopping the climate crisis, we must stop the expansion or construction of new fracked gas pipelines from being built and replace them all with renewables, including geothermal looping pipelines as quickly as possible. And yet, the gas companies are pushing for constant expansion – and New York State currently has 10,000 active gas wells that are permitted.

We took a look at the big picture: the spider web of pipelines crisscrossing the state, some of the background, the proposed expansion in our area, the wins and defeats for environmentalists, including resurrected “zombie pipelines”.  We discussed Williams pipelines (NESE expansion pipeline), the Constitution and "Iroquois" Pipelines.  

Mary Finneran is a proud lifelong New Yorker, currently living in Western New York. Her abiding love of the countryside, hills and waters of New York led her to become an environmental organizer, lobbyist, and volunteer for several groups, including the Sierra Club. She is currently running for office to become a State Assembly Member.

We also discussed local issues, such as the ten year anniversary of the big victory defeating the desalination proposal.

To see the video for this event, click HERE. 

This event was part of our General Public Monthly Meeting series.

Photo credit: Shaughn Cooper

Monday, November 17, 2025  
See video link below.

Almost invisible underground networks of fungi support nearly all plant life on earth.  You may have read that trees communicate with each other and share nutrients.  The fungal networks play a central role in these exchanges, as well as maintaining 80 to 90% of the plant life on which nearly all life on earth depends.  As plants and wildlife are increasingly threatened by loss of biodiversity and extinctions, some of the same factors are driving the loss of the diverse fungal networks.

Soils are among the most complex ecosystems on earth.  Symbiotic relationships between plants and fungal networks in the soil are around 475 million years old and these relationships play fundamental roles in the Earth’s biosphere and even in regulating climate. 

Prof. Adriana Corrales described these fungal networks, their vital role in maintaining life on earth, and the threats to these networks. Prof. Corrales is a Lead Field Research Scientist and Underground Explorers Program Director for SPUN, the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks.  She is a forest ecologist with a joint position as Assistant Professor a the Universidad del Rosario in Bogotá, Colombia.  Her research focuses on the ecology of fungal  networks and she has played a key role in mapping fungal networks worldwide, with the aim of stronger protections.

To see the video for this event, click HERE. 

This event is part of our General Public Monthly Meeting series. 59 people attended.

Photo credit: PerytonMango, CC BY-SA 4.0 

By Marilyn Elie

Food and Water Watch organized a rally to tell Rep. Lawler to get SNAP funds to everyone in the Hudson River Valley that needs them - NOW!  A partial funding in a few weeks or more is not acceptable.  People need to eat now! Sierra Club members were there in support.

Click HERE to see Melissa Hoffmann of Food and Water Watch lay it all out on video.   Community organizer Tina Bongar follows with tales of people in our community who need food. Kwami Madi, long time community organizer, speaks next. If you are reading this, contact Rep. Lawler now! 

Share these pictures with your friends and on social media.  Use them in any way that is helpful: Click HERE to see the album.

Monday, October 27, 2025
See video link below.

Waste systems in the US cost us dearly, with communities around trash incinerators and landfills dealing with air, soil, and water pollution and planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. We pay the price (literally and figuratively) with damage to our environment and impacts on our health. Zero Waste is the solution but government at every level is failing to act.

What is Zero Waste? How do we achieve it? What are the barriers and how do we overcome them?

Cancer researcher and environmental activist Dr. Courtney Williams talked about the health and environmental impacts of continuing to incinerate and landfill municipal trash.  She also discussed industry myths, greenwashing, zero waste strategies, and how we can push for systemic change. For years, Courtney has led a movement to shut down the large 40 year old Wheelabrator incinerator in Peekskill where she lives. She holds a PhD, and is founder of Westchester Alliance for Sustainable Solutions (WASS, visit WASSPeekskill.org) which advocates for the closure of Westchester County's largest industrial air polluter, the Wheelabrator trash incinerator in Peekskill, NY.

To see the video for this event, click HERE.

Photo credit: Jim Striebich/PeekskillHerald.com

Monday, September 15th, 2025
See video link below.

