A recent surge of funding – approximately $100 million – from the New York State budget will be funneled into 26 state parks with Minnewaska slated as one of the recipients.
Minnewaska State Park encompasses more than 20,000 acres of woodlands, meadows, cliffs that are accessed by 30 miles of 19th- and 20th-century carriage roads and trails. Not only does it contain sky lakes, waterfalls, streams, ice caves, wetlands, dwarf pine forests, soaring ledges, talus slopes and spectacular rock formations, but it also was the site of an intense battle more than a decade ago, with a public outcry for the state to purchase it before the former owners sold it to Marriott for a resort hotel.
It was not a surprise that area residents and park lovers came out by the dozens this past Monday night for the public information session on the draft master plan for Minnewaska Park at SUNY-New Paltz.
The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) has identified various priorities for this master plan that include revitalization of the park and historic sites, natural resource stewardship, connectivity and sustainability. Representatives of OPRHP, Minnewaska Park and the Palisades Interstate Park Commission (PIPC) encouraged the public to help them to “identify issues, concerns and alternatives, as well as determining the depth to which each of the topics is explored within the draft master plan/Draft Environmental Impact Statement.”
“We have a one-year directive to complete this master plan and then begin implementing it,” said Mark Hohengasser of the Albany Planning Bureau. “We want a plan that the entire community can embrace, which is why we need your input in this process.”
And input they received, and lots of it. There were major representatives from every imaginable passive or active recreation group – almost all of whom lobbied for greater access to their desired activity.
One of the most vocal groups were the climbers, who repeatedly lobbied the state reps to increase the amount of climbing they could do, which right now is limited to the Peterskill climbing area.
“The closures of climbing at the Minnewaska State Park was one of the largest climbing closures ever in this country,” said a member of the Gunks Climbing Association. He and many others asked to be part of the planning process and to create a “climbing-management plan” that would be central, in their belief, to any park-wide master plan.
Swimmers were also out in force, asking that they have more hours to swim, a greater swimming season and increased access to Minnewaska and Awosting lakes.
Judy Mage – a New Paltzian who first fought for the state to intervene and purchase the Lake Minnewaska property rather than see it fall into the private hands of Marriott – had to then level a second battle to get the state to allow people to swim some distance across the lake if they were tested and insured. Previously, swimming was only allowed in a small, shaded, buggy area of the lake that was roped in. This is still the only public access allowed to the lake, save for the Minnewaska Distance Swimmer’s Club Association.
“I’m very happy that after a long struggle that we are now able to swim some distance in the lake,” Mage said. “But the season is awfully short, particularly with global warming. There have been many 90-degree Labor Day’s when swimmers were crushed that the lake was already closed.”
David Barra, chairman of the Adirondack Masters Swim Association (ADSMA), concurred with Mage and argued that for many open-water swims, temperatures are very low and for those that find colder temperatures acceptable to swim in, “should be allowed to swim throughout September and even into October.” He noted that the ADSMA is insured and always has safety requirements that must be met and has a qualified membership.
A letter was presented to the New York State Parks Commissioner Carol Ash from USA Swimming encouraging them to allow for all USA Club members (children through adults) to utilize the open-water resources they have to host open-water events, particularly as there are so few venues available and open-water swimming is now an Olympic event.
“We are roped into one-10th of one percent of the entire lake to swim in,” said one resident. “It is my dream to return to the days when we could swim in all of the streams, waterfalls and lakes like I did as a kid growing up here.”
An employee of the park suggested that they hire more trail maintenance crews and rangers to help monitor the park and work on the 35-odd miles of trails “where sections can get washed away after a heavy rain and we have only four people, at most, to take care of them.”
Equestrians asked that more carriage roads be available to them in the newly acquired, 8,000-acre Awosting Reserve. One woman lobbied for snowmobile use in the Awosting Reserve.
Members of the volunteer bike patrol explained that it would be helpful to have a universal signage and more signs that could allow for the public to move seamlessly between the Mohonk Preserve and Minnewaska. Signs would also help people to better identify which trails are multi-use trails and which uses are prohibited, they said.
Several people cautioned against too much access, claiming it could have a detrimental impact on the sensitive eco-system of the park lands.
“Part of the magic of Minnewaska is in its haphazard layout of the parking,” said one park user. “There are large parking areas directly off of Route 44/55 that focuses the majority of visitors in an area where there is appropriate infrastructure and staff. But then there is very little access to other areas of the park via parking and roadway entrances to vast areas of the park. This helps to preserve its integrity, and I believe there is a tremendous danger that this wonderful resource would be destroyed if we increased access via roadways and parking lots.”
Cara Lee of the Nature Conservancy commended the state parks representatives for their efforts and for hosting the public information session. Lee went on to say that she hoped part of their master plan would consider a fire-management plan that included controlled burns – something the Mohonk Preserve already does – which she and many other leaders in the conservation movement believe is critical to ecological management, as well as the prevention of wildfires, which Minnewaska Park just suffered from two months ago, resulting in several-hundred acres of forest being decimated.
A public hearing is slated for the master plan’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement and draft plan in January 2009, a Final Environmental Impact Statement by June 2009 and an adoption of a final plan in late June 2009.
The public is encouraged to write their concerns, comments and suggestions to be considered in the drafting of the plan. This can by done by sending a letter via e-mail to Mark Hohengasser at mark.hohengasser@oprhp.state.ny.us.
Additional information can be obtained from OHRHP by calling Eric Humphrey, director of Minnewaska State Park, at 255-0752 or Hohengasser at (518) 486-2909.