Goals of .The Catskill Interpretive Center

Our Mission:

The mission of the Friends of the Catskill Interpretive Centeris to encourage the State of New York, in conjunctioin with local governments and the private sector, to build the Catskill Interpretive Center. Once the Center is operational, the Friends will complement the activities of the State of New York and its Department of Environmental Conservation in making the Catskill Interpretive Center an important focus point of environmental, cultural, educational, and economic activities in the Catskills.

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Our Vision:

The vision Statement of The Friends of the Catskill Interpretive Center

The Catskill Interpretive Center,
A Catskill Gateway and Meeting Place

We seek continuing contact, advice, interest and support of Catskill constituencies for the creation of a regional entity, The Catskill Interpretive Center, whose purpose is to celebrate the natural and cultural assets of the Catskills and to interpret these for residents and visitors. This center is to be an appropriate public entry point for those who seek information about The Catskill Park and Forest Preserve to better understand the unique environment and natural history of the Catskills as well as its cultural and artistic assets. It is envisioned as a learning center for the region, and as a referral point for its regional museums, amenities, recreational opportunities, businesses and facilities. Such centers already exist in the Adirondacks, and are regarded as effective in providing education and interpretation about that region. The Catskill Park and Forest Preserve, New York’s second largest park, unlike similar national and state parks do not have a visitor or interpretive center; there are many very good local museums in the region, but they are specialized and devoted to particular aspects of the culture or history of the Catskills. There does not exist a facility that is a public gateway to the Park and to the region.

In seeking support for the creation of this center, we are attempting to revitalize a project of a decade ago. In the middle 1980s a grassroots effort including numerous community members, local business leaders, political representatives, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), and The Catskill Center for Conservation and Development (CCCD) led to the development of the idea and concepts for a “Catskill Interpretive Center.” Plans for such a Center were advanced in the 1990s by the NYSDEC, with extensive consultation by advisory boards drawn from the Catskill community. A 62-acre parcel of land on Route 28 in Mount Tremper, within the town of Shandaken in Ulster County (and close to the borders of the towns of Olive and Woodstock), was chosen as the site of this center. This parcel was acquired by the CCCD and the Trust for Public Land, and leased to the NYSDEC who at present continues to manage the property; the State spent over $1 million on road, bridge, site grading, and other improvements to the property. Architectural blueprints were drawn up for a 18,600 square foot building and for surrounding grounds, and plans were created for interpretive exhibits, interpretive and educational programs, travel information resources, a reference library, auditorium, gift shop, and hiking trails and connections to nearby State land. In 1995, the projected cost of the building (not including the cost of exhibits, furniture, equipment and supplies) was $ 3.68 million. The NYSDEC had also completed an Environmental Impact Statement and a Comprehensive Educational Use Plan for the “Catskill Interpretive Center.” The impetus for the creation of the Center came to a halt in the middle 1990s with a change in State of New York priorities for the Catskills. Center stage and urgency were given to the extended negotiations that led to the New York City Watershed Memorandum of Agreement, a compact among the City, the State, and the communities of the Catskills that provide water to the City. This successful compact is now in place.

The need for an interpretive center for the Catskills remains. We believe that The Catskill Park and Forest Preserve represent significant and unique public assets badly in need of an interpretive center to give them the focus and accessibility required for their full public value to be realized. The Catskills, and their visitors and residents, suffer from this unsatisfied need. We have met with the Board of the CCCD, with proponents of the proposed Catskill Water Discovery Center, and had contacts with officials of Ulster County regarding plans for a Tourism Information Center in Kingston. After numerous meetings and discussions, we concluded that NYSDEC’s original goals for a “Catskill Interpretive Center” are, today, as they were at the time of their formulation, responsive to strongly felt needs and that the already existing plans to achieve those goals retain validity. Further, these plans, both as to programs and as to the facility that would house them, are highly developed and represent an investment that should not be unnecessarily duplicated. We also note that the August, 1999 NYSDEC’s Catskill Forest Preserve Public Access Plan lists the “Catskill Interpretive Center” as an action item to be actively pursued in partnership with other government agencies, local governments and the private sector. Our meetings with senior NYSDEC officials lead us to believe that the Agency will respond to an appropriate initiative by the public. We believe that the proposed Catskill Water Discovery Center and Ulster County’s Tourism Information Center represent very valuable additions to the region, highly complementary and with only minor overlaps to an interpretive center for The Catskill Park and Forest Preserve. Close contacts between the principals associated with these three projects have resulted in statements of mutual support, and of assurances that there is no significant overlap of mission or of facilities.

Our goal is to organize a process that would encourage the State of New York to build The Catskill Interpretive Center based on an update of the plans originally formulated a decade ago by NYSDEC with the advice of community members, and at the originally planned site. As part of this process, the group decided to establish a community organization, The Friends of The Catskill Interpretive Center, whose initial purpose is to advocate the building of this center. Once the Center is operational, under the management of NYSDEC, this organization aims to energetically complement, as a non-profit private entity, the activities of the State of New York in making the Center an important focus point of environmental, cultural, and educational activities about the Catskills through appropriate programs, close continuing contact with regional museums and historical societies, and the fund-raising required for the sustenance of the Center’s programs. To accomplish this goal it is essential to develop and demonstrate a strong commitment from the Catskill community to this project, to provide evidence of financial support for the capital project from non-state sources, and to the development of a framework that will provide continuing community support and commitment once the Center is a reality. The Friends of The Catskill Interpretive Center look forward with enthusiasm and commitment to the accomplishment of this task.

Contacts
Individuals and organizations interested in The Friends of The Catskill Interpretive Center and in its goals should contact:

Sherret S. Chase, Chair PO Box 193 ...... Shokan, NY 12481 (845) 657-2392 sschase@aol.com

E. F. (Jim) Infante, Secretary ...... PO Box 216
Phoenicia, NY 12464
(845) 688-5205 EttoreInfante@aol.com

The Friends of The Catskill Interpretive Center is supported by private donations including a generous grant from The Wallace Genetic Foundation for which The Catskill Center for Conservation and Development is the fiscal agent.

 

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