Headlines

New York courts uphold the right of towns to ban fracking. Zoning laws are not regulation of the oil & gas industry. Zoning laws are regulation of land use.

The Dryden decision (pdf)

The Middlefield decision (pdf)

View the most recent map of local bans and moratoria

Sign the pledge to resist hydrofracking in New York!

Do you own unleased land? Register your land as not open to fracking at RealNYS.com

Support the local ban movement. Donate to the Community Environmental Defense Council -- the pro-bono lawyers who make it happen.

Upcoming Events

Unless noted, BTD meetings take place at the Trumansburg Fire Hall, Route 96/Main Street.
(click here for a map).

All BTD meetings are FREE and open to all. Handicap accessible. Parking in the Fire Hall lot and along Main St (Rte 96), but please do not block any of the firehouse doors (both front and rear of the building). We are all volunteers, so donations are appreciated.

Friday, May 17 at 7 pm:
Watermarks

Back To Democracy invites you to a free screening of Watermarks (2004; run time 80 mins.), the internationally acclaimed documentary film that inspired Ithaca's annual event Women Swimmin'.

Introducing the film will be Joan Brumberg of Women Swimmin', the hugely successful annual fundraiser for Hospicare of Tompkins County.*

The film documents a group of champion women swimmers from the Jewish Sports Club Hakoah Vienna as they reunite to tell their amazing stories 65 years after fleeing Austria to evade the Nazis. Now in their 80s, they return to the very pool where they had trained for Hakoah ---a sports club which was founded in 1909 after Austrian sports clubs refused to admit Jews. There, they reflect on the past. As young women, this group had gone on to win swimming championships all over Europe. The film is not only inspiring, but heart warming and very emotional. Bring your handkerchiefs. A community discussion will follow.

*The 10th Annual Women Swimmin' for Hospicare will be Sat., Aug 10 at the Ithaca Yacht Club. Registration for swimmers will open at 6 am on Mon., May 6, and will continue until a max of 350 swimmers is reached, or Sun., May 12 (whichever comes first). Details at womenswimmin.kintera.org