The Poughkeepsie Natural Resources Inventory (PDF) (NRI) provides baseline information on the city's natural resources including parks, tributaries to the Hudson, the Poughkeepsie waterfront and city trees. The NRI was developed by the Environmental Cooperative at Vassar Barns through their Healthy Habitats Initiative in partnership with Hudsonia. While NRIs traditionally have a standard set of components, care was taken to included sections specific to Poughkeepsie, such as an assessment of the health of the City's ash trees and a management plan for Emerald Ash Borer, which threatens our ash population. The final Hudsonia report on significant habitats (PDF) can be found online.
To memorialize the vital work done by the Environmental Cooperative and Hudsonia, the City of Poughkeepsie Common Council passed a local law adopting the Poughkeepsie NRI on September 9th, 2019. The local law added Section 19-6.4 to the Code of Ordinances that expressly integrates the use of the Inventory into all land-use decision-making, including site plan review.