the heart of CRARYVILLE:

SITE OF THE PROPOSED SHEPHERD’S RUN SOLAR PROJECT

“All over New England, hillsides and abandoned farms are being stripped for solar. Because climate change has been framed as an energy problem that can be solved with solar panels, well-meaning legislators have crafted incentives that [are] exploited by out-of-state investment firms” permitted to “destroy the healthy ecosystems [that] provide a buffer for warming.”

-Schwartz, Judith D. May 24, 2024, Mongabay Commentary.

In the rural Town of Copake, New York, a 42-megawatt industrial-scale solar development threatens the local ecosystem and vernacular historic sites. By protecting the vestiges of land culture, historic preservation can support a cultural shift toward land stewardship as integral to climate resilience.

The rural hamlet of Craryville is an historic farming community whose heritage is deeply rooted in the land. European settlers inhabited and farmed the wide fertile valleys, following settlement patterns of the indigenous Mohican people. Chicago-based developer, Hecate Energy, filed a NYS Permit Application on 12/23/2024 to build their proposed Shepherd’s Run Solar Farm - a 42MW Major Renewable Energy Facility on this land in the hamlet of Craryville. In its current form, the project threatens an estimated 200-acres of prime farmland, 40-acres of wooded lands, the NYS DEC-protected Taghkanic Creek watershed, the local ecology and biodiversity, and five National Register-eligible properties and their related landscapes. Shepherd’s Run also risks local property values, economic development, livelihoods, and rural character and cultural heritage.