Remarks at Joint Press Conference with OSI Launching Overlook Campaign, December 8, 2003
Thank you Dale for your hard work and steadfast attention to endless detail. Just as an example, Dale was the last one to go home after yesterday's work party, stuffing our town-wide letter (more on that later.)
I'd like to take a few moments to very briefly
- announce the launch of the campaign
- introduce the Woodstock Land Conservancy
- offer some background: why Overlook, why now?
- explain how specifically we are aiming to accomplish our goals, and
- thank some friends and supporters for their part in getting us here today.
First, it is my great pleasure and privilege to announce the launch of this campaign, a joint venture with Open Space Institute, in an effort to permanently protect the last remaining privately-held vacant land at the upper reaches of Overlook Mountain . We two land trusts have been planning this for at least two years, and are very proud to announce as the first concrete steps toward this goal, the acquisition of two key parcels of land totaling about 291 acres. One of the parcels, almost 90 acres conveyed by Miriam Berg, is reportedly the last remaining intact parcel in the Hardenburg Tract, and runs right up the side of the south face toward the very top of the mountain. The second was conveyed by the Woodstock Guild of Artists and Craftsmen, over 200 acres running from Meads Meadow (aka Magic Meadow) in a northeasterly direction up the mountain. (Make reference to the mappage, and to the photography.)
Woodstock Land Conservancy is a non-profit organization whose mission is to work with property owners to preserve those natural areas most beloved by the greater Woodstock community. Not counting today's announcements, since its founding in 1988 the Conservancy has protected over 400 acres of fields and meadows, ponds and gorges, forest and ridgeline, in a dozen different locations in and around Woodstock . After accepting its first conservation easement in early 1989, the Conservancy launched its first major campaign, to save the beloved Zena Cornfield with its dramatic views of Overlook. In a matter of weeks facing a developer's deadline, over 550 pledges large and small were made to raise the necessary $165,000.
This is the first time since then that we are launching a large-scale fundraising effort, and we are counting on the same spirit of generosity and community to reach these ambitious goals. We estimate this to be a $1 million campaign, and we are extremely fortunate to have received a major capital commitment from Open Space Institute of over $650,000. Locally, we have to raise $350,000. We think of OSI's commitment in terms of a challenge grant: roughly speaking, every $1,000 we raise in our local campaign will deliver $3,000 to Overlook. For this extraordinary generosity and partnership, we are deeply grateful to Joe Martens, Bob Anderberg, the staff and the Board of The Open Space Institute.
In brief, Overlook looms large not just in the eyes of present-day residents of the Catskills and the Hudson Valley , but also in the imagination of our growing nation. It was here in the 1800s that Thomas Cole and Frederick Church sketched and painted its prominent profile, inspiring the birth of the Hudson River School of Painting. The names of such prominent authors as Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper are also associated with Overlook. It is said that this area's first inhabitants, the native Americans, lived and hunted at the base of the mountain, but believed the summit to be animated by spirit guides, thus refused to settle, even explore up there. It is fair to say this spirit of Overlook has guided generations of farmers and artists, writers and musicians, and travelers and creative people from all over to inhabit its surroundings.
For decades, Overlook has been the object of passionate campaigns to prevent high-visibility development, roads, cell towers and other incursions. Thanks to some of those efforts, most of the summit has been incorporated into the Catskill Forest Preserve and is protected as “forever wild” by the New York State Constitution. In its 2002 Open Space Conservation Plan, New York State DEC placed much of the privately-owned land at the highest elevations of Overlook Mountain on its “Priority List” for acquisition. It is our intention that the land we acquire in this project will eventually be added to the 590-acre Overlook Mountain Wild Forest within the Preserve, and protected in perpetuity as forever wild – and remain on the tax rolls.
The work we are embarking today is part of that continuum, and we thank those before us who fought to protect this mountain. Today, as Woodstock becomes increasingly popular, Overlook's wilderness is shrinking. With the tremendous upsurge in development pressure in recent years (likely to be even more intense in the near future,) new houses have been springing up on Overlook. With hundreds of acres of land still available for development at the highest elevations of Overlook and Mount Guardian facing town, we saw the urgent need to do whatever we can to prevent what could be dozens of new houses, resulting in: visual blight on the very mountainsides that help define our sense of place; loss of habitat as once-unbroken wilderness is cleared for roads, driveways, septic fields, utility lines and homesites; severe soil erosion on already fragile steep slopes; and permanent loss of open space.
