Catskill State Park
Encyclopedia
The Catskill Park is in the Catskill Mountains
in New York
in the United States
. It consists of 700,000 acres (2,800 km²) of land inside a Blue Line
in four counties: Delaware
, Greene
, Sullivan
, and Ulster
. As of 2005 there are 287,514 acres (1,150 km²), or 41 percent of the land within, owned by the state as part of the Forest Preserve
; it is managed by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Another 5% is owned by New York City
to protect four of the city’s reservoirs in the region that lie partially within the park and their respective watershed
s.
There are bobcat
s, mink
s and fisher
s in the preserve, and coyote
s are often heard. There are some 400 black bear
s living in the region. The state operates numerous campgrounds and there are over 300 miles (480 km) of multi-use trails. Hunting
is permitted, in season, in much of the park. It has approximately 50,000 permanent residents, bolstered somewhat by second-home ownership on weekends and in the summer, and attracts about half a million visitors every year.
The park is governed by Article 14 of the state constitution, which stipulates that all land acquired within cannot be sold or otherwise transferred (absent amending the constitution, which has been done on several occasions), may not be used for logging and must remain "forever wild."
Being the smaller and less well-known of New York’s two Forest Preserves, residents of and advocates for the Park often feel that it gets neglected by the state government in Albany
. A popular saying in the region is that the DEC Commissioner's chair faces north (i.e., toward the Adirondacks
). In recent years DEC has been working to change that. Despite that perception, however, some key innovations in how New York manages its Forest Preserve have come from the Catskills.
just west of the city of Kingston
in the east to the East Branch of the Delaware River
near Hancock
at its westernmost. Its northern extreme is at Windham and its southernmost point is between the hamlet of Napanoch
and Rondout Reservoir
.
In contrast to the Adirondack Park, the Catskill Park does not include all the land generally considered to be part of the Catskill Range. However, all but two of the 35 Catskill High Peaks
are inside the Blue Line
.
primarily for hunting. Later it was heavily exploited by the Dutch
, English
, Irish
and Germans
; local industry included logging, bluestone
quarrying, leather tanning
, wintergreen
and blueberry
harvesting, trapping, fishing, and later, tourism. The old-growth hemlock and northern hardwood forests on the steep mountainsides and remote valleys were sufficiently inaccessible that they survived the logging, tanbarking
and charcoal industries of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Inhabitants of the region often tell visitors the Park was created to protect New York City's water resources. While one could certainly be forgiven for making that assumption looking at the present-day park map, the park itself was created 30 years before the first reservoir (Ashokan
) was built, before the city had started looking north to fulfill its growing water needs.
The truth is far more mundane, and almost sordid.
In 1885, as the state legislature was considering the bill that created the Adirondack Park, Ulster County was trying to get out of paying delinquent property tax
es that, under the law passed over its objections six years earlier, it owed the state. The lands, mostly around Slide Mountain had come into the county's possession when loggers looking to extract tannin
for use in tanning
leather
from the bark of the many Eastern hemlocks
growing there at the time, took the trees, made their money and then left the region without paying taxes.
The lands left behind were, if still good quality, often snapped up for use as private hunting and fishing clubs for wealthy businessmen from outside the region, whose determined enforcement of trespassing and poaching laws stirred resentment among the local populace long accustomed to the food provided by those lands; the lesser quality lands were wasted, producing nothing except destructive fires.
A team of forest experts, led by Harvard professor Charles Sprague Sargent
, had visited the region when the original Forest Preserve bill was being studied and recommended against including the Catskills in its protections, as its forests "guard only streams of local influence," unlike the Adirondacks, whose preservation was motivated by a desire on the part of the state's businessmen to prevent the Erie Canal
from silt
ing up and thus becoming unnavigable.
At the same time Ulster had lost a lawsuit against the state and had been ordered to pay the back taxes. Two Assemblymen from the county (one of whom, Cornelius Hardenbergh, was a descendant of Johannes Hardenbergh
, the original crown grantee of much of the Catskills in 1708) who had been elected because of their firm stands against paying the taxes, lobbied their fellow legislators heavily to pass a second version of the Forest Preserve Act, one that not only forgave the county's tax debt in exchange for the lands at issue, but required that the state would henceforth pay whatever local property taxes were required on the land as if they were intended for commercial use (i.e., logging). That provision was later applied to the Adirondacks as well; it remains in force today and makes the difference between survival and insolvency for many towns and other local governmental entities in both parks.
As the timber industry kept making determined efforts to undermine the bill, its original sponsors took the occasion of New York adopting a new constitution in 1894 to enshrine it in that document, with language that plugged all the loopholes that loggers and officials on the state's Forest Preserve Advisory Board had been using. Article 14 has survived several other major constitutional revisions.
The park’s creation meant an increase in state resources focused on the region. First came fire protection, a move greatly welcomed by the local governments and one that was to make a long-lasting impact on the region, as fire towers
were built on a number of summits and patrols were regularly made along railroad lines to catch cinder fires before they got too big.
It also changed the way the region was seen by visitors. An era dominated by hotels such as the Catskill Mountain House
at North-South Lake
which catered to the well-to-do and socially prominent was passing its prime, and in its place outdoor recreationists were becoming interested in dry-fly fishing
the trout
streams, hunting
and hiking
the mountains.
In 1892, the state spent $250 to build a trail up Slide Mountain, which had only recently been proven by Arnold Henry Guyot
to be the range's highest peak and was thus attracting a great deal of tourist interest. It would be the first hiking trail
built at public expense in New York's Forest Preserve, and is still the most heavily used route up the mountain today.
That year had also seen the delineation of the Adirondack Park to the north, as the state sought to focus its land-acquisition efforts, by designating particular towns for inclusion, drawing a line in blue ink around them, a custom that continues on all official state maps today.
Twelve years later, in 1904, it was decided to do the same with the Catskills. But this Blue Line
used not existing municipal boundaries but the old Hardenburgh Patent survey lots, watercourses and railroad rights-of-way
, creating a finer, more focused park that gave some of the towns on its periphery areas where they could be assured land would not be subject to Article 14. A similar revision would follow suit in the Adirondacks, and future expansions of both parks would follow this model.
In 1912 the law was again amended to state that the Catskill Park consisted of all lands within the Blue Line, not just those owned by the state.
New York City
, having merged in 1898 into its present form, began looking for new water resources the very next year, and its existing system of reservoirs in the city and Westchester County
wouldn’t be able to keep up with demand for much longer. The city at first turned to land in Rockland County
now part of Harriman State Park, but found a group of speculators called the Ramapo Water Company had beaten them to the water rights. It was thus essential to go even further north, and only in the Catskill Park could it find the land to condemn around Esopus Creek
and create the Ashokan Reservoir
.
In 1905 the state approved the creation of water supply commissions at various local governmental levels
, as well as one at the state level to resolve disputes, like the one rapidly brewing between the city and the Catskill communities over its plan to condemn land
for the construction of two reservoirs, Ashokan and what is now Schoharie Reservoir
, plus the Shandaken Tunnel
to connect the two.
The city prevailed, and construction of Ashokan began the very next year, requiring the removal of several small hamlets and many residents in the process (some, such as Shokan
, West Shokan and Olive Bridge, survive today on its banks). The Esopus was dam
med in 1913 and started sending water to the city two years later. Land claims would continue to be resolved in area courts until 1940.
It would be the first of several city reservoirs in and around the park that, while rarely appreciated by the residents, have completely changed how it is managed, used and seen, for better or for worse.
s, lean-tos and towers on it, without reference to any greater plan and often with little coordination or knowledge of what other state agencies or officials were doing.
