Happy Trails of Ulster
The evolving story of a countywide bike and rail trail plan.
by Tod Westlake
A movement toward a more
sustainable way of living will mean that we need to come up with sustainable
forms of recreation. In the coming decades, the rise in fuel prices will likely
mean that air travel will once again become a bit more of a luxury, and that
people will look for attractive and fun ways to have fun in their own
backyards. Now take a step back and think of all that Ulster County has to
offer when it comes to outdoor recreation. Depending upon the time of year,
there is an endless variety of outdoor activities that are available in this
area.
One of the things that will help
glue this concept together on a countywide basis is a comprehensive system of
bike and rail trails. And there's no doubt that Ulster County is off to a very
good start. With approximately 30 miles of rail trails throughout mostly the
southern portion of the county, and other more rugged trails further to the
north, you don't have to travel far if you want to get out in the sunshine and
enjoy a safe place to ride.
Even more encouraging is the fact
that these trails could, in the coming years, become a single contiguous system
that will allow folks to access most parts of the county. You could get on your
bike in Poughkeepsie or Highland, enjoy a ride through New Paltz, and then up
to Kingston for some lunch. An even more ambitious vision would see cyclists in
Manhattan be able to ride from the city all the way into the Catskills.
"That's the ten-thousand
foot view, isn't it?" said Richard Travers, chairman of the Rondout Valley
Rail Trail Initiative as well as the head of the Rondout Valley Business
Association (RVBA). "You start in Battery Park in Manhattan, you ride up
through Westchester, up into Dutchess County, you cross the Walkway Over the
Hudson, and then you reach the trails here in Ulster County."
One of the recent steps in this
direction, according to Travers, occurred several years ago when municipalities
in the Rondout Valley began to recognize that they had a mutual interest in
seeing a healthy and vibrant rail trail along the path of the old O&W
Railroad right-of-way.
"Back in 2009, the town
boards of Marbletown, Rochester, Rosendale, Wawarsing, and the Village of
Ellenville agreed to join with the RVBA in creating a municipal agreement,”
said Travers, “the purpose of which is to see a contiguous rail trail from the
northern part of the valley, which is Marbletown, to the southern part of the
valley, which is Ellenville. There would also be a connector on Route 213 to
the eastern part of the Rondout Valley, which is of course Rosendale."
Travers, along with the municipal
officials who backed the agreement, believe strongly that the trail can do a
lot when it comes to attracting tourist dollars, and that there will be a
number of associated businesses that could be created, thereby adding jobs to a
local economy that has taken more than its fair share of hits in recent years.
"We want to create this
contiguous trail in order to stimulate the economy of the Rondout Valley,"
Travers said. "It's as simple as that."
There are also a number of spots
where spurs, or secondary trails, could link up with points west. For example,
there has been some discussion in recent years of linking Minnewaska State Park
Preserve with the Vernooy Kill State Forest (aka, the Lundy Estate) on the west
side of Route 209.
"These secondary trails,
while important, aren't as important to the local economy as the main rail
trail," Travers added. "The main trail will pass through the hamlet
of Accord and the hamlet of Kerhonkson, and it is the most likely vehicle for
improving the economies of those two hamlets."
Travers sees an even bigger
upside for the valley if the current plans to revitalize the Nevele Grande Resort
come to fruition.
"Think about the rail
trail's effect on these communities in conjunction with the return of the
Nevele," Travers said. "The Nevele has two-and-a-half miles of rail
trail on it already, and that would extend into Ellenville."
Travers says that there are
plenty of adventurous types who would happily ride their bikes from the Nevele
into the northern part of the county—assuming that there's a way for them to do
so.
"There are people who take
the train as far as they can up into the Hudson Valley, and then they bike all
over the place," Travers noted. "So, there's no question that rail
trails are a fantastic form of entertainment and that they attract visitors. It
could be the single most important item to help stimulate the local economy."
Over on the other side of the
Shawangunk Ridge, the Wallkill Valley Land Trust (WVLT) has been actively
involved for the past several decades with the creation and preservation of the
rail trail through Gardiner and New Paltz.
"We do conservation easements
and land protection agreements in southern Ulster County," said WVLT
Executive Director Christine DeBoer.