SARS, Marburg, Zika, HIV, MPox: Epidemics and even pandemics caused by contact with wildlife are becoming increasingly common.  In fact, nearly two thirds of infectious diseases in humans are zoonotic  -  caused by pathogens that can jump between animals and humans.  The deadly Covid-19 pandemic, which caused over 7 million deaths worldwide, may be among those.  As habitat is lost and global warming intensifies, this spillover - and the resulting pandemics - become more likely.

Dr. Neil Vora discussed the connection between the loss of biodiversity and pandemics.  He explained One Health, the concept that human health is inextricably linked to the health of other animals and nature. He talked about the work to prevent pandemics with solutions such as habitat preservation that make the spillover of viruses from animals to human beings less likely.

Neil Vora, MD, is an epidemiologist and Senior Advisor for One Health at Conservation International.  He served for nearly a decade with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and he currently works as a physician for New York City’s tuberculosis program.  Dr. Vora has spent much of his career chasing and treating infectious disease outbreaks, from the Ebola epidemic in West Africa to COVID-19 in New York City.

Co-sponsored by Mid-Hudson Group of Sierra Club, Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition, ROAR (Religious Orders Along the River), SAPE (Stop the Algonquin Pipeline Expansion), Stop Holtec, United for Clean Energy, WesPAC, and Third Act Upstate New York.
Graphic credit: By Thddbfk
——————————————
Steve Redler talked about the threat to NYS election integrity of new ExpressVote XL touchscreen voting machines being considered for purchase by Rockland County Board of Elections, and other counties in NYS.

Click HERE to see the video of this meeting.

Thursday, September 11, 2025
Online. See video link below.

A Zoom webinar on why investing more in nuclear power generation is so bad for us.

Click here to see the video.

Monday, July 14, 2025 
Zoom presentation.

As much as one third of wildlife and plant species could go extinct by 2050, as much as 70% by 2100. This is a very serious crisis. 

Many of us understand the connection with climate change.  But there are two other critical factors:  the impact of human population and of “overconsumption”.   Human population is expected to increase to 10 billion by 2050.  What does that mean for the biodiversity on which human flourishing depends?  Can we find ways to help protect the environment, so that wildlife can thrive?

Presenter Stephanie Feldstein is the author of “The Animal Lover's Guide to Changing the World”.  She is the Population and Sustainability Director at the Center for Biological Diversity.  She also discussed common sense solutions – and steps we can all take on our own.  

29 people attended the meeting.

Click HERE to see video of the meeting.

Click HERE to see the Zoom chat for the meeting.

Monday, June 23, 2025
Zoom presentation

Sarah Wilson, Chair, Sierra Club Lower Hudson Group & Organizer, Yorktown Repair Café, and Suzie Fromer, Repair Cafe Hudson Valley Coordinator presented.

In such a troubled time, here’s a very simple idea: restoring the art of repair. Increasingly, we live in a throwaway culture, where everything from shoes and socks to chairs, appliances and lamps are tossed when broken. The art of repair is being lost and many of us no longer know the satisfaction and fun of doing simple repairs, such as mending a torn garment or darning a sock.   

Sarah Wilson and Suzie Fromer also discussed the importance of the circular economy, in which raw materials are reused and waste is reduced.  They talked about the growing local Repair Café movement, in which people in the community come together to share their skills and teach each other these dying skills.  And they discussed legislation around protecting the "right to repair”.

We also discussed the gutting of climate and climate energy programs in the federal budget and local issues. 

30 people attended this event.

Click HERE to see video of the meeting.

Click HERE for the chat from the meeting. 

Monday, May 19, 2025
Zoom presentation

Caitlin Ferrante, Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter Conservation Program Manager

Bobbi Wilding, Executive Director, Clean and Healthy New York

The EPA recently found that two of the PFAS chemicals in the drinking water of many communities present health risks at even the lowest detectable levels.  These same “forever chemicals” are found in thousands of commonly used consumer products.

Amid rising cancer rates, studies have shown that 99% of Americans have PFAS in their blood. Research has shown that PFAS can cause or contribute to impacts on human fertility, cancer, and other serious health impacts.  In fact, PFAS are hardly the only widely used chemicals in the U.S. that have been shown to have serious health and environmental impacts.

