Research


Scope and Content Note

This series consists of administrative files created by the Deputy Commissioner for Environmental Management. Some of the files were created prior to the department's formation in 1970 but concern matters for which the Deputy Commissioner of Environmental Management was responsible. The bulk of the files document the state's response to the Water Resources Planning Act of 1967 and other federal water-quality legislation and its efforts to safeguard drinking water supplies, coastal and estuarine areas, and the Hudson River.

Of note are meeting minutes, agendas, reports, and other material relating to New York State's membership in three bodies that coordinated state and federal efforts to protect freshwater resources: the Delaware River Basin Commission, the Susquehanna River Basin Commission, and, in particular, the Great Lakes Basin Commission (GLBC). Records relating to the GLBC document the commission's administrative procedures, the department's role in gathering data that commission staff used when drafting environmental planning studies, and the regional and national context in which the department's water-protection initiatives took shape.

Other files document departmental efforts to protect the Catskill Forest Preserve and, in particular, the Adirondack Forest Preserve. They illuminate the department's position on proposals to incorporate the Adirondack Park into the U.S. national park system, proposed constitutional amendments concerning management of the Forest Preserve, and the creation of the Temporary Study Commission on the Future of the Adirondacks. The files also detail the department's involvement in the International Association of Game, Fish, and Conservation Commissioners.

Several folders in this series do not contain any documents; however the folders were retained because their titles help to document the deputy commissioner's range of activities and interests.