"We were able to do a series of events to purchase the rail bed for the
Wallkill Valley Rail Trail, which is about 12.2 miles in [the towns of]
Gardiner and New Paltz."
DeBoer says that the trust, after purchasing the rail bed, placed what is
known as a "conservation easement" on it, and then turned the
property over to the Town of Gardiner. Conservation easements are legally
enforceable agreements between an owner (often a land trust) and government
that clearly delineate that the property is to be preserved. These
agreements also stipulate that the property is to be inspected on a regular
basis, thereby ensuring that there is no encroachment by unwelcome development
or other problems.
"Because of the conservation
easement, there's a legal obligation we have...to inspect the property every
year," DeBoer said. "I always joke around that we make sure that a
skinny Walmart doesn't pop up on the rail trail. And that's our obligation
forever."
The day-to-day management of the
trail itself is actually handled by the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail Association,
a group that the WVLT helped to develop.
"That organization maintains
the rail trail," DeBoer said. "They work with the town or village to
do mowing and things like that."
A big move for the WVLT also came
in 2009, when they partnered with the Open Space Institute (OSI) to purchase
another 11.5 miles of the Wallkill Valley rail bed, according to DeBoer.
"This goes through the Town
of Rosendale, through the Town of Ulster, and all the way to the Kingston city
line along Route 32," DeBoer said. "The exciting part is that, except
for a few tiny sections that we're working on, it's contiguous."
Part of this will go through the
Williams Lake development, and DeBoer said that the company that plans to build
the project sees the rail trail as a welcome addition.
"We're working with
them," DeBoer added. "They want the rail trail, and all of their
development plans include it."
DeBoer said that an agreement
over a rail trail easement through the property would probably happen sometime
this year.
The most imposing feature in this
newest section is, of course, the railroad trestle in Rosendale.
"We're partnered with OSI to
raise $1.1 million to restore the railroad trestle for pedestrian use,"
DeBoer says.
The trestle, it should be noted,
was open for a time, but has now been closed until a number of safety
modifications can be put in place, including new railings and new decking.
"We're looking to be able to
open the trestle by the end of this year, hopefully earlier," DeBoer said.
As of now, however, the project
has raised over $850,000, so things appear to be on track for a dramatic
unveiling.
The development of this type of
trail system is not without its minor headaches. If you would like to bike from
the rail trail in New Paltz to the Walkway Over the Hudson in the Town of
Highland, for example, you'll have no choice but to ride your bicycle on surface
streets, some of which have inadequate shoulders for bicycle traffic.
Recently, however, the Southern
Ulster Alliance—which consists of the Towns of New Paltz, Gardiner, Lloyd,
Marlboro and Plattekill—undertook a feasibility study regarding the prospect of
linking the two trails.
The 63-page study goes into great
detail regarding several measures that would make this possible. For example,
creating a "bike boulevard" on Henry Dubois Road, and a bicycle
boardwalk that would traverse the wetlands between New Paltz and Highland. And
then there's the issue of safely getting bicyclists across the NY State
Thruway.
Another major factor in creating
a countywide system involves the creation of a rail trail system in the City of
Kingston that will act as a sort of nexus for a number of other trails. The
Kingston Land Trust has been actively working to create a "network of trails, bike paths, and complete
streets that connect rail trails from the Wallkill Valley, Rondout Valley,
Catskill Mountains, and Kingston Point to a Midtown Hub along the Broadway
Corridor creating more opportunities for residents, families, and visitors to
connect with places in the city that are special to them and to interact with
nature," according to the group's website.
Ulster County is perfectly situated to become the go-to place when it
comes to biking here in the northeast. And with all of these projects
converging, it may be time to start thinking about whether a comprehensive
master plan for the county as a whole would be a worthwhile endeavor. Many of
the pieces are already in place. Now could be a good time to take it to the
next level.
Posted by Chris Hewitt
on 7:52 PM.
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Please see the Ulster County Non-motorized Transportation Plan. The Ulster County Legislature has formed a Trails Advisory Committee to further the goals of the plan, we meet each month in Kingston here is our facebook page http://www.facebook.com/groups/107959765998652/
Happy Trails,
Steve Rice
Link to Ulster County Non-motorized Transportation Plan
http://www.co.ulster.ny.us/planning/uctc/documents/nmtp/final_plan.pdf