Important steps were nonetheless taken. Bond issues approved by voters in 1916 and 1924 for a total of $12.5 million led ultimately to the addition of 121,000 acres (490 km²) to the state’s holdings. The economic collapse
of the late 1920s and 30s made a lot of desirable land available at low prices, and with the notably aggressive Robert Moses
in charge of the state parks, valuable properties like the Devil's Path Range, the summit of Slide Mountain and Windham High Peak became part of the Forest Preserve.
From 1926 to 1931 the state opened its first four public campgrounds
within the Park.
New Deal
programs during the Great Depression
such as the Civilian Conservation Corps
made labor available to build trails and replant forests. The state's Conservation Commission was able to compile the first of a series of "Catskill Trails" booklets.
However, the trails built by the state rapidly fell into disuse, Raymond H. Torrey
would note by the end of the decade as what hikers there were tended to bypass the Catskills, which they regarded as passé, in favor of the Adirondacks and higher peaks in northern New England
. Unlike those regions, no lasting organizations of hikers and other passive outdoor recreationists were ever formed around the Catskills (a brief attempt to create a Catskill Mountain Club in the late 1920s sputtered out after a few years), leaving the park more or less without a constituency.
The most important change during this time period was the amending of Article 14, in 1948 to allow for the construction of Belleayre Mountain Ski Center and thus encourage skiers to come to the Catskills, following the lead taken in the Adirondacks by the creation of Whiteface
and Gore ski areas. It remains in operation today, and several other private ski areas such as Hunter Mountain
and Windham Mountain
have followed its lead.
The construction of the Interstate 87
section of the New York State Thruway
up the Hudson Valley
and the upgrading of Route 17
from a two-lane road into a freeway
along much of the park's southwestern border greatly increased access to the Park during the 1950s and '60s, although the latter encountered fierce opposition from trout fishermen over some of the original bridges along the Beaver Kill, which would have destroyed some favored holes.
New York City built three more reservoirs partially within the Park: Neversink
, Rondout
and Pepacton
.
In 1957, the Blue Line had expanded to its present configuration, taking in not only the lands almost to the Kingston
city limit and Thruway at the east, but more of Sullivan and Delaware counties in the west.
Trails and other recreational resources remained underused, however.
In 1966 the Catskill Mountain 3500 Club
, a peak bagging
organization, was formally incorporated
after having existed informally for several years — the first organization devoted to, among other things, speaking for the Catskill hiking community. For many years afterwards it would be the only such organization with "Catskill" in its name.
Three years later, in 1969 the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development was founded, an organization which has been at least partially doing for the Catskills what the venerable Adirondack Council and Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks had done for the northern park.
The Borscht Belt
era was ending, as the restrictions on Jewish guests at other hotels and resorts that had given rise to it fell victim to civil rights laws
, and younger generations of Jews in any event felt more assimilated than their parents and grandparents had.
In the wake of the Woodstock festival
, many younger people followed the call to "get ourselves back to the garden" and the Catskills were among the many places whose campgrounds and trails began to swarm with backpacking
enthusiasts of the counter-culture. Trails that a decade or so before had almost vanished began to finally see serious usage ... almost to the point of overuse.
On Earth Day
in 1970, Governor Nelson Rockefeller
signed legislation that recognized growing environmental concerns by combining the Conservation Department, which had been managing the Catskills and Adirondacks, with several other agencies to create the new Department of Environmental Conservation
(DEC), which exists and manages the Forest Preserve to this day.
An idea that the Catskill Center had been pressing for bore fruit in 1973 when, again following in footsteps of what it had recently done in the Adirondacks, the state created a Temporary Commission to Study the Future of the Catskills. It took in as its area of study not just the Park but everywhere that could possibly be considered part of the Catskill region: all four counties of the Park, as well as Schoharie
, Otsego
and two towns in the southwestern corner of Albany County
. It was the state's first-ever effort to look at what resources the Catskills had and what could be done with them.
There was some trepidation in the region, as the Adirondack commission's recommendation for the establishment of a park-wide land use
agency, the Adirondack Park Agency
had been implemented in full, only to arouse great fury in that region as it issued zoning
regulations far stricter than some towns had already enacted and mounted battles against longtime local residents over relatively small infractions. Catskills residents, new and old, were worried that a similar solution awaited them.
While the commission considered the same recommendation for the Catskills, it ultimately decided against it in its final report in 1975 (it did try to promulgate a master land use plan, but that was rejected). What it did recommend was a master plan for the state land in the Forest Preserve, important since management was divided (and still is) between two different DEC regions, which had never been on the same page nor known what the other was doing.
It further recommended, following contemporary trends in public-land management (and a recommendation a special legislative committee had made back in 1960), that at least four of the growing tracts, or "management units" of Forest Preserve be formally designated as either wilderness areas or wild forests, again following a distinction drawn in the Adirondack Park. The former was similar in philosophy to those the federal government had already been designating in National park
s and forests
in the West, but slightly less restrictive; the latter is an even less restrictive category that exists only in New York's Forest Preserve and allows for greater human impact. The practical effects are discussed below under Management.
A Master Plan was developed and implemented in the early 1980s. DEC got busy finally clarifying what user groups (in addition to hikers, snowmobile
rs, horseback riders
and cross-country skiers
) were allowed on which trails, and marking them appropriately.
Another Adirondack innovation that advocates for the Catskills wanted to copy was the construction of an Interpretive Center , that would educate visitors about the park and its purpose, as a focus for regional tourism. In fits and starts, this project was begun and pursued under the administration of Gov. Mario Cuomo
. A site was found on Route 28 near the hamlet of Mount Tremper. It was cleared and roads were built to facilitate the eventual building. The Palisades Interstate Park Commission
was to operate it (to get around the restrictions of Article 14) and the New York - New Jersey Trail Conference
made plans to route the Long Path
past it.
However, in 1995 a new governor, George Pataki
took over, and after some consideration decided to put the project on hold, where it remains to this day, citing financial considerations. The site, locally referred to as the "road to nowhere," is still maintained, but there is little to do except stop and picnic
and follow the short nature trail that has been cut through the nearby woods.
Finishing the project was a cornerstone recommendation of DEC's 1999 Public Access Plan, which again followed an Adirondack lead and proposed ways to increase public knowledge and awareness of the Park's resources. Some were implemented (such as improving and extending the trail system, which occurred later that year when a trail across Mill Brook Ridge was completed as part of the Finger Lakes Trail
, linking the trail network on the lesser peaks in the Delaware County section of the park with the long-established system in Ulster and Greene counties), some have not been.
Also in 1999, Governor Pataki designated most of the summits of the High Peaks
as Bird Conservation Areas, in recognition of the importance of their boreal forests as summer habitat for Bicknell's thrush
, only recently declared to be a separate species. It was the first such designation within either Forest Preserve, and the Adirondacks would this time be the one to follow suit a few years later.
The most controversial aspect, however, was its decision to limit mountain biking
to designated trails and ban them from wilderness areas. While this had been done everywhere else where wilderness protection existed, mountain bikers and their organizations have lobbied hard for an exception, arguing that bicycles are not machines and do not deserve to be banned from use of the wilderness.
This remains unresolved at the moment. DEC missed its target date of 2004, to coincide with the park's centennial celebrations, for the release of the final version. The revised master plan was adopted in August 2008.
