About
Hickory Creek: Connections between you and the natural systems
necessary for your health, well-being, and quality of life
Hickory Creek Consulting LLC is an environmental consulting business in Red Hook, NY, owned and operated by Karen Schneller-McDonald. A native of the Hudson Valley, Karen has also lived in Laporte, Colorado and Hamilton, Montana. Her professional journey includes experience as an environmental educator, wildlife biologist, ecologist, researcher, wetland specialist and delineator, and environmental impact assessment specialist.
Scientific research continues to provide information about natural systems, how they work, and the benefits they provide for us. But many land use and policy decisions are not informed by science— resulting in development activities that threaten wildlife habitat, and streams and wetlands critical for maintaining water quality, flood mitigation, water supply, and biodiversity.
Since its inception in 2004, Hickory Creek has worked with local government, planning boards, citizens’ groups, individual landowners, conservation organizations, educational organizations, land trusts, law firms, and regional planning groups.
Consulting projects include: wetland delineations; assessment of cumulative impacts of energy development on wildlife; watershed management plans; biodiversity surveys; natural resource inventories; wildlife habitat assessments; developing and implementing municipal wetland and stream regulations; and reviewing and evaluating environmental impacts and mitigation for a variety of residential and industrial development projects. Since 2011 environmental reviews include applications for large scale wind farms (and one solar farm), in three cases presenting expert testimony involving wind farm siting.
In 2015, Connecting the Drops: A citizens’ guide to protecting water resources, by Karen Schneller-McDonald, was published by Cornell University Press.
Karen is currently Chair of the Saw Kill Watershed Community in Dutchess County, NY. 
“We need to protect our water resources. But before we can do so, we need to understand how they’re threatened. To be effective, we need to understand the cause-and-effect connections between land use, natural systems (watersheds and ecosystems), and the benefits these systems provide for us in our daily lives. So I compiled what I’ve learned from 30 years of experience into one place for handy reference: Connecting the Drops: A citizens’ guide to protecting water resources.”
