Our Impact

A Sacred Place with Positive Impact

Philanthropic Highlights

We have always had a deep spiritual connection to the land and throughout our lives have made a positive impact on the environment, believing that it is our responsibility to leave the land better than we found it for the next generation.

• Establish A Living Legacy in the U.S.: Unique to the U.S., Celtica combines history, language, culture, knowledge, and skills of the ancient Celts in an engaging and educational experience, focused on teaching people how to nurture nature.
• Serve A Growing Audience: There are very few sacred sites in the U.S. for Celts. More than 66 million Americans (approximately 20% of the population) claim to be of Celtic descent, and more than 1.5 million people (and growing) practice Earth-based religions. A sacred location in the U.S. would be profound.
• Preserve History: We are determined to share and save the ancient ways of life that have benefited and will benefit our planet.
• Benefit the Local Community: We are poised to work closely with the local community and government to clean up the Wallkill River.
• Benefit the Local Economy: Celtica will attract people from all over the world to come to the local area, which will stimulate the local economy.

“We have always had a deep spiritual connection to the land and throughout our lives have made a positive impact on the environment, believing that it is our responsibility to leave the land better than we found it for the next generation.”

— Lisa Stewart, Founder, President, High Priestess, Author

Our Promise

• We intend to work closely with organizations such as Riverkeeper and the Wallkill River Watershed Alliance to assist in the cleanup of the Wallkill River.
• We strive to meet the spiritual needs of our community by providing a safe and sacred space to gather and honor the cycle of the seasons and to nurture nature.
• We honor and respect all living things, and welcome all people regardless of where they’re from, what they look like, how they worship, who they love, or how they identify.

Cleaning Up the Wallkill River

The proposed location for Celtica, at 181 Hugenot Street, has 1,000 feet of frontage on the Wallkill River. It is situated a small ways downstream from the New Paltz waste water treatment plant, which is the final treatment plant on the river before it flows into the Rondout Creek in Tillson and subsequently joins the Hudson River. From surveys conducted by the DEC and Riverkeeper, this location frequently samples as the single most polluted location on the entire Wallkill River.

The river is unusual because it flows north between two major south-flowing rivers, the Hudson and the Delaware River. It also has the distinction of being a river that drains into a creek, because it is impounded (dammed) shortly before the Rondout and converges with a small body of water called Sturgeon Pool near Rifton. What reaches the Rondout from there is the lesser flow. All living things are affected by the state of the Wallkill River with very little improvement over the last decade.

Published in the Times Herald Record in 2017 describing the alarming issue:

“NEW PALTZ – Pollutants in the Wallkill River are more than 10 times the federal level mandated for safe swimming and similar recreation, according to two environmental groups.

Riverkeeper and the Wallkill River Watershed Alliance released data Thursday from five years of water sampling of the Wallkill. Citizens drew 685 samples from 25 sites from the source of the river in New Jersey to where it runs into the Rondout Creek in Tillson, a stretch of 88 miles. The sampling was done from 2012 through 2016, according to the report.

Overall, 87 percent of the samples exceeded the federal water quality standard of 30 parts per milliliter for enterococcus bacteria. The average result for the river was 381 parts per milliliter, more than 10 times the level deemed safe for swimming and similar activities in the water.

Entero comes from fecal matter and its presence is a sign of fecal pollution of the waters. The pollution is believed to have been a major factor in creating the 30-mile-long “bloom” of bright green toxic algae on the river last summer and the summer before.

Water from all 25 sites tested failed, according to the report. The levels taken following rain were worse, often two or three times as high, according to the study. The water quality in the Wallkill was second worst among the tributaries to the Hudson River studied by Riverkeeper.”

As a non-intensive, non-mechanized, entirely organic farm, Celtica will not adversely affect the environment in any way. Moreover, it is our mission to leave the ground not just unspoiled for those that come after us, but actually better than we found it.

To this end, we intend to work closely with organizations such as Riverkeeper and the Wallkill River Watershed Alliance to find ways that we may actively assist in the cleanup of the Wallkill River and have plans to leverage Celtic tactics that nuture nature for this clean-up effort.

“The magical setting at the foot of the Shawangunk Ridge is sure to profoundly move those who set foot upon the sacred ground of Celtica, leaving them deeply touched by the very spirit of the land.”

— Anton Stewart, Founder, Vice President, High Priest, Author