Community Notebook > Opinion

Catskill Renovations
BY Tree McElhinney . Photos by Dion Ogust

Greene County rresident Bruce LaPierre has been hiking and biking the Blackhead Range in Windham for years. When not on foot, he pedals his mountain bike through his neighbor’s backyard, entering the forest preserve by way of a trailhead located less than 500 feet from his home. Several times a week during the summer, he can be found on the trails covering anywhere from 10 to 20 miles at a time.

Ulster County biking enthusiast Ray Grehl, who grew up in the Catskills, follows a similar routine. “I meet a couple of guys after work and we’ll ride 12 to 15 miles on various trails. A good Sunday ride, though, will take me over 20,” says Grehl, who is the president of Fats in the Cats, a Kingston-based mountain biking club that was established in the early ‘90s when off-road biking first began to take shape as a popular outdoor activity on the East Coast.

As part of the mountain biking community, the two men represent a growing recreational constituency in the Catskills that, along with several local and state lawmakers, small business owners, and other outdoor groups, is opposing the draft revision of the Catskill Park State Land Master Plan released by the state Department of Environmental Conservation in August.

“While the DEC generally does an excellent job managing the forest preserve, some of the changes proposed by this plan are not in the best interests of the people of this region,” said state Senators John J. Bonacic and James L. Seward in a joint statement in November.

Specifically, the Senators expressed opposition to proposed limits on mountain biking and the number of people camping in wilderness areas, while calling on the DEC to recognize that “while the Catskill Park is inherently about preservation,” impeding tourism, “whether it be mountain biking or camping,” would “not be good for the economy of this region.”

“I’ve been up here in Greene County 11 years trying to promote this region as a mountain biking destination,” says Nick Bove, owner of Windham Mountain Oufitter and three other bike stores. “This would be a tremendous step backwards for tourism, and it’s not just about bicycle shops. The people renting the bikes are the people that are staying at the inns and eating at the local restaurants. If we don’t give them a good reason to vacation in the Catskills, we are going to lose them. It’s that simple.”

To date, the Coalition of Watershed Towns, the Greene, Orange, and Ulster County legislatures, and the towns of Hunter, Hurley, Warwarsing, Ashland, Saugerties, Windham, and Tannersville have passed resolutions advocating similar stands, in some cases singling out scout troops and other youth organizations as those who would fare worst under the plan.

According to the draft proposal, the amount of land designated as wilderness—the most restrictive of the DEC’s land classifications—would increase by 54 percent within the 292,000-acre Catskill Forest Preserve. To accomplish this, nearly 50,000 acres currently designated as wild forest would be reclassified as wilderness, resulting in the creation of the Windham Blackhead Range Wilderness area and the expansion of the existing West Kill Wilderness area to include most of Hunter Mountain Wild Forest.

While the current plan has no restrictions on bicycles, the new Master Plan would prohibit their use in wilderness areas that would now comprise 92,300 acres, or approximately 35 percent of the preserve. In addition, bicycle use would be limited to designated trails in wild forest areas. Other restrictions include prohibiting the creation of new snowmobile trails over 3,100 feet and limiting camping groups in wilderness areas to 12 people and in wild forest to 20.

“We are not a bunch of people who want to see the Catskill Park trashed,” said LaPierre who is a member of the Catskill Park Trail Coalition, a group of outdoor enthusiasts, business owners, and concerned citizens who recently organized in opposition to the draft plan. “But for the DEC to come and place restrictions with no real scientific evidence of environmental damage or reported incidents of user conflicts is troubling.”

State Assemblyman Daniel L. Hooker, who organized a meeting last month between Trail Coalition leaders and DEC Commissioner Erin Crotty agrees: “In everything I have seen and read and been presented with, I have yet to see any empirical evidence of either substantial erosion or any erosion for that matter, and I have not seen any empirical data to suggest that there are safety hazards when you commingle mountain bikes and hikers.” Although Crotty did not “on the spot promise that [the DEC] would not proceed with the draft plan,” Hooker said, “she did say that we raised very good points and that it was necessary to gather more input.”

According to DEC spokesperson Maureen Wren, the proposed revisions address the “increased diversity in recreational land use” since the plan was originally drafted in 1985. And although the DEC did not conduct a formal study of its impact, she said, “the prohibition of mountain bikes in the wilderness areas of the Catskill Mountain preserve is consistent with what the DEC already has in place in the Adirondacks and with federal wilderness guidelines.”

Wilderness lands, Wren said, “are managed to provide a unique kind of experience for the visitor, where one experiences the natural environment without mechanical devices and their impacts changing that experience.”

Hiking groups such as the Adirondack Mountain Club[ADK] and the NY-NJ Trail Conference, which maintains a good portion of the trails in the Catskills, support the DEC’s efforts wholeheartedly, as demonstrated by testimony posted on the Trail Conference’s Web site. “Over the last few years, ADK and the Trail Conference have communicated to the [DEC] our hopes and recommendations for a revised Master Plan that addresses the future uses and protection needs of the Catskill Forest Preserve,” writes Neil F. Woodworth, counsel for both organizations. “Overall, [we] are very pleased with the draft revisions of the Master Plan.”

The Catskill 3500 Club, which requires its members to climb all 35 peaks in the Catskills over 3,500 feet, favors the DEC’s proposed to eliminate biking in lands designated as wilderness. “We support the revisions because right now the Catskill wilderness is the only wilderness area in the United States that does not prohibit mountain bikes,” said Howard Dash, the club’s conservation chairperson. “Recreational opportunities have to be in the framework of what the wilderness will support. The wilderness does not support mechanized vehicles.”

Dash said the club is not opposed to mountain biking in the forest preserve, but believes that it is better for all parties concerned to designate specific trails for specific uses. Although Dash concedes he has personally “not seen very much bike use in the Catskills,” he maintains that it is dangerous for bikers to share trails with hikers. “The trails are constructed for foot traffic. Bikers should be given the opportunity to use other trails that are created specifically for that purpose,” he said.

But on the restrictions placed on camping groups in the wilderness, Dash sides with Boy Scout troop leaders like Tom Lindveit of Troop 66 in West Hurley who has said that limiting an overnight outing to 12 people complicates the issue of adult supervision for a scout troop of 12 boys. “There should be a special dispensation for groups like the Boy Scouts,” said Dash, “because it is educational.”

Having closed the period for written comments in November, the DEC is currently in the process of reviewing responses in conjunction with the feedback obtained from four public hearings in September and various meetings with local interest groups since then. Although Wren says the DEC will “likely consider, or incorporate or evaluate comments when finalizing the Master Plan for release some time next year,” those responsible for its production must face the vexing issue of how to accommodate tourism and the diversity of public land use without compromising the wild places we love.