2025 Annual Watershed Conference

The Hudson River Watershed Alliance’s 2025 conference theme was Collaborating Across Boundaries.

This year’s Annual Watershed Conference focused on building strong and sustainable watershed collaborations for clean water and healthy communities. The conference shared strategies and case studies to support connections across geographic boundaries, sectors, and silos, building capacity within and across communities to implement shared goals.

Photos from the conference by Ava Battinelli are available in our Flikr album.

The conference had two components:

Wednesday, October 22: webinar session from 1-2:30 pm via Zoom webinar
Virtual Session Agenda
Tuesday, October 28: in-person session from 8:30 am to 3 pm
NEW LOCATION: New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation’s Taconic Regional Office, 9 Old Post Rd, Staatsburg, NY 12580
In-Person Session Agenda

Registration was available for the virtual session alone or combined virtual and in-person sessions, with a student/volunteer pricing option. All registrants for the in-person session also received the Zoom link and recording of the virtual session.

Topics and speakers included:

Insights, frameworks, and collaboration best practices from the Partnership Learning Project, an in-depth study commissioned by the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board – Jennifer Arnold, Reciprocity Consulting (virtual session)
Communicating science with impact – Anne Toomey, Pace University (in-person session)
Teaming up for better water quality in the Lower Esopus Creek – Stuart Leigh, Lower Esopus Creek Advisory Council & Liaison for the Town of Marbletown, and Candice Constantine, Tighe & Bond (in-person session)
Coordinating across municipalities through the Hudson River Drinking Water Intermunicipal Council (Hudson 7) – Rebecca Martin, Source Water Protection Coordinator, Hudson 7 (in-person session)
Coordinating across county boundaries through the Upper Hudson River Watershed Coalition – Allison Gaddy, Lake Champlain – Lake George Regional Planning Board (in-person session)
Interactive workshop on scenario planning to explore possible futures and identify resilient actions – Larissa Read, Common Ground Consulting (in-person session)
Interactive workshop on resource mapping and sharing power in your collaborations – Susan Grove and Aja Schmeltz, Good Work Institute (in-person session)
Walking tour of restoration projects and partnership case studies at the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation’s Taconic Regional Office – Zach Diaz, New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (in-person session)

Sponsor the Annual Watershed Conference

Interested in sponsoring the watershed conference? More details are available in the form here, and in our 2025 sponsorship deck. If you’d like to pay for sponsorship by credit card, you can use our online form.

We anticipate strong participation from watershed communities from throughout the Hudson Valley. Over 200 people participated in our hybrid conference in 2024. We are working to make the conference as accessible as possible for participants. Your sponsorship will fund the conference proceedings and support the attendance of individuals and groups in need of financial assistance.

Thank you to our sponsors!

Watershed Sponsors:

River Sponsors:

Anne & Fred Osborn III / The EASTER Foundation
Hudson River Valley Greenway
Hudson Valley Regional Council
Nelson, Pope & Voorhis, LLC
SLR Consulting

Creek Sponsors:

Barton & Loguidice
Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
Delaware Engineering
Gordon & Svenson LLP
MHE Engineering, D.P.C.
MJ Engineering
Pace University Suburban Biodiversity Conservation Center
Restaino Design Landscape Architecture, PC
Riverkeeper
Rockland County Soil & Water Conservation District
Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects and Planners
Strong Outcomes, LLC
Tighe & Bond