News: Catskill Park Awareness Day Highlights Park Issues In Albany

On February 5, 2013, representatives from the Trail Conference, the Catskill Center, the Catskill Mountain Club and Morgan Outdoors visited legislators representing the Catskill Mountain region in Albany.  The goal of this first annual Catskill Park Awareness Day was to educate legislators on the importance of the Park for recreation and for local economies and how the two can work hand in hand to support the region.

One item stressed was the value of public lands, recently described by a new economic study, which stated that public lands in the park bring in over $46 million dollars, 1.7 million visitors and support nearly 1,000 jobs in the Catskill Park.

In addition to general information about the park and the economic value of the region, representatives urged legislators to support six key issues that would help the park:

• Creating a new recreational plan for the park;
• Constructing the long-promised Catskill Interpretive Center;
• Encouraging NYS Dept. of Transportation to continue its signage program in the park;
• Promoting transfer of some New York City lands to the Forest Preserve;
• Pressing DEC to release a long-planned contract to increase volunteer efforts in the park; and
• Requiring individual permit review should hydrofracking be allowed within the park.

The Trail Conference has more details on the day on their blog.

For More Information on Catskills Hiking and Outdoors

Check out our Catskill Mountain Information Page for hikes, advice and planning information. 

Need a hiking map for the Catskills?  The Trail Conference publishes the Catskills Trails Map Set, which is the best set of maps available for hiking in the Catskills.  How about a guidebook?  Both AMC and ADK publish Trail Guides to the Catskill Region and the Adventures in the Outdoors Bookstore carries many more books and maps for hiking and exploring the Catskill Mountain region.