Caitlin Ferrante and Bobbi Wilding discussed the status of the battle to ban PFAS and other harmful chemicals in consumer products in New York State.  They also discussed the proliferation of thousands of other chemicals in the U.S., including harmful chemicals in plastic, in pesticides and lawn chemicals.  Finally, they covered the policies we should be adopting in the U.S., shifting toward a safer, more holistic, precautionary approach, along the lines of the European Union.

The meeting was attended by 35 people.

Click HERE to see video of the meeting.

Click HERE for the chat from the meeting. 

Click HERE to see the toxics slide show.
—————————— 
Supplemental material: 
Westchester Alliance for Sustainable Solutions (“WASS”) 2024 meeting on PFAS and trash incineration: https://youtu.be/cnzS4oFw9Lk?si=tmLaZyityg-BVefQ 
Movie: How to Poison a Planet. 
Movie: The Devil We Know. 
Movie: Dark Waters.

Join us for the United Nations Association of Westchester County's Annual Meeting, themed “Protecting the Environment for Healthier Communities: Westchester Leads the Way”, where community leaders, environmental experts, and global advocates will come together to spotlight how local action can drive global change. This event will be held on Sunday, May 4^th @ 2:00 PM at the Grinton I. Will Library: 1500 Central Park Ave, Yonkers, NY 10710.

This year’s program features a powerful panel of climate leaders, including:
  Oded Holzinger, Executive Director, Groundwork Hudson Valley
  Pamela Stewart-Martinez, Political Director, WE ACT 4 Change
  Sarah Wilson, Chair/President, Sierra Club Lower Hudson Group
Moderated by Rand Manasse, Co-President of the Federated Conservationists of Westchester County

We’re also honored to feature Valentina Buj de Lauwerier, Senior Advisor & Chief Intergovernmental Affairs Officer for the Public Partnerships Division at UNICEF, as our keynote speaker.

Registration Link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/una-annual-meeting-protecting-the-environment-for-healthier-communities-tickets-1300047831059?aff=oddtdtcreator

Sunday, April 27, 2025 at 2:00-4:00 PM
Yonkers Riverfront Library, One Larkin Center, Yonkers, NY 10701

The movie "Plastic People" is about the growing evidence of the existence of plastic in the human body and the health risks it poses.

Click the picture to see the 2-minute trailer.

Click here to see the movie.

This free event was sponsored by the Lower Westchester chapter of BeyondPlastics.org, the Westchester Alliance for Sustainable Solutions and NYCD16/15 Indivisible, and co-sponsored by Sierra Club Lower Hudson Group.

Standing Up to The Trump / Musk Assault on Climate
Monday, April 21, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Online. See video link below.  

Mahyar Sorour, Director, National Sierra Club Beyond Fossil Fuels Policy

We are facing a relentless onslaught on democracy.  At the same time, Trump and Musk are dismantling major climate research and moving ahead aggressively with more oil and gas drilling - and even coal.  With thousands of EPA scientists laid off, Trump and Musk seek to cripple climate action at a particularly critical moment to avoid catastrophic climate change.

Sierra Club’s Director of Beyond Fossil Fuels Policy Mahyar Sorour will zoom in on the destruction of decades of environmental progress. She’ll talk about the impacts of these drastic rollbacks – and she’ll discuss how the environmental movement is mobilizing and taking action already – and what we can do collectively and as individuals.

Click HERE to see a video of the meeting.

Monday, March 17, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Event was online.

Is nuclear the answer to global warming?  As New York fails to meet its critical climate goals, Gov. Hochul is pushing a major U-turn back to nuclear power.

How different are the small modular reactors that Gov. Hochul is pushing?  How clean and fast is nuclear power, truly?  Are these “advanced” nuclear options any safer?  Do we want them in our own neighborhoods?

We’ll hear from two experts, Tim Judson Executive Director of Nuclear Information and Resource Service and Mitch Jones, Managing Director of Policy and Litigation for Food & Water Watch.  They’ll speak to us about the risks associated with the new nuclear options that Gov. Hochul is pushing.  They’ll answer the questions, do we need nuclear – and is nuclear the answer to climate change?  We’ll also discuss actions we can all take.

Following our speakers, we’ll also discuss local actions to protest the Trump administration assault on environmental and other protections, as well as local issues.

To see a video of the event, click here. Unfortunately was Zoom bombed and had to be restarted. The video shows the meeting up to the point where were Zoom bombed.

