Story Info
Story Info
Polly Howells
Ulster, New York, USA
2018
Type of Wounded Place
Story & Experience
Fourteen citizens from the mid-Hudson Valley in New York gathered on June 17 at the site of a proposed gas-and-diesel powered battery back-up facility intended to augment the electric grid that feeds New York City. This installation will be, if it is built, located on a pristine woodland ridge in the Town of Ulster. The ridge is home to an enormous diversity of flora and fauna, and would be much better served if it were held forever wild as a space for day hikers and nature lovers. The Town of Ulster, in order to augment its tax base, wants to sell it to GlidePath, a company in the Midwest that has built several battery back-up facilities over the past years—though none of them are fossil-fuel powered. We were a group of activists from neighboring towns as well as from the townhouses that abut this woodland, 1000 feet from where the noise-and-air pollution emitting facility will be located if it passes the scoping process currently being undertaken by the state. We gathered, introduced ourselves, walked for awhile through the area, meditating on its beauty, and then returned to create our RadJoy bird, using a lightning-struck tree as its base. We read a poem, blessed the tree by scattering around it the ashes of one of our group’s recently deceased friends, and held silence while we offered our wishes for this land to be held sacred for future generations. We wrapped our tree-bird in the yellow yarn spun and dyed by Karuna Foudriat (in straw hat and black blouse, second row), who was with us. Afterwards we gathered in a neighboring house for a welcome glass of lemonade! It was a hot day.
Fourteen citizens from the mid-Hudson Valley in New York gathered on June 17 at the site of a proposed gas-and-diesel powered battery back-up facility intended to augment the electric grid that feeds New York City. This installation will be, if it is built, located on a pristine woodland ridge in the Town of Ulster. The ridge is home to an enormous diversity of flora and fauna, and would be much better served if it were held forever wild as a space for day hikers and nature lovers. The Town of Ulster, in order to augment its tax base, wants to sell it to GlidePath, a company in the Midwest that has built several battery back-up facilities over the past years—though none of them are fossil-fuel powered. We were a group of activists from neighboring towns as well as from the townhouses that abut this woodland, 1000 feet from where the noise-and-air pollution emitting facility will be located if it passes the scoping process currently being undertaken by the state. We gathered, introduced ourselves, walked for awhile through the area, meditating on its beauty, and then returned to create our RadJoy bird, using a lightning-struck tree as its base. We read a poem, blessed the tree by scattering around it the ashes of one of our group’s recently deceased friends, and held silence while we offered our wishes for this land to be held sacred for future generations. We wrapped our tree-bird in the yellow yarn spun and dyed by Karuna Foudriat (in straw hat and black blouse, second row), who was with us. Afterwards we gathered in a neighboring house for a welcome glass of lemonade! It was a hot day.
Ulster, New York, USA
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