Nature Conservancy goes to Gruskin to head NY efforts Grannis protégé in charge of funding, conservation, policy

Stuart Gruskin

This just in, for those tracking who's who in New York’s epic shale gas story, and where they are now.

Effective August 20, Stuart Gruskin will become the Nature Conservancy’s chief conservation officer and liaison for external affairs for New York state.

Those familiar with the history of the Great Fracking Fight in the Empire State will remember the role of Stuart Gruskin, who served as deputy DEC Commissioner under Governor Paterson’s administration. As chronicled in Under the Surface, Gruskin was on the front line of the contentious community debates that spawned the state’s monumental policy review, the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impacts Statement (SGEIS), which in turn was a catalyst for the ensuing grass roots anti-fracking movement that would eventually go nationwide. Gruskin left the agency after his boss and mentor, DEC Commissioner Peter Grannis, was fired near the end of Paterson’s tenure in 2010 for insubordination after leaking a memo detailing how thin the agency was being stretched. Gruskin, a supporter of Grannis, has also remained a staunch supporter of the DEC ‘s handling of the controversial SGEIS. (Grannis now serves as the state’s deputy comptroller under Tom DiNapoli.)

The Nature Conservancy is a global conservation agency. Grusk will represent the Conservancy’s interests in conservation, public funding, public land management, and natural resource policy in New York state.