Wes Gillingham, Program Director of Catskill Mountainkeeper, uses the Watershed Model, a 540 square foot relief map built by the Department of Water Supply, Gas, and Electricity for the 1939 World’s Fair, to illustrate the potential impact of fracking of NYC’s water supply. Following the tour is an emergency short film detailing the public relations strategies and misinformation campaign perpetuated by the gas industry. “The Sky is Pink,” directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Josh Fox, looks at the gas industry’s flagrant disregard for the health and safety of the communities it ravages and the historic decision New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is poised to make.
PRESENTER BIO
Wes Gillingham is a co-founder and the Program Director of Catskill Mountainkeeper, an environmental advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the Catskill Region in New York State. Wes serves on the New York Sate Forest Preserve Advisory Committee providing advice and guidance to the State Department of Environmental Conservation, which manages the 3.4 million acres of the State Forest Preserve. He is on the board of Directors for the Sullivan County Farm Bureau and the legislative policy committee for The Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York (NOFA-NY). From 1997 to 2007 Wes with his wife Amy ran a 150 member Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) vegetable operation in Youngsville, NY and during that time he also served on the Board of Directors of NOFA-NY. Prior to farming Wes was an Acting Director of Field Programs for the National Audubon Society Expedition Institute (AEI), a fully accredited, traveling undergraduate and graduate environmental studies program at Lesley University. Wes spent ten years working as a Park Ranger for the National Park Service at the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River where he lead the canoe training for incoming Park Rangers, lead interpretive history and natural history programs, and did canoe patrols along the river. For two years he was a wildlife technician for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s 3 offices in New Paltz, NY.
