Welcome to the Skylands Group

Please click on the buttons below to support the following CRITICAL issues in our area.

CURRENT EVENTS:

GENERAL MEETINGS:

Our group meets the FIRST WEDNESDAY of EVERY month, 7pm at Sussex Community College One College Hill Road for October 7th 2009 we will meet in the Dining Room Future meetings are to be held in the Theater, which is the same building as the dining room.

Driving Directions:

* From Route 80:
* Take Exit 25 to 206 N for 12.2 mi
* Left onto Spring Street
* Bear right at the fork to stay on 206 N/94 N
* Left at the next light onto Mill Street/519
* Left at the next light onto Swartswood Road
* Right onto College Hill Road

* From Northeast via Route 94:
*Take 94 S to 206 S to Newton
* Right onto North Park Drive
* Left onto 519
* Right at the light to Swartzwood Road
* Right onto College Hill Road

* From Southeast via Route 94:
* Take 94 N to Newton
* Left onto Main Street
* Left onto Spring Street
* Bear right at the fork to stay on 206 N/94 N
* Left at the next light onto Mill Street/519
* Left at the next light onto Swartswood Road
* Right onto College Hill Road

Our meetings consist of open discussions regarding various issues in our area.  If you have an environmental concern in your town and are considering forming or have formed a citizen action group to address the issue, come to a meeting to discuss it.  Our meetings are a good forum to spread the word about an issue and to obtain information and ideas on how to proceed. 

The preservation of our region depends on our members being aware of what is happening in their communities and strongly encourage members to attend their town Land Use or Planning/Zoning Board meetings.  Be proactive instead of reactive once a plan has been approved in your community and  appears in the papers it becomes more complex to oppose. 

We often schedule guest speakers or view assorted environmental programs or movies. 

GUEST SPEAKER SCHEDULE:

We are currently working on a scheduling guest speakers. Please Check back around the last week in October for details.

Please visit the websites of our previous guest speakers and support these important issues:

Larry Gibson from Kayford Mountain WV
Larry provided us with an eye opening presentation on Mountaintop Removal Mining. 
Larry Gibson's family has lived on or near Kayford Mountain since the late 1700's. More than 300 relatives are buried in the cemetery on Kayford Mountain. Larry and his family used to live on the lowest lying part of the mountain, and looked to the mountain peaks that surrounded them. Since 1986, the slow motion destruction of Kayford Mountain has been continuous -- 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Eighteen years after the "mountain top removal" project began, Larry Gibson now occupies the highest point of land around; he is enveloped by a 12,000 acre pancake in what was previously a mountain range.
Visit Larry's site to learn more about this devastating type of mining: http://mountainkeeper.org/
 
Jackie Feinberg from The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA)
Jackie came to inform us about the need to support America's Redrock Wilderness Act Not a single member of Utah's congressional delegation supports America's Redrock Wilderness Act, the Utah wilderness bill expected shortly to be reintroduced to Congress. Yet polls show that Utah residents strongly favor more designated wilderness in their state. Please find the time to: Write to your senators and representative in Congress, urging them to cosponsor America's Redrock Wilderness Act. Write letters to the editor saying that we, as American citizens, are all proud co-owners of these magnificent lands, and they should be protected. Contact the Utah Wilderness Coalition (www.uw coalition.org), the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (www.suwa.org), or the Wildlands Center for Preventing Roads (www.wildlandscpr.org).  Also visit www.sierraclub.org/wildlands/utahwilderness.

OUTINGS:

Currently No Outings are scheduled - Please check back in the spring or contact our Outings Chair

Outing Signup

All outings are open to the public.  Signups are encouraged no less than five days before the outing date.  Group size will be limited to 15-20 persons on a first-come basis.  Last-minute signups will be accepted on the day of the outing subject to the group size limitation.  All outing participants will be required to sign standard Sierra Club waivers prior to the start of the outing.   For signup, email herbwolff@optonline.net to register for any of these outings.

Outing Trails and Leaders - Safety

Hikes will follow marked trails usually maintained by the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference. 
At least one outing leader will be certified in Basic First Aid, CPR and Wilderness First-Aid.
 

OFFICERS: