[6] NYS DEC had an annual budget of about $2,588 million for FY 2024,[2] and employs roughly 3,000 people across New York State.

[8] The department's activities go beyond land management and environmental enforcement to include the publication of a magazine and a state bird atlas, and the operation of 52 campgrounds in the Adirondack and Catskill Parks.

[10][11] The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation was created in 1970 by legislation symbolically signed on the first Earth Day by then-Governor Nelson Rockefeller.

DEC's work at Love Canal helped draw national attention to the problems posed by hazardous waste sites.

It also worked to end General Electric's discharge of PCBs into the Hudson River, an issue that continues into the present day[update].

In 1972, voters approved the Environmental Quality Bond Act, which continues to provide funds for land acquisition, solid waste aid, sewage treatment, air pollution control and resource recovery.

The department's facilities at Whiteface Mountain and Mount Van Hoevenberg near Lake Placid were venues for several events at the 1980 Winter Olympic Games.

The decade also saw the department complete, with considerable volunteer help, New York's Atlas of Breeding Birds, a mammoth, exhaustive tome of great interest to birders and ornithologists.

The state also began allowing its taxpayers to return a Gift to Wildlife on their income tax forms, providing money directly to DEC for conservation programs.

The department also obtained a memorandum of understanding with the city that eventually led to both tougher land-use regulations in the watersheds of its upstate reservoirs and economic development funds for the communities in them.

But the department remained active, taking the lead in establishing the state's Open Space Plan for future land acquisitions.

The building was completed in April 2001 and by late August the approximately 1,500 central office DEC staff had been relocated to the new facility.

[13] New York proposed and led the effort to create the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI),[14] a cap-and-trade program among seven northeastern states to lower carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, a major contributor to global warming.

The concerns at this site included lead contamination from spent bullets, as well as alleged witnessed burial of cylinders of unknown origin.

DEC, in conjunction with other New York State agencies, updated safety procedures and emergency response preparedness associated with the transport of crude oil by train,[18] reducing the risks of spills that could threaten communities and natural resources.

Fish and Wildlife Service and the Manhattan District Attorney's office that led to the seizure of elephant ivory worth more than $8.5 million from jewelers based in New York City.

[20] DEC facilitated the State's acquisition and protection of more than 65,000 acres of forested lands in the Adirondacks, including the Essex Chain of Lakes, OK Slip Falls, and Boreas Ponds.

[26] New York State's Environmental Protection Fund (EPF), created in 1993, supports a variety of DEC programs, including open space conservation, invasive species control, the Hudson River Estuary Program, Albany Pine Bush and Long Island Central Pine Barrens, state and municipal parks, and other environmental resource protections.

Hundreds of tons of clean, recycled materials, including former girders from the former Tappan Zee Bridge, were strategically placed to settle on the sea floor, creating habitat similar to natural reefs that will attract fish and marine life and expand opportunities for fishing and diving.

[30] On October 31, 2024, DEC raided a Pine City house for over 5 hours to seize a squirrel by the name of Peanut and a raccoon on the basis that it is illegal to keep young wildlife as pets since the animals become too accustomed to and dependent on humans when they return to the wild.

The DEC claimed that Peanut bit one of its employees in the process of being seized from the sanctuary and that this justified the rabies testing.

This office serves to "build and maintain positive working relationships with Legislators and their staffs in order to encourage dialogue and cooperation on matters affecting environmental policy.

Almost all DEC positions are classified as civil service and require that applicants pass the appropriate exams to be considered for hiring.