New York's wilderness areas must be composed of 10,000 acres (40 km²) of contiguous land, twice the federal standard. Land is to be left as "untrammeled by man" and as close to its natural state as possible, offering outstanding opportunities for solitude. No artificially-powered devices are permitted to be used in wilderness areas — chainsaw
s may only be used to clear trails with express written authorization from the DEC commissioner, and vehicle usage is forbidden in all save dire emergency circumstances. Most trails are single-track, avoiding old logging roads except at the lowest elevations. Designated campsites are kept to a minimum.
The goal of wilderness is to minimize human impact on the land as much as possible. Passive recreation such as hiking, hunting and birding is the main use of these lands.
Under the current Master Plan, many of the remaining tracts of first-growth forest
, and many of the higher summits, are within wilderness areas.
Currently there are four: the Slide Mountain
and Big Indian-Beaverkill wildernesses in Ulster County, and the Indian Head and West Kill wildernesses in Greene County. The updated Master Plan would add more wilderness in Greene County, most notably the Blackhead Range and Escarpment.
It has also been informal DEC policy to treat all lands in its possession in the Catskill Park above 3,100 feet (944 m) in elevation as de facto wilderness. The proposed update would not only make that rule official, it would extend it as much as possible to all land 2,700 feet (823 m) and higher.
In Wild Forest areas, vehicles may be used as DEC designates. This has made them popular places for snowmobilers, cross-country skiers, and (in one area) mountain bikers. (all-terrain-vehicles
remain banned, however). Hunters also find them desirable as the second- and third-growth forests in the area are more likely to contain deer and the carcass of the taken animal can be driven out of the woods instead of being walked out.
Some Wild Forest units exist with rather forced boundaries to allow for a use otherwise incompatible with a surrounding wilderness, such as the Overlook Mountain Wild Forest a corridor through the Indian Head Wilderness Area which contains the popular and still driveable dirt road to the fire tower atop the summit near Woodstock. A similar solution has been proposed under the new Master Plan to continue to allow more active use of the Hunter Mountain fire tower and the road leading up to it.
The Halcott Mountain Wild Forest is so designated only because it lacks enough contiguous area to qualify as wilderness.
Current Wild Forest areas besides those mentioned above include the Long Pond-Willowemoc in Sullivan County; the Touch-Me-Not, Cherry Ridge-Campbell Mountain and Dry Brook Ridge in Delaware County; the Balsam Lake,Bluestone, Lundy, Peekamoose Valley and Phoenicia-Mt. Tremper, Shandaken and Sundown in Ulster and the Blackhead, Colgate Lake, Hunter Mountain, Kaaterskill, North Point and Windham High Peak Wild Forests.
In addition to redesignating a good portion of those areas as wilderness, the proposed update would consolidate some into larger units (all the Delaware County properties, for instance).
The campgrounds are generally far smaller units, with many sites and basic facilities available, sometimes abutting wilderness and wild forest areas, and paved roads offering easy vehicle access. North-South Lake
, however, is a vast area (New York's largest public campground) including not only many sites but swimming areas at both lakes, the former Catskill Mountain House site at Pine Orchard and many of the historic trails around it.
Similarly, Belleayre's property extends well east of its ski trails and includes some of the hiking trails in the region as well.
Other campgrounds include Beaverkill, Devil's Tombstone, Kenneth L. Wilson, Mongaup Pond and Woodland Valley.
There are at least two Day Use Areas, within the park, one near Belleayre and the other at the Catskill Interpretive Center site. These are small tracts with picnic
tables and sites where camping is forbidden, much as one would find in a small local park.
, the Simpson Ski Slope and the Catskill Mountain Fish Hatchery, which includes the DeBruce Environmental Education Camp, and the Esopus Creek Fish and Wildlife Management Parcel.
Catskill Mountains
The Catskill Mountains, an area in New York State northwest of New York City and southwest of Albany, are a mature dissected plateau, an uplifted region that was subsequently eroded into sharp relief. They are an eastward continuation, and the highest representation, of the Allegheny Plateau...
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It consists of 700,000 acres (2,800 km²) of land inside a Blue Line
Blue Line (New York State)
The Blue Line is the term used in New York state for the boundaries of the Adirondack and Catskill parks, within which can be found the state's Forest Preserve...
in four counties: Delaware
Delaware County, New York
Delaware County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of 2010 the population was 47,980. The county seat is Delhi. It is named after the Delaware River, which was named in honor of Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, appointed governor of Virginia in 1609.-History:When counties...
, Greene
Greene County, New York
Greene County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. Its name is in honor of the American Revolutionary War general Nathanael Greene. Its county seat is Catskill...
, Sullivan
Sullivan County, New York
Sullivan County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 77,547. The county seat is Monticello. The name is in honor of Major General John Sullivan, who was a hero in the American Revolutionary War...
, and Ulster
Ulster County, New York
Ulster County is a county located in the state of New York, USA. It sits in the state's Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley. As of the 2010 census, the population was 182,493. Recent population estimates completed by the United States Census Bureau for the 12-month period ending July 1 are at...
. As of 2005 there are 287,514 acres (1,150 km²), or 41 percent of the land within, owned by the state as part of the Forest Preserve
Forest Preserve (New York)
New York's Forest Preserve is all the land owned by the state within the Adirondack and Catskill parks, managed by its Department of Environmental Conservation. These properties are required to be kept "forever wild" by Article 14 of the state constitution, and thus enjoy the highest degree of...
; it is managed by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Another 5% is owned by New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to protect four of the city’s reservoirs in the region that lie partially within the park and their respective watershed
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
s.
There are bobcat
Bobcat
The bobcat is a North American mammal of the cat family Felidae, appearing during the Irvingtonian stage of around 1.8 million years ago . With twelve recognized subspecies, it ranges from southern Canada to northern Mexico, including most of the continental United States...
s, mink
Mink
There are two living species referred to as "mink": the European Mink and the American Mink. The extinct Sea Mink is related to the American Mink, but was much larger. All three species are dark-colored, semi-aquatic, carnivorous mammals of the family Mustelidae, which also includes the weasels and...
s and fisher
Fisher (animal)
The fisher is a medium-size mammal native to North America. It is a member of the mustelid family, commonly referred to as the weasel family. The fisher is closely related to but larger than the American Marten...
s in the preserve, and coyote
Coyote
The coyote , also known as the American jackal or the prairie wolf, is a species of canine found throughout North and Central America, ranging from Panama in the south, north through Mexico, the United States and Canada...
s are often heard. There are some 400 black bear
American black bear
The American black bear is a medium-sized bear native to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most common bear species. Black bears are omnivores, with their diets varying greatly depending on season and location. They typically live in largely forested areas, but do leave forests in...
s living in the region. The state operates numerous campgrounds and there are over 300 miles (480 km) of multi-use trails. Hunting
Hunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
is permitted, in season, in much of the park. It has approximately 50,000 permanent residents, bolstered somewhat by second-home ownership on weekends and in the summer, and attracts about half a million visitors every year.
The park is governed by Article 14 of the state constitution, which stipulates that all land acquired within cannot be sold or otherwise transferred (absent amending the constitution, which has been done on several occasions), may not be used for logging and must remain "forever wild."
Being the smaller and less well-known of New York’s two Forest Preserves, residents of and advocates for the Park often feel that it gets neglected by the state government in Albany
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
. A popular saying in the region is that the DEC Commissioner's chair faces north (i.e., toward the Adirondacks
Adirondack Mountains
The Adirondack Mountains are a mountain range located in the northeastern part of New York, that runs through Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Lewis, Saint Lawrence, Saratoga, Warren, and Washington counties....
). In recent years DEC has been working to change that. Despite that perception, however, some key innovations in how New York manages its Forest Preserve have come from the Catskills.
