Catskill Forest Preserve

The Catskill Park is a mountainous region of public and private lands in Southeastern New York's Ulster, Greene, Delaware and Sullivan Counties - the "forest preserve" counties. Ninety-eight peaks over 3,000 feet high form an impressive skyline. Its blend of public and private lands is typical of large parks in Europe, where people and unique lands have coexisted for centuries.

The Catskill Forest Preserve is the state land within the Catskill Park. Since its creation in 1885, it has grown from 34,000 to almost 300,000 acres.

Please read further to find out more about the Catskills. Additional information is available by writing to us at: lfcat@gw.dec.state.ny.us

An 1894 amendment to the New York State Constitution (now Article 14) directs:

"the lands of the State now owned or hereafter acquired, constituting the forest preserve as now fixed by law, shall be forever kept as wild forest lands. They shall not be leased, sold or exchanged, or be taken by any corporation, public or private, nor shall the timber thereon be sold, removed or destroyed."

The forest preserve has thousands of acres of forests with meadows, remnants of old farmsteads, lakes, rivers, springs, waterfalls, cliffs, fire towers, bears, rattlesnakes and other wildlife, rare plants and animals. Also, there are hundreds of miles of abandoned woods roads and trails to enjoy. Today, it serves as watershed, recreation area and ecological and scenic reserve.

Catskill Park State Land Master Plan

The Department of Environmental Conservation is has released a revised draft of the Catskill Park State Land Master Plan and encourages the public to provide input. The Plan will guide the future management of the State's 292,000-acre holdings within the Catskill State Park. To read the revised draft and find out how to submit your comments, please click the following link:

2008 Draft Catskill Park State Land Master Plan

Special Areas

Special areas, including spruce-fir forests on boreal mountaintops, wetlands, trout streams, rattlesnake dens, and old-growth forests are found throughout the forest preserve.

Coyotes, bears, bobcats, minks and fishers are some of the more secretive residents of the Catskills, but coyotes are often heard and some of the 400 bears that live in the region are spotted, even though they generally avoid people. Red squirrels and porcupines are more common at higher elevations where they live among the balsam fir, red spruce trees and flowers of the boreal forest.

Old growth hemlock and northern hardwood forests on steep mountainsides and remote valleys were so inaccessible, they survived the logging, tanbarking and charcoal industries of the past 300 years. Elsewhere, repeated fires have burned deeply into the shallow mountain soils, forming mountaintop blueberry meadows.

Geology

The gray sandstones of the area formed some 360-400 million years ago when the Catskill region was a shallow sea filling up with clay and silt washing off the high mountains to the east. The sandstones have now been uplifted high above sea level, but the layers formed in a shallow sea are still visible.

Streams have eroded deep valleys into this high plateau, forming the Catskill Mountains. Continental and valley glaciers have also left their mark, repeatedly covering the Catskills from 10,000 to two million years ago.

Directions

Most people drive through the park on Routes 28, 23 and 23A from Kingston and the New York State Thruway on the east, or Oneonta on the west. State Route 17 provides access from the south. Venture beyond these roads or enter on one of the hundreds of smaller roads to discover the villages, remote mountains, beautiful views and steep river valleys that have made the Catskills a favorite tourist destination for over 100 years.

Camping

Public campgrounds are Mongaup Pond, the Beaverkill, Kenneth Wilson, Woodland Valley, Little Pond, Bear Spring Mountain, Devil's Tombstone and North/South Lake. For information call (518) 457-2500, for reservations 1-(800) 456-CAMP. More about DEC campgrounds is available on this site.

Many fine private campgrounds, bed-and-breakfasts and hotels are available. Information is available at kiosks, local visitors centers or in travel guides available at county tourism offices.

Backcountry camping is possible on all forest preserve lands. Permits are required for groups of 10 or more and if you plan to stay at one site more than three nights. Please get permission from landowners before entering private land.

Hiking

Visit the Region 3 State Lands page for a sampling of places to hike in the Catskill. Or, you may contact the DEC office in New Paltz or Stamford for information about hiking opportunities. Three hundred miles of trails make much of the forest preserve accessible to hikers. The trails vary in length from a half mile to a 94-mile section of the Long Path connecting New York City's George Washington Bridge with East Windham (Greene County) in the northern Catskills.

You can also find horseback riding, cross-country skiing, snowmobiling and mountain biking on some of these trails. Trail brochures are available from DEC. The Catskill Center for Conservation and Development sells a map of the region (845-586-2611).

