Qualified landowners may apply for a free bag of 25 tree and shrub seedlings for planting near streams, rivers, or lakes to help stabilize banks, protect water quality, and improve wildlife habitat.

Tom Ellis, Albany

As bird and insect populations plummet, pesticides that can harm bees and other pollinators are being limited by the state.

The Albany Water Board, steward of the Basic Creek dam in Westerlo, has received $100,000 from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to come up with a design for a rehabilitation project for the high-hazard dam, which is in substandard condition.

Recent testing showed the nitrate level in the Clarksville Water District supply had dropped from 11.3 milligrams per liter in late November to about 5.4 milligrams per liter on Dec. 30.

New York State has released its first annual greenhouse gas emissions report, and it paints a dire image. While emissions are down somewhat from 1990, the report shows the state has a long way to go to achieve the goals it laid out in its Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act by the self-set deadline of 2050.

The town’s attorney, James Melita, said that waste from Guilderland’s annual Hazardous Waste Day was trucked to a site in George where it was not disposed of properly.

On Jan. 20, the Knox Planning Board will invite town residents to give their thoughts on a proposed 5-megawatt solar project, sited at 1953 Thomspons Lake Road.

The Nov. 1 notice to Clarksville Water District customers said water samples taken a few days earlier showed nitrate levels of about 13 milligrams per liter, or three milligrams per liter over the maximum set by the Environmental Protection Agency. The latest sample, taken in the past two weeks, showed the nitrate level had dropped over 1 milligram per liter.

After an asbestos-cement water main broke in Altamont this fall, no tests for asbestos were performed so the federal regulation is meaningless, since there is no way to know if it should be enforced.