Our Mission
Friends of the Shawangunks, along with our land trust, The Shawangunk Conservancy, is dedicated to protecting the Shawangunk Mountains of New York from adverse environmental impacts. Please Join Us.
News
NY-NJ Trail Conference Purchases Key Parcel Creating Protected Corridor Along Shawangunk Ridge
The Trail Conference’s Long Path and Conservation committees work hard to secure a green corridor for our long-distance trails before inappropriate development alters the experience along the Long Path and Shawangunk Ridge and Highlands trails forever. The latest victory is a key 7.8-acre abandoned rail bed on the western slope of the Shawangunk Ridge near Wurtsboro, N.Y. Combined with other parcels the Trail Conference purchased in 2002 that connect the Bashakill Wildlife Management Area with Wurtsboro Ridge State Forest, the preserved area now totals 21 acres and creates a protected corridor that will move the co-aligned Long Path and SRT off of a 2-mile road walk.
(Item posted January 7, 2017)
Open Space Institute protects key section of Sam’s Point Escarpment
The Open Space Institute (OSI) has acquired one of the largest additions to the Sam’s Point Preserve portion of Minnewaska State Park Preserve since creation of the Preserve in 1997. The project fulfills a priority acquisition of the New York State Open Space Plan while protecting scenic waterfalls flowing through the world-renowned Minnewaska State Park Preserve.
The largest remaining tract of privately-held open space on the Shawangunk Ridge, the scenic, 615-acre “South Escarpment” property is visible throughout much of the Hudson River Valley. Adjacent to the well-known Ellenville Ice Caves, the parcel’s acquisition will also enhance trail access to Sam’s Point via the eastern slope of the Shawangunk Ridge.
Purchased by OSI for $621,000, the South Escarpment property is the seventeenth and second-largest acquisition by OSI in the Sam’s Point area of Minnewaska State Park Preserve since 1991, bringing all the lands protected by OSI at Sam’s Point to over 10,000 acres and protecting virtually all of the area’s globally-rare pitch pine barrens. The project is the latest success in building Minnewaska, a recreational mecca visited by nearly 370,000 people every year. Through a series of expansions spearheaded by OSI, Minnewaska is now the third-largest state park in New York.
(Item posted November 29, 2016)
A Reminder of a Painless Way to Support Friends
In our August 2014 newsletter, Shawangunk Watch, we reported that Amazon.com had instituted a program in which it would give us 0.5% of whatever you spend when you shop with them on line. We have been benefitting from your Amazon purchases ever since. Thank you and remember to continue to use this program, as per the following easy procedure.
– go to smile.amazon.com
– bookmark the page (this bookmark becomes your new way to access Amazon)
– sign in as you usually do
– in the “Charity name or location” box enter “Shawangunk”
– click on Friends of the Shawangunks or The Shawangunk Conservancy
Go ahead and shop.
In the future, when you go to shop at Amazon via smile.amazon.com (the new bookmark) you will see that the organization you selected will receive a contribution from Amazon based on the amount of your purchase, at no cost to you.
(Item posted November 29, 2016)
Visit Us on Facebook
We encourage those of you using Facebook to visit our Facebook page and to “like” us there.
(Item posted February 20, 2015)
