Crowds focus of Catskill report
Group says more intensive park oversight is needed
HUNTER — A report released by a governmental advisory group suggests the 700,000-acre Catskill Park must be managed more intensively to deal with the deluge of new visitors since the beginning of the pandemic.
Visitation to the park doubled between 2018 and 2021, according to the report, and the increase has been easy to observe along Route 23A leading to Kaaterskill Falls in the town of Hunter, where hundreds of cars illegally park along both sides of the narrow mountain road on most weekends.
The report lays out the impacts of increased visitation, saying it “has resulted in the degradation of certain natural resources, public safety hazards on mountainside roads, overcrowding at trailheads, litter, illegal camping and more,” and has “stretched thin local services such as fire, ambulance, police, and mountain rescue teams.”
The report also points out the positives of more visitors, saying it “presents new opportunities for towns and businesses that depend on tourism for a significant portion of their economy” and “also provides an opportunity to educate a new generation of visitors about the natural world around them, how it is changing, and how they can help protect it.”
The report is the product of the Catskill Advisory Group, which was formed in October 2020 to study and make recommendations about how to handle the increase in visitors. The group includes town leaders, local businesspeople and members of conservation groups.
The group concluded that “successful parks respond to intensive use with intensive management,” and suggests a “whole-park approach.” The park’s ownership is split between the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection and local towns, with 50 percent of the park being privately owned, which the report says disallows proper coordination and has left the park underfunded.
Catskill Advisory Group member Katherine Nadeau, the deputy director of Catskill Mountainkeeper, said the increased visitation has led to negative impacts on
the environment, with trailless peaks now carrying thousands of hikers a year.
“If we continue to allow the park to be managed piecemeal without vision ... we’re only going to put our water, our land and the wildlife that live there at risk,” she said.
DEC, which has staffing levels similar to the 1980s, must be better funded to manage the park, according to the report, which also suggests ramping up stewardship programs, where knowledgeable locals patrol the trails, offering guidance and directions to visitors.
The report notes a lack of information about the nature of visitors, including where they come from and what they desire to do in the park, and suggests adopting the Visitor Use Management Framework. The tool is used to collect data about a park’s infrastructure and natural resources and employs visitor-use surveys to find a balance between what constitutes
an enjoyable outdoors experience and an overcrowded one.
The report suggests continuing to use permit systems in the most
crowded areas of the park, and recommends several systems to inform
potential visitors if a parking area has reached capacity, including message boards along the New York Thruway, an AM radio frequency and increased use of social media. It also suggests partnering with hiking apps such as AllTrails to include “Leave No Trace” principles in maps of the park. The report also recommends all communications about the park be in at least English and Spanish.
Though the park should strive to be completely accessible, the report concludes that some natural areas that have been significantly damaged by visitors might need to be temporarily closed so the biota can recover.
Nadeau said the group comprised stakeholders with vastly different interests who managed to come together to propose a new vision for the park. However, it has yet to be determined if the recommendations will come to life: They are dependent on increased funding, which will not be determined until the final state budget is decided upon at the end of March.