So: We are very pleased to announce these two acquisitions, and we continue to work with other willing sellers to join this effort. And, we have just begun fund-raising on several different fronts at once. Just this past weekend, a group of volunteers braved this winter's first storm to get out our town-wide letter: This is our first broad-based outreach to everyone in town, and it should arrive in the next few days. This letter takes the place of our usual year-end appeal for next year's operating funds. Also unusual is its reach: in addition to all property owners in Woodstock , we are sending this letter to folks in West Saugerties and West Hurley who also are close to Overlook. This letter gives everyone a perfect opportunity to carefully consider a special once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a huge difference for future generations.
We see this as a Grass roots effort as was the Zena Cornfield purchase, and we are asking everyone to be as generous as they can be. No amount is too small, and we are grateful for every gift – all of which are tax deductible.
At the same time, we expect that some among us will be moved to make extraordinary contributions. In fact, we have already received pledges of $20,000 from three families – and that could rise to $25,000 with a corporate matching grant from one of the pledge's employer. To coordinate this outreach effort we have formed a working group with a working title, the Save Overlook Committee. I'll read the names of those on the Committee; most of them are on the reply card available on the table, some of whom have joined in the last few days.
Very recent additions:
Richard Goldman and Susan Goldman
William Ludoff and Suzanne Moore
William Ginsburg
Gale Brownlee
This committee is growing, and we welcome people to join with us: to make contacts, to organize events, to lend your good name to this campaign.
In the coming months we will be planning a number of events: some small gatherings, perhaps some larger public events. It is important to point out that this effort is NOT limited to Woodstock ; we recognize that people all over the region and beyond feel passionately about Overlook, and we hope to reach as many of them as we can. We are even reaching out to former Woodstockers; as the legend goes, “Once you have stood in the shadow of Overlook, you are destined to always return.” It is our expectation that this campaign will be fueled by our town's unique and creative energies.
For example, one of our Board members, local naturalist and environmentalist Peter Koch, will be leading a monthly climb to the summit of Overlook, every second Sunday of the month. The first will be this coming Sunday, December 14, weather permitting, departing at 10am from the Overlook trailhead parking lot. For more details call Peter at 679-9006.
Finally, I want to acknowledge a few people in particular, and I invite you to speak to each of them if they are present afterwards.
Miriam Berg, in her letter to us some years ago that spoke so eloquently of the need to do this, inspired us to begin to make this happen.
Carla Smith in her capacity as Executive Director of the Guild has shown great leadership and vision, and helped make this a win-win for all of us: for the Guild's endowment and for future generations of New Yorkers and visitors from all over.
Alf Evers, going on 99 and forever young, is the author of two seminal works: Woodstock , History of an American Town and The Catskills, From Wilderness to Woodtock. Alf's keen sense of place is grounded in Overlook. His writings on this town and this region speak to the sacred bond so many people wide and far, present and past, have formed with this mountain.
Deborah Meyer DeWan's passionate commitment to Overlook, to the Catskills and to the Hudson Valley is her life's work and my greatest source of inspiration. At the very outset of this campaign, she helped us secure this land's place on the DEC's “List of 131", the list of the highest-priority areas throughout the State.
This organization is blessed with a terrific Board of Directors - sharing a passionate commitment to preserving those special places that make Woodstock home, for each other and for the natural wonders we love. (Introduce all member of the Board present: Nancy; Aileen; Gay Leonhardt.) Over the past two years, since we first began planning this effort, one board member in particular, Elizabeth Lesser, has been on the forefront, persuasively speaking to all kinds of people, putting huge amounts of very positive energy into first envisioning this, then working with Dale and me, with the rest of the Board and now with OSI to get us to this point. Another Board member, Kevin Smith, has been a tremendous champion and is talking to everyone about this project.
No doubt Joe Martens will better introduce Jennifer Grossman; as VP of Land Acquisition Jennifer has been with us from the start, traipsing up to the top of the mountain 1.5 years ago to see for herself; and in the intervening months, has spent endless hours making phone calls, making meetings, helping us keep our eyes on the prize. To these people and to all Woodstockers who join with us in this exciting, challenging campaign to save Overlook, I am deeply grateful.