Location
The park boundary stretches from near the Hudson RiverHudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
just west of the city of Kingston
Kingston, New York
Kingston is a city in and the county seat of Ulster County, New York, USA. It is north of New York City and south of Albany. It became New York's first capital in 1777, and was burned by the British Oct. 16, 1777, after the Battles of Saratoga...
in the east to the East Branch of the Delaware River
Delaware River
The Delaware River is a major river on the Atlantic coast of the United States.A Dutch expedition led by Henry Hudson in 1609 first mapped the river. The river was christened the South River in the New Netherland colony that followed, in contrast to the North River, as the Hudson River was then...
near Hancock
Hancock (town), New York
Hancock is a town in Delaware County, New York, United States. The town contains a village, also named Hancock. The town is in the southwest part of the county...
at its westernmost. Its northern extreme is at Windham and its southernmost point is between the hamlet of Napanoch
Napanoch, New York
Napanoch is a hamlet in Ulster County, New York. It is at the junction of routes 209 and 55. It is on the Shawangunk Ridge National Scenic Byway, and is part of the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area....
and Rondout Reservoir
Rondout Reservoir
Rondout Reservoir is part of New York City's water supply network. It is located 75 miles northwest of the city in the Catskill Mountains, near the southern end of Catskill Park, split between the towns of Wawarsing in Ulster County and Neversink in Sullivan County...
.
In contrast to the Adirondack Park, the Catskill Park does not include all the land generally considered to be part of the Catskill Range. However, all but two of the 35 Catskill High Peaks
Catskill High Peaks
The Catskill High Peaks are all of the mountains in New York's Catskill Mountains above 3,500 ft in elevation whose summits are separated either by one-half mile or a vertical drop of at least 250 ft between it and the next nearest separate summit...
are inside the Blue Line
Blue Line (New York State)
The Blue Line is the term used in New York state for the boundaries of the Adirondack and Catskill parks, within which can be found the state's Forest Preserve...
.
History
The area was used by the MohawksMohawk nation
Mohawk are the most easterly tribe of the Iroquois confederation. They call themselves Kanien'gehaga, people of the place of the flint...
primarily for hunting. Later it was heavily exploited by the Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
and Germans
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
; local industry included logging, bluestone
Bluestone
Bluestone is a cultural or commercial name for a number of dimension or building stone varieties, including:*a feldspathic sandstone in the U.S. and Canada;*limestone in the Shenandoah Valley in the U.S...
quarrying, leather tanning
Tanning
Tanning is the making of leather from the skins of animals which does not easily decompose. Traditionally, tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound from which the tanning process draws its name . Coloring may occur during tanning...
, wintergreen
Wintergreen
Wintergreen is a group of plants. Wintergreen once commonly referred to plants that continue photosynthesis throughout the winter...
and blueberry
Blueberry
Blueberries are flowering plants of the genus Vaccinium with dark-blue berries and are perennial...
harvesting, trapping, fishing, and later, tourism. The old-growth hemlock and northern hardwood forests on the steep mountainsides and remote valleys were sufficiently inaccessible that they survived the logging, tanbarking
Tanning
Tanning is the making of leather from the skins of animals which does not easily decompose. Traditionally, tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound from which the tanning process draws its name . Coloring may occur during tanning...
and charcoal industries of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Inhabitants of the region often tell visitors the Park was created to protect New York City's water resources. While one could certainly be forgiven for making that assumption looking at the present-day park map, the park itself was created 30 years before the first reservoir (Ashokan
Ashokan Reservoir
The Ashokan Reservoir is a reservoir in Ulster County, New York, USA. The reservoir is in the eastern end of the Catskill Park, and is one of several reservoirs created to provide the City of New York with water. However, it is one of only two reservoirs in the Catskill Watershed. It is also New...
) was built, before the city had started looking north to fulfill its growing water needs.
The truth is far more mundane, and almost sordid.
In 1885, as the state legislature was considering the bill that created the Adirondack Park, Ulster County was trying to get out of paying delinquent property tax
Property tax
A property tax is an ad valorem levy on the value of property that the owner is required to pay. The tax is levied by the governing authority of the jurisdiction in which the property is located; it may be paid to a national government, a federated state or a municipality...
es that, under the law passed over its objections six years earlier, it owed the state. The lands, mostly around Slide Mountain had come into the county's possession when loggers looking to extract tannin
Tannin
A tannin is an astringent, bitter plant polyphenolic compound that binds to and precipitates proteins and various other organic compounds including amino acids and alkaloids.The term tannin refers to the use of...
for use in tanning
Tanning
Tanning is the making of leather from the skins of animals which does not easily decompose. Traditionally, tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound from which the tanning process draws its name . Coloring may occur during tanning...
leather
Leather
Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...
from the bark of the many Eastern hemlocks
Tsuga
Tsuga is a genus of conifers in the family Pinaceae. The common name hemlock is derived from a perceived similarity in the smell of its crushed foliage to that of the unrelated plant poison hemlock....
growing there at the time, took the trees, made their money and then left the region without paying taxes.
The lands left behind were, if still good quality, often snapped up for use as private hunting and fishing clubs for wealthy businessmen from outside the region, whose determined enforcement of trespassing and poaching laws stirred resentment among the local populace long accustomed to the food provided by those lands; the lesser quality lands were wasted, producing nothing except destructive fires.
A team of forest experts, led by Harvard professor Charles Sprague Sargent
Charles Sprague Sargent
Charles Sprague Sargent was an American botanist. He was the first director of the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts and the standard botanical author abbreviation Sarg. is applied to plants he described.-Biography:Sargent was the second son of Henrietta and...
, had visited the region when the original Forest Preserve bill was being studied and recommended against including the Catskills in its protections, as its forests "guard only streams of local influence," unlike the Adirondacks, whose preservation was motivated by a desire on the part of the state's businessmen to prevent the Erie Canal
Erie Canal
The Erie Canal is a waterway in New York that runs about from Albany, New York, on the Hudson River to Buffalo, New York, at Lake Erie, completing a navigable water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. The canal contains 36 locks and encompasses a total elevation differential of...
from silt
Silt
Silt is granular material of a size somewhere between sand and clay whose mineral origin is quartz and feldspar. Silt may occur as a soil or as suspended sediment in a surface water body...
ing up and thus becoming unnavigable.
At the same time Ulster had lost a lawsuit against the state and had been ordered to pay the back taxes. Two Assemblymen from the county (one of whom, Cornelius Hardenbergh, was a descendant of Johannes Hardenbergh
Johannes Hardenbergh
Major Johannes Hardenbergh , also known as Sir Johannes Hardenbergh, was the owner of the Hardenbergh patent of land in the Catskill Mountains.-Biography:He was born in Albany, New York, was High Sheriff of Ulster County in 1690...
, the original crown grantee of much of the Catskills in 1708) who had been elected because of their firm stands against paying the taxes, lobbied their fellow legislators heavily to pass a second version of the Forest Preserve Act, one that not only forgave the county's tax debt in exchange for the lands at issue, but required that the state would henceforth pay whatever local property taxes were required on the land as if they were intended for commercial use (i.e., logging). That provision was later applied to the Adirondacks as well; it remains in force today and makes the difference between survival and insolvency for many towns and other local governmental entities in both parks.
As the timber industry kept making determined efforts to undermine the bill, its original sponsors took the occasion of New York adopting a new constitution in 1894 to enshrine it in that document, with language that plugged all the loopholes that loggers and officials on the state's Forest Preserve Advisory Board had been using. Article 14 has survived several other major constitutional revisions.
