History
of .The Catskill
Interpretive Center
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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, 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 most successful compact is now in place, and is viewed
as a national model for watershed protection agreements.
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 Watershed Museum, 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; and 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
Watershed Museum 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. The proposed development
of these two facilities, the passage of time, and the availability
of novel information technology do imply some revision to
the decade old original plans for a “Catskill Interpretive
Center” before these are implemented.
The Friends of The Catskill Interpretive Center is supported
by private donations including a generous grant from The Wallace
Genetic Foundation through The Catskill Center for Conservation
and Development.
