Carter H. Strickland Jr. joins The Trust for Public land as New York State Director

Carter H. Strickland Jr., the former Commissioner of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, will be the New York State Director of The Trust for Public Land, the organization announced today. In that role, he will oversee one of The Trust for Public Land’s largest programs.

“Carter Strickland is a great addition to The Trust for Public Land’s national team as the New York State Director,” said Adrian Benepe, Senior Vice President for City Parks Development. “He brings several decades of state and local environmental expertise and leadership to his position. As my colleague in New York City government under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Carter led the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and was responsible for a major expansion of its Green Infrastructure program. As an environmental lawyer, he will help protect and expand the state’s superb natural resources.”

Strickland said, “Parks and open space are critical infrastructure for sustainable cities, and I’m thrilled at the opportunity to work with The Trust for Public Land to make New York an even more wonderful place to live, work, and play. And outside New York City, Trust for Public Land can play a critical role in protecting land and watersheds throughout the Empire State.”

Strickland added, “The Trust for Public Land has played a critical role in managing storm water through its Schoolyards to Playground program, and when I worked with them to make the P.S. 261 playground a community asset using partial funding from DEP, I was impressed by their ability to involve schoolkids in planning and design. I knew then I wanted to work with The Trust for Public Land to make the world a better place by connecting people to each other and nature.”

Strickland, a native of Syracuse, graduated from Dartmouth College and Columbia Law School.  As a lawyer with the New York Attorney General’s office, he prosecuted hazardous waste polluters and defended the state’s ability to enact laws to protect public health. As a senior policy adviser to Mayor Bloomberg, he led the city’s implementation of air and water programs of PlaNYC, the city’s ground-breaking sustainability plan. 

From 2011 to 2014, he was Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection and led the 5,700 person agency’s response to Hurricanes Irene and Sandy. In the past three years, he has been at HDR, a top-ranked architecture and engineering firm, where he has been an adviser to cities, utilities and others on water and sustainability issues.

He lives now in Brooklyn, and enjoys New York’s outdoors as a hiker, camper, and canoeist.

The Trust for Public Land has been working in New York since 1981 and protected more than 123,000 acres across the state.  In New York City, the organization has preserved more than 100 community gardens, and has designed and built 189 school and community playgrounds, putting almost 3.5 million New Yorkers within a 10-minute walk to a park.