The Blue Line
Fire lookout
A fire lookout is a person assigned the duty to look for fire from atop a building known as a fire lookout tower. These towers are used in remote areas, normally on mountain tops with high elevation and a good view of the surrounding terrain, to spot smoke caused by a wildfire.Once a possible fire...
were built on a number of summits and patrols were regularly made along railroad lines to catch cinder fires before they got too big.
It also changed the way the region was seen by visitors. An era dominated by hotels such as the Catskill Mountain House
Catskill Mountain House
The Catskill Mountain House was a famous hotel near Palenville, New York in the Catskill Mountains overlooking the Hudson River Valley, built in 1824. In its prime, from the 1850s to the turn of the century, it was visited by three U.S. presidents The Catskill Mountain House was a famous hotel...
at North-South Lake
North-South Lake
North-South Lake is an 1,100-acre state campground in the Catskill Forest Preserve near Palenville, New York operated by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation near the site of the historic Catskill Mountain House overlooking the Hudson River...
which catered to the well-to-do and socially prominent was passing its prime, and in its place outdoor recreationists were becoming interested in dry-fly fishing
Fly fishing
Fly fishing is an angling method in which an artificial 'fly' is used to catch fish. The fly is cast using a fly rod, reel, and specialized weighted line. Casting a nearly weightless fly or 'lure' requires casting techniques significantly different from other forms of casting...
the trout
Trout
Trout is the name for a number of species of freshwater and saltwater fish belonging to the Salmoninae subfamily of the family Salmonidae. Salmon belong to the same family as trout. Most salmon species spend almost all their lives in salt water...
streams, hunting
Hunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
and hiking
Hiking
Hiking is an outdoor activity which consists of walking in natural environments, often in mountainous or other scenic terrain. People often hike on hiking trails. It is such a popular activity that there are numerous hiking organizations worldwide. The health benefits of different types of hiking...
the mountains.
In 1892, the state spent $250 to build a trail up Slide Mountain, which had only recently been proven by Arnold Henry Guyot
Arnold Henry Guyot
Arnold Henry Guyot was a Swiss-American geologist and geographer.-Biography:...
to be the range's highest peak and was thus attracting a great deal of tourist interest. It would be the first hiking trail
Trail
A trail is a path with a rough beaten or dirt/stone surface used for travel. Trails may be for use only by walkers and in some places are the main access route to remote settlements...
built at public expense in New York's Forest Preserve, and is still the most heavily used route up the mountain today.
That year had also seen the delineation of the Adirondack Park to the north, as the state sought to focus its land-acquisition efforts, by designating particular towns for inclusion, drawing a line in blue ink around them, a custom that continues on all official state maps today.
Twelve years later, in 1904, it was decided to do the same with the Catskills. But this Blue Line
Blue Line (New York State)
The Blue Line is the term used in New York state for the boundaries of the Adirondack and Catskill parks, within which can be found the state's Forest Preserve...
used not existing municipal boundaries but the old Hardenburgh Patent survey lots, watercourses and railroad rights-of-way
Right-of-way (railroad)
A right-of-way is a strip of land that is granted, through an easement or other mechanism, for transportation purposes, such as for a trail, driveway, rail line or highway. A right-of-way is reserved for the purposes of maintenance or expansion of existing services with the right-of-way...
, creating a finer, more focused park that gave some of the towns on its periphery areas where they could be assured land would not be subject to Article 14. A similar revision would follow suit in the Adirondacks, and future expansions of both parks would follow this model.
In 1912 the law was again amended to state that the Catskill Park consisted of all lands within the Blue Line, not just those owned by the state.
The reservoirs
Shortly afterwards, a new section was added to Article 14 to allow the construction of reservoirs on up to three percent of the total land in each park. Sargent’s dismissal of the hydrological resources of the Catskills would very quickly turn out to be misguided.New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, having merged in 1898 into its present form, began looking for new water resources the very next year, and its existing system of reservoirs in the city and Westchester County
Westchester County, New York
Westchester County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. Westchester covers an area of and has a population of 949,113 according to the 2010 Census, residing in 45 municipalities...
wouldn’t be able to keep up with demand for much longer. The city at first turned to land in Rockland County
Rockland County, New York
Rockland County is a suburban county 15 miles to the northwest of Manhattan and part of the New York City Metropolitan Area, in the U.S. state of New York. It is the southernmost county in New York west of the Hudson River, and the smallest county in New York outside of New York City. The...
now part of Harriman State Park, but found a group of speculators called the Ramapo Water Company had beaten them to the water rights. It was thus essential to go even further north, and only in the Catskill Park could it find the land to condemn around Esopus Creek
Esopus Creek
Esopus Creek is a tributary of the Hudson River that drains the east-central Catskill Mountains of the U.S. state of New York. From its source at Winnisook Lake on the slopes of Slide Mountain, the Catskills' highest peak, it flows across Ulster County to the Hudson at Saugerties. Many tributaries...
and create the Ashokan Reservoir
Ashokan Reservoir
The Ashokan Reservoir is a reservoir in Ulster County, New York, USA. The reservoir is in the eastern end of the Catskill Park, and is one of several reservoirs created to provide the City of New York with water. However, it is one of only two reservoirs in the Catskill Watershed. It is also New...
.
In 1905 the state approved the creation of water supply commissions at various local governmental levels
Administrative divisions of New York
The administrative divisions of New York are the various units of government that provide local government services in the state of New York. The state has four types of multi-purpose municipal corporation that provide most local government services, namely: counties, cities, towns, and villages...
, as well as one at the state level to resolve disputes, like the one rapidly brewing between the city and the Catskill communities over its plan to condemn land
Eminent domain
Eminent domain , compulsory purchase , resumption/compulsory acquisition , or expropriation is an action of the state to seize a citizen's private property, expropriate property, or seize a citizen's rights in property with due monetary compensation, but without the owner's consent...
for the construction of two reservoirs, Ashokan and what is now Schoharie Reservoir
Schoharie Reservoir
The Schoharie Reservoir is a small reservoir in the Catskill Mountains of New York State that was created to be one of 19 reservoirs that supplies New York City with water. It was created by impounding Schoharie Creek...
, plus the Shandaken Tunnel
Shandaken Tunnel
The Shandaken Tunnel is a tunnel in Eastern New York State, part of the New York City water supply system. It was constructed between 1916 and 1924. The aqueduct starts in Gilboa, New York at the Schoharie Reservoir, which is in the counties of Schoharie, Delaware, and Greene. The water flows south...
to connect the two.
The city prevailed, and construction of Ashokan began the very next year, requiring the removal of several small hamlets and many residents in the process (some, such as Shokan
Shokan, New York
Shokan is a hamlet located in the Town of Olive in Ulster County, within the Catskill Park. The population was 1,252 at the 2000 census.-History:...
, West Shokan and Olive Bridge, survive today on its banks). The Esopus was dam
Dam
A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...
med in 1913 and started sending water to the city two years later. Land claims would continue to be resolved in area courts until 1940.
It would be the first of several city reservoirs in and around the park that, while rarely appreciated by the residents, have completely changed how it is managed, used and seen, for better or for worse.
The mid-20th century
The model thus established would hold, more or less, for the next 50 years. Within the Blue Line, the state would acquire land (first through the State Parks Council and successor agencies, later through the Conservation Department) and, as time and money permitted, would develop trailTrail
A trail is a path with a rough beaten or dirt/stone surface used for travel. Trails may be for use only by walkers and in some places are the main access route to remote settlements...
s, lean-tos and towers on it, without reference to any greater plan and often with little coordination or knowledge of what other state agencies or officials were doing.