Detailed hiking maps are sold by the NY/NJ Trail Conference (212-685-9699), Adirondack Mountain Club (1-800-395-8080) or Walking News (Box 352, NYC, 10013). A number of fire towers have been reopened. The state has a licensed guide program.

Fishing and Hunting

The Catskills offer some of the finest trout fishing in the east. The Beaverkill-Willowemoc area is the birthplace of fly fishing in America. For more information, ask for a booklet entitled: "I Love New York Catskill Fishing" from DEC or local tourism offices.

Hunting is permitted on forest preserve lands. Hunting, fishing and trapping licenses are required. For details on seasons and how to obtain licenses, visit the Division of Fish, Wildlife and Marine Resources page on this site. Licenses and regulation booklets also are available at DEC's License Sales Office in Albany, many sporting goods stores, and Town Clerks.

History Shapes the Catskills

This special and often remote mountain landscape was only occasionally used by Native Americans. Later it was settled and heavily exploited by the Dutch, English, Irish and Germans. Its rich history includes logging, bluestone quarrying, leather tanning, wintergreen and blueberry harvesting, trapping, fishing, mountain house tourism, railroads, and even World War II pilot training.

Today, over 60 percent of the lands in the Catskills is privately owned, with about 50,000 people living there year-round; the rest is publicly owned "forest preserve."

Bluestone quarrying was a dusty dangerous job. The stone was hauled by horse-drawn wagon and later railroad, to Kingston and other Hudson River ports. From there it was shipped to cities throughout the eastern United States, Cuba, and Europe. Great sidewalk material, it can still be seen beneath your feet in many towns.

Near North-South Lake was one of many large hotels scattered throughout the area. Travel by steamboat up the Hudson River and later by train made the Catskill "wilderness" accessible to the rich escaping the unhealthy and crowded conditions of northeast cities. Later inexpensive boarding houses provided the opportunity for a mountain vacation to most people.

Catskill tanneries supplied most of the saddles used in the Civil War. Hides were shipped from South America for processing into leather. High in tannins, bark was stripped from hemlock trees and used to "tan" hides. The furniture making industry followed, using the trees left behind. Cleared land was often sold for 50 cents an acre to mountain farmers. Today, the cleared valleys and hillsides have returned to forest.

Horses were important in the logging of steep mountain hillsides. Furniture makers, lumberjacks, charcoal producers, hoopmakers (hoops were used to hold barrels together), and wood acid manufacturers all relied on horses to exploit the Catskill forest. Forestry remains important on private lands, primarily as a source of lumber.

New York City reservoirs such as the Rondout, Pepacton, Ashokan and Gilboa, displaced dozens of towns and communities. The mountains are an indispensable watershed, providing drinking water for local people as well as millions of others in the lower Hudson Valley and New York City.

Railroads were important in the Catskills - for tourists to reach the hotels and for transporting lumber, furniture, bluestone, and other natural resources to urban markets. The Phoenicia Station of the Ulster and Delaware Railroad is on the State and National Historic Registers. Most stations, like the one in Phoenicia, were prefabricated kits.

Emergencies

Emergency 911 phone service is available in Ulster County.

Hospitals are located in Margaretville (845-586-2631), Harris (845-794-3300), Kingston (845-331-3131), (845-338-2500), Ellenville (845-647-6400), and Catskill (non-emergency, 518-943-0049).

To report someone lost or injured, or a fire on state land in the backcountry call the Forest Rangers at the regional headquarters in New Paltz or Stamford. On weekends and after hours call the State Police in Ulster County (Kingston, (845) 338-1702, Sullivan County (Liberty) (845) 292-6600, Greene County (Catskill/Cairo) (518) 622-8600 and Delaware County (Margaretville) (845) 586-2681 or Sheriff's Department (Delhi) (607) 746-2336.

More Information

For Catskills Forest Preserve information contact the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), Division of Lands and Forests, 21 South Putt Corners Road, New Paltz, NY, 12561-1696, (845) 256-3000, or for Greene and Delaware Counties, Rte 10, HCR 1, Stamford, NY 12167 (607) 652-7365. A Catskill Interpretive Center is planned along Route 28 between Boiceville and Phoenicia (Mount Tremper).

More about Catskill Forest Preserve :

Catskill Park State Land Master Plan - Read and submit comments on the Revised Draft of the Catskill Park State Land Master Plan.