In August 1955 and September 1960, the mountaintop region of Greene County was hit by two devastating floods. In each instance, the flood events were associated with the remains of major hurricanes which had pushed inland as tropical storms. These flood storms produced very significant damage, and  in 1961 the Greene County Soil & Water Conservation District was formed specifically to facilitate the development of a flood protection project on the Batavia Kill stream in the Town of Windham.

Since that time, the District has continued to place flood response and mitigation as a high priority.  Whether it is facilitating communities with pre-disaster planning, or coordinating mitigation construction projects, the GCSWCD is an active participant in flood mitigation in Greene County.