Important steps were nonetheless taken. Bond issues approved by voters in 1916 and 1924 for a total of $12.5 million led ultimately to the addition of 121,000 acres (490 km²) to the state’s holdings. The economic collapse
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
of the late 1920s and 30s made a lot of desirable land available at low prices, and with the notably aggressive Robert Moses
Robert Moses
Robert Moses was the "master builder" of mid-20th century New York City, Long Island, Rockland County, and Westchester County, New York. As the shaper of a modern city, he is sometimes compared to Baron Haussmann of Second Empire Paris, and is one of the most polarizing figures in the history of...
in charge of the state parks, valuable properties like the Devil's Path Range, the summit of Slide Mountain and Windham High Peak became part of the Forest Preserve.
Campsite
A campsite or camping pitch is a place used for overnight stay in the outdoors. In British English a campsite is an area, usually divided into a number of pitches, where people can camp overnight using tents or camper vans or caravans; this British English use of the word is synonymous with the...
within the Park.
New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
programs during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
such as the Civilian Conservation Corps
Civilian Conservation Corps
The Civilian Conservation Corps was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families, ages 18–25. A part of the New Deal of President Franklin D...
made labor available to build trails and replant forests. The state's Conservation Commission was able to compile the first of a series of "Catskill Trails" booklets.
However, the trails built by the state rapidly fell into disuse, Raymond H. Torrey
Raymond H. Torrey
Raymond Hezekiah Torrey was the author of weekly columns, Outings and The Long Brown Path in the New York Evening Post in the 1920s and 1930s. The column played a major role in the development of the Appalachian Trail, the Long Path and the popularity of hiking generally...
would note by the end of the decade as what hikers there were tended to bypass the Catskills, which they regarded as passé, in favor of the Adirondacks and higher peaks in northern New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
. Unlike those regions, no lasting organizations of hikers and other passive outdoor recreationists were ever formed around the Catskills (a brief attempt to create a Catskill Mountain Club in the late 1920s sputtered out after a few years), leaving the park more or less without a constituency.
The most important change during this time period was the amending of Article 14, in 1948 to allow for the construction of Belleayre Mountain Ski Center and thus encourage skiers to come to the Catskills, following the lead taken in the Adirondacks by the creation of Whiteface
Whiteface Mountain
Whiteface Mountain is the fifth-highest mountain in New York State, and one of the High Peaks of the Adirondack Mountains. Set apart from most of the other High Peaks, the summit offers a 360-degree view featuring the Adirondacks and perhaps on a clear day glimpses of Vermont and even Canada. The...
and Gore ski areas. It remains in operation today, and several other private ski areas such as Hunter Mountain
Hunter Mountain (ski area)
Hunter Mountain is a ski resort located about three hours up the New York State Thruway north-northwest of New York City. It features a vertical drop....
and Windham Mountain
Windham Mountain
Windham Mountain is a ski resort located in the town of Windham, New York, in the northern section of the Catskill Mountains. It has 46 trails and 9 lifts, including two high-speed detachable quads, one from the bottom to top of each peak. The highest peak is situated at with a vertical rise of ...
have followed its lead.
The construction of the Interstate 87
Interstate 87
Interstate 87 is a Interstate Highway located entirely within New York State in the United States of America. I-87 is the longest intrastate Interstate highway in the Interstate Highway System. Its southern end is at the Bronx approaches of the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge in New York City...
section of the New York State Thruway
New York State Thruway
The New York State Thruway is a system of limited-access highways located within the state of New York in the United States. The system, known officially as the Governor Thomas E. Dewey Thruway for former New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, is operated by the New York State Thruway Authority and...
up the Hudson Valley
Hudson Valley
The Hudson Valley comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in New York State, United States, from northern Westchester County northward to the cities of Albany and Troy.-History:...
and the upgrading of Route 17
New York State Route 17
New York State Route 17 is a state highway that extends for through the Southern Tier and Downstate regions of New York in the United States...
from a two-lane road into a freeway
Controlled-access highway
A controlled-access highway is a highway designed exclusively for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow and ingress/egress regulated...
along much of the park's southwestern border greatly increased access to the Park during the 1950s and '60s, although the latter encountered fierce opposition from trout fishermen over some of the original bridges along the Beaver Kill, which would have destroyed some favored holes.
New York City built three more reservoirs partially within the Park: Neversink
Neversink Reservoir
Neversink Reservoir is one of several in the Catskill Mountains that supply water to New York City and other communities along its water supply network. It is located in Sullivan County's Town of Neversink, 75 miles northwest of the city....
, Rondout
Rondout Reservoir
Rondout Reservoir is part of New York City's water supply network. It is located 75 miles northwest of the city in the Catskill Mountains, near the southern end of Catskill Park, split between the towns of Wawarsing in Ulster County and Neversink in Sullivan County...
and Pepacton
Pepacton Reservoir
The Pepacton Reservoir, also known as the Downsville Reservoir or the Downsville Dam, is a reservoir in Delaware County, New York that was formed by impounding over ¼ of the East Branch of the Delaware River...
.
In 1957, the Blue Line had expanded to its present configuration, taking in not only the lands almost to the Kingston
Kingston, New York
Kingston is a city in and the county seat of Ulster County, New York, USA. It is north of New York City and south of Albany. It became New York's first capital in 1777, and was burned by the British Oct. 16, 1777, after the Battles of Saratoga...
city limit and Thruway at the east, but more of Sullivan and Delaware counties in the west.
Trails and other recreational resources remained underused, however.
In 1966 the Catskill Mountain 3500 Club
Catskill Mountain 3500 Club
The Catskill Mountain 3500 Club, incorporated as the Catskill 3500 Club and often just referred to as the 3500 Club, is a peakbagging organization for hikers in the Catskill Mountains of New York...
, a peak bagging
Peak bagging
Peak bagging is an activity in which hillwalkers and mountaineers attempt to reach the summit of some collection of peaks, usually those above some height in a particular region, or having a particular feature.Peak bagging can be distinguished from highpointing...
organization, was formally incorporated
Incorporation (business)
Incorporation is the forming of a new corporation . The corporation may be a business, a non-profit organisation, sports club, or a government of a new city or town...
after having existed informally for several years — the first organization devoted to, among other things, speaking for the Catskill hiking community. For many years afterwards it would be the only such organization with "Catskill" in its name.
Three years later, in 1969 the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development was founded, an organization which has been at least partially doing for the Catskills what the venerable Adirondack Council and Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks had done for the northern park.
The Temporary Commission and the Master Plan
Things began to change again in the early 1970s.The Borscht Belt
Borscht Belt
Borscht Belt, or Jewish Alps, is a colloquial term for the mostly defunct summer resorts of the Catskill Mountains in parts of Sullivan, Orange and Ulster counties in upstate New York that were a popular vacation spot for New York City Jews from the 1920s through the 1960s.-Name:The name comes from...
era was ending, as the restrictions on Jewish guests at other hotels and resorts that had given rise to it fell victim to civil rights laws
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation...
, and younger generations of Jews in any event felt more assimilated than their parents and grandparents had.
In the wake of the Woodstock festival
Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Music & Art Fair was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969...
, many younger people followed the call to "get ourselves back to the garden" and the Catskills were among the many places whose campgrounds and trails began to swarm with backpacking
Backpacking (wilderness)
Backpacking combines the activities of hiking and camping for an overnight stay in backcountry wilderness...
enthusiasts of the counter-culture. Trails that a decade or so before had almost vanished began to finally see serious usage ... almost to the point of overuse.
