A Tree Preservation Committee will be formed to come up with guidelines on appropriate plants for the town’s parks and rights-of-way along roads, which may also be used as a guide by residents.

ALBANY COUNTY — This past year, from June through September, Albany residents for the first time could board a bus for free to visit nine natural areas in Albany County.

Nearly 1,000 city residents rode the Nature Bus over its 15-week run to get to the outdoor locations to enjoy nature.

“The nature of rare plants is that you almost never find them. To have discovered a state endangered species that hasn’t been seen in 100 years — it’s just amazing,” says Jesse Hoffman who discovered two Virginia marbleseed plants in the Albany Pine Bush Preserve.

BETHLEHEM — Sixty-four acres of forestland has been donated to the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy by WestRock, the second largest American packaging company, based in Georgia.

ALBANY COUNTY — Every year, the Albany County Soil and Water Conservation District holds a fish sale for the convenience of local pond owners.

The New York State Department of Health has set maximum levels for three emerging drinking-water contaminants: perfluorooctanoic acid, perfluorooctane sulfonate, and 1,4-dioxane.

The state has issued a Drought Watch for four regions of New York, including the Upper Hudson/Mohawk area of which Albany County is a part.

Some New Yorkers have received unsolicited packages allegedly sent from China that are marked as containing jewelry but which actually contain plant seeds, according to a statement released Monday from Richard Ball, the state’s agriculture commissioner.

The state’s Department of Environmental Conservation is looking for swimming-pool owners to participate in the DEC’s annual Asian Longhorned Beetle Swimming Pool Survey during the month of August.

The Karner blue butterfly, which lost 99 percent of its population when it was protected as endangered 28 years ago, is making a dramatic comeback this summer in the Albany Pine Bush.