BUFFALO, N.Y. — Protecting 30% of our land and water by 2030 is a federal initiative to hopefully ensure a future for generations to come. Currently, the state Department of Environmental Conservation wants your input on its 30x30 plan.

What You Need To Know

  • The Department of Environmental Conservation wants your input on its draft 30x30 plan

  • The hope is to protect 30% of New York's land and water by 2030

  • It's part of a federal initiative to do the same 

New York State is home to 7,600 freshwater lakes, ponds and reservoirs, and tens of thousands of species of plants and animals alone, including 4,000 beetles. That begs a couple of questions.

“What can we do in cities?” asked Jay Burney, the advocacy director of the Western New York Environmental Alliance. “We can look at our urban forests and try to make them healthy. We can look at urban gardens and try to keep them healthy — make them healthy. Plant native plants. There's a lot of things we can do to green up our cities.”

Those are a few questions Burney has after looking over the Department of Environmental Conservation's draft 30x30 plan.

“How can we make green buildings,” Burney said. “There are so many initiatives that we can develop in a city that we think should be part of the plan.”

The alliance has been working on its version of a 30 by 30 plan for nearly a decade. They were instrumental in bringing the DEC’s plan to life.

“We lobbied and we talked to organizations,” Burney recalled.

But the DEC needs your input. Burney says it’s pertinent.

“By some estimates, in the United States alone, over 96% of our lands and waters have been tilled, plowed, logged, polluted in some fashion,” Burney said. “And so all of that native biodiversity is what life, all life, including human life, depends on.”

The DEC’s draft plan hopes to define goals and create a baseline for what’s protected and create strategies and methods to help New York become climate resilient.

“It’s this globally recognized effort to preserve and protect nature and natural habitats on land and water,” DEC Lands and Forests Division Director Fiona Watt said.

Watt says it’s like a puzzle and when it’s together the hope is the world more resilient to climate change. Watt says they’re looking at supporting land use that promotes nature, regardless of where you live.

“You can really get involved with your backyard by growing native flowers and supporting bees and butterflies," Watt added.

You can even get certified.

“There are some of these wildlife habitat certification programs where they manage their own yards a certain way and they can then get certified and then you get enough of them certified, the whole community can be certified,” said Jenny Landry, regional natural resources supervisor.

Currently, 22% of New York’s land and water is preserved. It’s on all of us to take it the rest of the way.

“In 100 years, I hope people are saying if we do this work, we can save the planet,” Burney said. “If we can do this work, we can save lives, we can save the planet and we can save future generations.”

You have until Aug. 30 to comment on the draft 30x30 Methodology and Strategies document.