New York State Banner
D E C banner
D E C banner

Split Rock Wild Forest

The 3,700 acre Split Rock Wild Forest (SRWF) is located in the eastern Adirondacks, near Lake Champlain in the towns of Essex and Westport, Essex County. The Split Rock Wild Forest consists of several geographical-linked units within a ten mile radius of each other; Split Rock Mountain - including the Lake Champlain Palisades, Webb Royce Swamp, the Westport Boat Launch Site, and the Whallonsburg Fishing Access Site. The area offers numerous recreational opportunities, including hiking, camping, mountain biking, rock climbing, fishing and hunting in the warmer months, and cross country skiing, ice climbing, trapping and snowmobiling in the winter months.

The Department of Environmental Conservation has developed a Unit Management Plan for the Split Rock Wild Forest (SRWF). The UMP includes the following sections:

  • a description of the unit and overview of the its history;
  • an inventory of the unit's natural and cultural resources, man-made facilities, the public use of the unit and its capacity to withstand public use;
  • an overview of the unit's past management, as well as the principles, goals, objectives, policies, Constitutional provisions and other legal guidance that influence the management of the unit;
  • management alternatives and the Department's preferred alternative for each management issue;
  • a schedule and estimated budget for implementation of the preferred management alternatives.

Proposals within the Unit Management Plan include those related to:

  • Trail System - The plan proposes to designate and mark approximately 9.0 miles of an existing trail system of former logging roads and trails for hiking. This is in addition to the 1.7 miles of presently designated snowmobile trail. Trail registers will be installed and maintained on all designated trails.
  • Mountain Biking - Approximately 5.0 miles of the trail system are proposed for use by mountain bikes.
  • Snowmobiling - The plan proposes continuing to allow snowmobile use on the 1.7 mile snowmobile trail from Lake Shore Road to Lewis Clearing Bay consistent with the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan requirements.
  • Parking - Three new accessible parking lots: two on the Lake Shore Road and one on the Clark Road are proposed.
  • Fishing - The plan proposes developing an accessible parking lot at the Whallonsburg Fishing Access Site.
  • Camping - the plan proposes to close the northernmost campsite on the shore of Lake Champlain, (due to lack of a suitable location for a box privy); while continuing the use of the four primitive campsites along the shore of Lake Champlain as part of the Lake Champlain Paddlers Trail System.

Split Rock Wild Forest Unit Management Plan, approved in May 2005:

  1. Entire Plan ( 2.11 Mb pdf - This file is very large and may take a long time to download or even cause some computers to crash)
  2. Sections I - XI and Appendices 1 - 13 (806 kb pdf)
  3. Appendices 14 - 16 (1.21 Mb pfd)

To request a copy of the UMP, please contact us at:

NYSDEC
PO Box 220
Warrensburg, NY 12885

Phone: (518) 623-1265
Fax: (518) 623-3603
e-mail: r5ump@gw.dec.state.ny.us

Please specify whether you would like an electronic copy on CD in PDF format or a printed copy on paper.