On Earth Day
Earth Day
Earth Day is a day that is intended to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's natural environment. The name and concept of Earth Day was allegedly pioneered by John McConnell in 1969 at a UNESCO Conference in San Francisco. The first Proclamation of Earth Day was by San Francisco, the...
in 1970, Governor Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was the 41st Vice President of the United States , serving under President Gerald Ford, and the 49th Governor of New York , as well as serving the Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower administrations in a variety of positions...
signed legislation that recognized growing environmental concerns by combining the Conservation Department, which had been managing the Catskills and Adirondacks, with several other agencies to create the new Department of Environmental Conservation
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is responsible for the conservation, improvement, and protection of natural resources within the U.S. state of New York. It was founded in 1970, replacing the previous Conservation Department...
(DEC), which exists and manages the Forest Preserve to this day.
An idea that the Catskill Center had been pressing for bore fruit in 1973 when, again following in footsteps of what it had recently done in the Adirondacks, the state created a Temporary Commission to Study the Future of the Catskills. It took in as its area of study not just the Park but everywhere that could possibly be considered part of the Catskill region: all four counties of the Park, as well as Schoharie
Schoharie County, New York
As of the census of 2000, there were 31,582 people, 11,991 households and 8,177 families residing in the county. The population density was 51 people per square mile . There were 15,915 housing units at an average density of 26 per square mile...
, Otsego
Otsego County, New York
Otsego County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. The 2010 population was 62,259. The county seat is Cooperstown. The name Otsego is from a Mohawk word meaning "place of the rock."-History:...
and two towns in the southwestern corner of Albany County
Albany County, New York
Albany County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York, and is part of the Albany-Schenectady-Troy Metropolitan Statistical Area. The name is from the title of the Duke of York and Albany, who became James II of England . As of the 2010 census, the population was 304,204...
. It was the state's first-ever effort to look at what resources the Catskills had and what could be done with them.
There was some trepidation in the region, as the Adirondack commission's recommendation for the establishment of a park-wide land use
Land use
Land use is the human use of land. Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as fields, pastures, and settlements. It has also been defined as "the arrangements, activities and inputs people undertake in a certain land cover...
agency, the Adirondack Park Agency
Adirondack Park Agency
The Adirondack Park Agency was created in 1971 by New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller as a governmental agency that performs long-range planning for the future of the Adirondack Park. It oversees development plans of private land-owners as well as activities within the Adirondack Forest Preserve...
had been implemented in full, only to arouse great fury in that region as it issued zoning
Zoning
Zoning is a device of land use planning used by local governments in most developed countries. The word is derived from the practice of designating permitted uses of land based on mapped zones which separate one set of land uses from another...
regulations far stricter than some towns had already enacted and mounted battles against longtime local residents over relatively small infractions. Catskills residents, new and old, were worried that a similar solution awaited them.
While the commission considered the same recommendation for the Catskills, it ultimately decided against it in its final report in 1975 (it did try to promulgate a master land use plan, but that was rejected). What it did recommend was a master plan for the state land in the Forest Preserve, important since management was divided (and still is) between two different DEC regions, which had never been on the same page nor known what the other was doing.
It further recommended, following contemporary trends in public-land management (and a recommendation a special legislative committee had made back in 1960), that at least four of the growing tracts, or "management units" of Forest Preserve be formally designated as either wilderness areas or wild forests, again following a distinction drawn in the Adirondack Park. The former was similar in philosophy to those the federal government had already been designating in National park
National park
A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...
s and forests
United States National Forest
National Forest is a classification of federal lands in the United States.National Forests are largely forest and woodland areas owned by the federal government and managed by the United States Forest Service, part of the United States Department of Agriculture. Land management of these areas...
in the West, but slightly less restrictive; the latter is an even less restrictive category that exists only in New York's Forest Preserve and allows for greater human impact. The practical effects are discussed below under Management.
A Master Plan was developed and implemented in the early 1980s. DEC got busy finally clarifying what user groups (in addition to hikers, snowmobile
Snowmobile
A snowmobile, also known in some places as a snowmachine, or sled,is a land vehicle for winter travel on snow. Designed to be operated on snow and ice, they require no road or trail. Design variations enable some machines to operate in deep snow or forests; most are used on open terrain, including...
rs, horseback riders
Equestrianism
Equestrianism more often known as riding, horseback riding or horse riding refers to the skill of riding, driving, or vaulting with horses...
and cross-country skiers
Cross-country skiing
Cross-country skiing is a winter sport in which participants propel themselves across snow-covered terrain using skis and poles...
) were allowed on which trails, and marking them appropriately.
The 1990s
Mario Cuomo
Mario Matthew Cuomo served as the 52nd Governor of New York from 1983 to 1994, and is the father of Andrew Cuomo, the current governor of New York.-Early life:...
. A site was found on Route 28 near the hamlet of Mount Tremper. It was cleared and roads were built to facilitate the eventual building. The Palisades Interstate Park Commission
Palisades Interstate Park Commission
Palisades Interstate Park and its creator, the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, was formed in 1900 by governors Theodore Roosevelt of New York and Foster M. Voorhees of New Jersey in response to the destruction of the Palisades by quarry operators in the late 19th century...
was to operate it (to get around the restrictions of Article 14) and the New York - New Jersey Trail Conference
New York - New Jersey Trail Conference
The New York – New Jersey Trail Conference is a federation of approximately 10,000 individual members and about 100 member organizations...
made plans to route the Long Path
Long Path
The Long Path is a long-distance hiking trail beginning at the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, New Jersey and currently ending at Altamont, New York, in the Albany area...
past it.
However, in 1995 a new governor, George Pataki
George Pataki
George Elmer Pataki is an American politician who was the 53rd Governor of New York. A member of the Republican Party, Pataki served three consecutive four-year terms from January 1, 1995 until December 31, 2006.- Early life :...
took over, and after some consideration decided to put the project on hold, where it remains to this day, citing financial considerations. The site, locally referred to as the "road to nowhere," is still maintained, but there is little to do except stop and picnic
Picnic
In contemporary usage, a picnic can be defined simply as a pleasure excursion at which a meal is eaten outdoors , ideally taking place in a beautiful landscape such as a park, beside a lake or with an interesting view and possibly at a public event such as before an open air theatre performance,...
and follow the short nature trail that has been cut through the nearby woods.
Finishing the project was a cornerstone recommendation of DEC's 1999 Public Access Plan, which again followed an Adirondack lead and proposed ways to increase public knowledge and awareness of the Park's resources. Some were implemented (such as improving and extending the trail system, which occurred later that year when a trail across Mill Brook Ridge was completed as part of the Finger Lakes Trail
Finger Lakes Trail
The Finger Lakes Trail System consists of a network of trails in New York. The trail system is administered by the , a non-profit, volunteer organization....
, linking the trail network on the lesser peaks in the Delaware County section of the park with the long-established system in Ulster and Greene counties), some have not been.
Also in 1999, Governor Pataki designated most of the summits of the High Peaks
Catskill High Peaks
The Catskill High Peaks are all of the mountains in New York's Catskill Mountains above 3,500 ft in elevation whose summits are separated either by one-half mile or a vertical drop of at least 250 ft between it and the next nearest separate summit...
as Bird Conservation Areas, in recognition of the importance of their boreal forests as summer habitat for Bicknell's thrush
Bicknell's Thrush
The Bicknell's Thrush, Catharus bicknelli, is a medium-sized thrush, at 17.5 cm and 28 g . It was named after Eugene Bicknell, an American amateur ornithologist, who discovered the species on Slide Mountain in the Catskills in the late 19th century.Adults are olive-brown on the upperparts,...
