New City conservationist Martus Granirer dies at 84

New City conservationist Martus Granirer dies at 84.
Martus Granirer, who devoted much of his life to protecting the land, waterways, wildlife and culture of New City’s South​ Mountain Road area, died Thursday.
In April of 2016, Granirer was presented with the 19th annual County Executive’s Outstanding Volunteer Environmental Award for preserving more than 1,000 acres of parkland throughout Rockland County.
“Protecting land and water doesn’t mean opposing change,” he said.
Everything I’ve done in Rockland has involved change.” Granirer was an attorney and member of the nonprofit environmental group West Branch Conservation Association.
"Thanks to him, the headwaters of the Hackensack River were protected because he was able to get land set aside as open space, both through municipal and state land designations and by convincing his neighbors to donate property or set up conservation easements.
"He truly has been an outstanding citizen of our county, fighting to conserve precious land and preserve a way of life."
Granirer attended Harvard and Columbia universities and later became a pho​tographer, according to Terri Thal, with whom he spent his last 19 years.
His photographs are in museums, including the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
Thal said that two days before he died, Granirer spoke at a hearing protesting the construction of an electrical substation on South Mountain Road.

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