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STATE PARK PURCHASE GIVES HIKERS NEW TRAIL TO STONY KILL FALLS - 15 January, 2004
Napanoch – Open Space Institute purchased an 18-acre parcel on Shaft 2A Road Friday that will allow hikers their first easy access to Stony Kill Falls.
The 87-foot high waterfall is one of the tallest in Minnewaska State Park Preserve and a popular destination for hikers, bird watchers and photographers. Hikers could get to it after a seven-mile hike from Minnewaska's parking lot or an even longer trek from Sam's Point Park Preserve in Cragsmoor.
Friday's purchase will allow hikers to park in a small lot on Shaft 2A Road and stroll a half-mile to the waterfall.
The parcel was purchased from Napanoch Sand & Gravel through OSI's land acquisition affiliate, the Open Space Conservancy.
Joe Martens, OSI president, said the acquisition is the third purchase in the area, completing a 94-acre protection buffer around this Stony Kill Falls access point. Most of the land has already been conveyed to the Palisades Interstate Park Commission to be integrated into Minnewaska State Park Preserve.
"This third acquisition completes the Stony Kill assemblage, designed to protect the magnificent falls and facilitate hiking access to the base of the waterfall," Martens said.
"The waterfalls were only 150 feet into the park," OSI counsel Bob Anderberg said. "Now the entrance is protected and there's meaningful public access."
OSI is also nearing the point of conveying 6,000 additional acres to the Palisades Interstate Park Commission that will include most of Sam's Point's back country and Witches Hole in Napanoch, a substantial parcel above Eastern Correctional Facility.
That transfer would increase Minnewaska State Park Preserve's acreage from 13,000 acres to 19,000 acres.
"Right now the state's appraising the property," Anderberg said. "We'd like to have the land transfers completed this year if possible."
By Deborah Medenbach
Times Herald-Record
dmedenbach@th-record.com
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