, only recently declared to be a separate species. It was the first such designation within either Forest Preserve, and the Adirondacks would this time be the one to follow suit a few years later.
Today: The Master Plan update
In 2003, DEC released its long-awaited draft update to the Master Plan. It would designate more of the wild forest areas as wilderness and establish some more rules for the use of wilderness, such as limits on group size.The most controversial aspect, however, was its decision to limit mountain biking
Mountain biking
Mountain biking is a sport which consists of riding bicycles off-road, often over rough terrain, using specially adapted mountain bikes. Mountain bikes share similarities with other bikes, but incorporate features designed to enhance durability and performance in rough terrain.Mountain biking can...
to designated trails and ban them from wilderness areas. While this had been done everywhere else where wilderness protection existed, mountain bikers and their organizations have lobbied hard for an exception, arguing that bicycles are not machines and do not deserve to be banned from use of the wilderness.
This remains unresolved at the moment. DEC missed its target date of 2004, to coincide with the park's centennial celebrations, for the release of the final version. The revised master plan was adopted in August 2008.
Management
Under the Master Plan, all state land in the Catskills is organized into contiguous management units falling under one of four categories: Wilderness, Wild Forest, Intensive Use or Administrative.Wilderness
The pending Master Plan update would add much more land to this classification, the most restrictive, although slightly less so than those on federal lands.New York's wilderness areas must be composed of 10,000 acres (40 km²) of contiguous land, twice the federal standard. Land is to be left as "untrammeled by man" and as close to its natural state as possible, offering outstanding opportunities for solitude. No artificially-powered devices are permitted to be used in wilderness areas — chainsaw
Chainsaw
A chainsaw is a portable mechanical saw, powered by electricity, compressed air, hydraulic power, or most commonly a two-stroke engine...
s may only be used to clear trails with express written authorization from the DEC commissioner, and vehicle usage is forbidden in all save dire emergency circumstances. Most trails are single-track, avoiding old logging roads except at the lowest elevations. Designated campsites are kept to a minimum.
The goal of wilderness is to minimize human impact on the land as much as possible. Passive recreation such as hiking, hunting and birding is the main use of these lands.
Under the current Master Plan, many of the remaining tracts of first-growth forest
Forest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...
, and many of the higher summits, are within wilderness areas.
Currently there are four: the Slide Mountain
Slide Mountain Wilderness Area
The Slide Mountain Wilderness Area is, at 47,500 acres , the largest tract of state-owned Forest Preserve in New York's Catskill Park, and the largest area under any kind of wilderness area protection between the Adirondacks and the southern Appalachians...
and Big Indian-Beaverkill wildernesses in Ulster County, and the Indian Head and West Kill wildernesses in Greene County. The updated Master Plan would add more wilderness in Greene County, most notably the Blackhead Range and Escarpment.
It has also been informal DEC policy to treat all lands in its possession in the Catskill Park above 3,100 feet (944 m) in elevation as de facto wilderness. The proposed update would not only make that rule official, it would extend it as much as possible to all land 2,700 feet (823 m) and higher.
Wild Forest
While still covered by the strictures of Article 14, Wild Forest areas are often lower in elevation and contain forest that has been more recently and historically disturbed, sometimes having been logged just prior to state acquisition. It is thus not as easy to avoid evidence of human impact as it is in wilderness, and consequently a higher impact is tolerated.In Wild Forest areas, vehicles may be used as DEC designates. This has made them popular places for snowmobilers, cross-country skiers, and (in one area) mountain bikers. (all-terrain-vehicles
All-terrain vehicle
An all-terrain vehicle , also known as a quad, quad bike, three wheeler, or four wheeler, is defined by the American National Standards Institute as a vehicle that travels on low pressure tires, with a seat that is straddled by the operator, along with handlebars for steering control...
remain banned, however). Hunters also find them desirable as the second- and third-growth forests in the area are more likely to contain deer and the carcass of the taken animal can be driven out of the woods instead of being walked out.
Some Wild Forest units exist with rather forced boundaries to allow for a use otherwise incompatible with a surrounding wilderness, such as the Overlook Mountain Wild Forest a corridor through the Indian Head Wilderness Area which contains the popular and still driveable dirt road to the fire tower atop the summit near Woodstock. A similar solution has been proposed under the new Master Plan to continue to allow more active use of the Hunter Mountain fire tower and the road leading up to it.
The Halcott Mountain Wild Forest is so designated only because it lacks enough contiguous area to qualify as wilderness.
Current Wild Forest areas besides those mentioned above include the Long Pond-Willowemoc in Sullivan County; the Touch-Me-Not, Cherry Ridge-Campbell Mountain and Dry Brook Ridge in Delaware County; the Balsam Lake,Bluestone, Lundy, Peekamoose Valley and Phoenicia-Mt. Tremper, Shandaken and Sundown in Ulster and the Blackhead, Colgate Lake, Hunter Mountain, Kaaterskill, North Point and Windham High Peak Wild Forests.
In addition to redesignating a good portion of those areas as wilderness, the proposed update would consolidate some into larger units (all the Delaware County properties, for instance).
Intensive use
Most of these areas save one, Belleayre Mountain Ski Center, are state campgrounds, meant for heavier, higher-impact use.The campgrounds are generally far smaller units, with many sites and basic facilities available, sometimes abutting wilderness and wild forest areas, and paved roads offering easy vehicle access. North-South Lake
North-South Lake
North-South Lake is an 1,100-acre state campground in the Catskill Forest Preserve near Palenville, New York operated by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation near the site of the historic Catskill Mountain House overlooking the Hudson River...
, however, is a vast area (New York's largest public campground) including not only many sites but swimming areas at both lakes, the former Catskill Mountain House site at Pine Orchard and many of the historic trails around it.
Similarly, Belleayre's property extends well east of its ski trails and includes some of the hiking trails in the region as well.
Other campgrounds include Beaverkill, Devil's Tombstone, Kenneth L. Wilson, Mongaup Pond and Woodland Valley.
There are at least two Day Use Areas, within the park, one near Belleayre and the other at the Catskill Interpretive Center site. These are small tracts with picnic
Picnic
In contemporary usage, a picnic can be defined simply as a pleasure excursion at which a meal is eaten outdoors , ideally taking place in a beautiful landscape such as a park, beside a lake or with an interesting view and possibly at a public event such as before an open air theatre performance,...
tables and sites where camping is forbidden, much as one would find in a small local park.
Administrative use
These are even smaller, unnamed plots that DEC is permitted to use for non-Forest Preserve purposes. Three, the Vinegar Hill Wildlife Management AreaNew York State Wildlife Management Areas
New York State owns and maintains more than 85 Wildlife Management Areas , with a total area of more than .The Wildlife Management Areas Program is administered by the Division of Fish, Wildlife and Marine Resources of the Department of Environmental Conservation...
, the Simpson Ski Slope and the Catskill Mountain Fish Hatchery, which includes the DeBruce Environmental Education Camp, and the Esopus Creek Fish and Wildlife Management Parcel.
External links
- http://www.waterdiscoverycenter.org/04tour1.html Catskill Water Discovery Center
- Hiking Guide to the Catskill High Peaks Catskill 3500 Club
- The Catskill Center for Conservation and Development
- Catskill Forest Preserve
- Online Guide to the Catskill Mountains
- The Catskill Archive - history of the Catskill Mtns.
- New York Department of Environmental Conservation.
- Catskill Information
- Catskill Park Photo Gallery
- Slide Mountain Wilderness
- Catskill Mountainkeeper Protecting the Six Counties of the Catskills
- NY-NJTC: Catskill Park Trail Details and Info