Photo copyright:  Al Braden

Monday, February 17, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Rockland Sierra Club, Rockland Audubon Society, ROAR (Religious Organizations Along the River)

Watch the presentation on Youtube: https://youtu.be/gLiC-F1WI0c

Wildlife populations have declined by over 70% since the 1970s. Like climate change, the extinction crisis is approaching critical tipping points with about one million animal and plant species threatened with extinction and many more declining. 

Noah Greenwald, Director of Endangered Species for the Center for Biological Diversity, spoke about the scope and magnitude of the crisis. 

Photo by Jacob W. Frank, National Park Service

Monday, January 13, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Zoom presentation

As the NYS legislative session continues, the gas industry is ready to fight two critical pieces of climate legislation with disinformation campaigns.  They want to make sure that we continue to expand and maintain gas infrastructure and continue to buy gas appliances. Lisa Marshall, Organizing Director for New Yorkers for Clean Power, discussed the campaign to pass the NY HEAT Act, historic legislation, in 2025.

Click HERE to view the video.

Photo credit: Frances Denny for The Luupe, theluupe.com

Held Monday, November 18, 2024.
Click HERE for the video to this meeting.

At a moment when we are facing a crisis in extinctions, scientific studies document that light pollution disrupts wildlife and plants, impacts human health, contributes to climate change. The loss of dark skies also blocks our most ancient connection with the universe.

From the beginning of time, light and dark, day and night, have been the great clock that orchestrates life on earth. In addition to the impacts on migrating birds and all other wildlife, we are also losing part of our birthright that joins us with all the generations, the sense of awe at the stars in the night sky.

Mark Grosz, from DarkSky International, discussed the ecological impacts of the loss of dark skies.

Presented by Lower Hudson Group of Sierra Club, Rockland Audubon Society, and Rockland Astronomy Club.

Monday, November 13, 2024
Online. See video link below.

Learn about heat pumps.

Click HERE to view the meeting.

Monday, October 21, 2024 
Online. See video link below.  

Dr. Klaus Jacob is Emeritus Research Professor at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades NY. Jacob is a renowned earthquake, disaster and climate expert, with a focus on disaster risk management, with most current research on rising sea levels, climate change and disaster resilient megacities.

The devastation left by Hurricane Helene was a sharp reminder that no community is safe from the impacts of extreme storms.  Since Hurricane Sandy, we have seen a steady drumbeat of extreme storms locally, in the New York area, showing the devastating power of sea level rise and catastrophic flooding, even along the Hudson River communities.

Prof. Jacob discussed the most recent findings on what we can expect in terms of sea level rise and other extreme climate disasters, including flooding, within the next few decades and further out.  He explained why it’s urgent for our communities to take action now and to plan for resiliency in the face of unavoidable climate change.

An expert on the local impacts of climate change, Prof. Jacob has served on the NYC Mayor’s Panel on Climate Change.  In 2012 he was named by Time Magazine as one of “50 People Who Matter Globally” for forecasting ahead of time and in detail the impacts of a Hurricane Sandy-like super storm on New York City.

Click HERE to see a video of the meeting.

Monday, May 20, 2024
Online. See video link below.

Learn about a new movement that is growing around the rights of nature, arguing that rivers, lakes, and forests should have legal rights for themselves, not for their value to human beings.  Life on earth depends on the integrity of these ecosystems.  Is this just another strategy - or is it a very different way of viewing the world, expanding the circle of our moral compass to include nature itself?

Tish O’Dell, Consulting Director for the Community Environmental Defense Fund, will discuss this new movement, which is based on traditional ways of honoring the natural world.

Co-sponsored by ROAR, Religious Organizations Along the River.

Click HERE to view the meeting.

This 2022 film tells the story of Pope Francis’s 2015 Laudato Si’, a controversial plea for the world to wake up to the destruction of Creation wrought by us. At 1 hour 20 minutes, it is moving and refreshing. Several people are invited to meet the pope. They represent youth, indigenous peoples, the poor, and the voice of Nature.

Click here for the trailer.

Click here to see the film from its website.

Pope Francis passed away on April 21, 2025. Click here to see Bill McKibben's brief homage, "Pope Francis and the Sun, Perhaps the world's greatest environmental champion is dead".