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New state park commissioner aims to renovate and raise funds - 8 January, 2007
By Laura Incalcaterra
The Journal News
BEAR MOUNTAIN
Her focus may be broader, but Carol Ash sees her new task with the same vision that has guided her through more than four decades of public service.
Ash has been appointed commissioner of the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation by Gov. Eliot Spitzer. She spent the past seven years as executive director of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, the first woman to hold the post in the agency's 107-year history.
Ash now succeeds Bernadette Castro, who served as parks commissioner throughout Gov. George Pataki's 12-year tenure. She will earn $127,000 annually, as mandated by state law, a spokeswoman for the state parks office said.
Adding open space, beefing up planning and attacking a myriad of infrastructure woes were among the items on her agenda, Ash said during an interview in her PIPC office at Bear Mountain State Park last week.
Her new job, which will take her to Albany, will require her to consider all parts of New York but also shares many similarities with her former PIPC post, she said.
"It's sort of an extension in terms of what I've been trying to do in the Palisades region," Ash said. "One of those things is to connect the parks."
Ash wants to link upstate and downstate by increasing awareness and use of land and water trails and encouraging more use of train service. She said the public would benefit with more recreational offerings. Increased public involvement could improve awareness of the conservation aspects of the parks and aid the economy in the form of tourism dollars, she said.
But observers said Ash faced a park system in need of massive funding and attention to management.
Henry Tepper, the New York state director for the Nature Conservancy, has worked with Ash for many years and succeeded her at the Nature Conservancy.
He praised former Gov. George Pataki for purchasing and preserving thousands of acres of open space, but said the other half of the story involved the stewardship of the parks, something he described as being "enormously behind." Ash, he said, understands the issues and will be able to play a positive role as commissioner of the parks department.
"The agency has not been viewed as a top priority and has not advocated to be a top priority," Tepper said. "It's an incredible system, and it's a system that has fallen into disrepair. ... She really understands this."
Even Spitzer acknowledged the need for more funding in his State of the State address on Wednesday. He called for the expansion of the state Environmental Protection Fund, which has been tapped for open-space purchases and other parks and conservation efforts.
Parks and Trails New York, a citizens group of park advocates, issued a report in November that said $140 million was needed to renovate the state's parks. The report cited problems ranging from a lack of bathrooms to crumbling parking lots.
Ash said the report would help the parks department make its case for additional funding and other resources.
"They did us a really big favor by making sure all of the parks were sort of looked at," Ash said.
The new commissioner said she leaves the PIPC with some regrets. She had hoped to see the completion of the Bear Mountain Inn, which has been shut down for renovations since January 2003. Ash said there was enough funding for the $12 million job, but that lead paint and asbestos abatement had been among the problems that had slowed the work.
She had also hoped to renovate the Bear Mountain Zoo. Most animals at the zoo are kept in cages rather than the natural habitat-like settings now found at many zoos.
Although most of Sterling Forest has been preserved as state parkland, several additional parcels could be added to create a true buffer between forested and developed areas to protect the local watershed. The new commissioner said she would pursue those parcels.
Open-space preservation has been, more than any other issue, the focus of Ash's conservation efforts. It was while she was director of the New York Nature Conservancy that she became involved in the successful fight to preserve Sterling Forest, which was slated for massive housing development.
Dorice Madronero, executive director of the Rockland County Conservation Association, said Ash helped people to understand the relationship between forested areas and the protection of their drinking water.
"I think her leadership has been very instrumental in giving attention to open space and how we are developing and what that development is doing," Madronero said.
Ash also supported other efforts, including the creation of the Purple Heart Museum, which opened in November at the PIPC's Washington's Headquarters in New Windsor.
"She really has been strident in caring for the right things," Madronero said. "I think she is the right person at the right time."
Madronero also called upon state elected officials to step up support for the state park system with increased funding, as well as respect.
"It's not only Carol's job," Madronero said. "The legislators go to those parks too."
Ash must still be confirmed by the state Senate and until then holds the title of acting commissioner.
The PIPC has 24 parks and eight historic sites in New York and New Jersey, including Harriman and Bear Mountain, which are among the most visited parks in the nation.
New York has 176 state parks, which includes those in the PIPC system, along with 36 state historic sites.
Rockland County, perhaps more than any other community in the state, has a great stake in the parks department. About one-third of Rockland is state parkland. The county is home to nine of the PIPC's parks and one of its historic sites and is within an hour's drive of the remaining parks.
It was when she came to understand Rockland's water system that she became urgently involved in watershed and open-space protection, Ash said. The county relies on just the rain and snow that falls upon it for its drinking water. But more and more development threatens the available supply.
Ash was among those who fought to get the Highlands Conservation Act passed, which finally occurred in 2004. It recognized the importance of the Highlands and its water, forest, agricultural, wildlife, recreational and cultural resources.
The Highlands, which stretch from Pennsylvania to New Jersey and New York and into Connecticut, provide clean drinking water for more than 15 million people. The forests and other natural features of the Highlands help filter rainwater and melting snow, which end up in underground aquifers and in streams, lakes and rivers.
The Highlands Conservation Act authorized $100 million over 10 years for land acquisition in the region and an additional $10 million for planning purposes. Congress has not yet allocated any of the money.
Ash said she would pursue that funding and work with the state Division of Budget to come up with a plan and needed funding for New York's park system.
"So that at the end of the day, we can leave it in better condition than we're finding it," Ash said.
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Carol Ash
Carol Ash awaits state Senate confirmation after being appointed state parks commissioner by Gov. Eliot Spitzer. She has long served the public:
- 1999-2006: Executive director, the Palisades Interstate Park Commission. First woman to hold post. Appointed by Republican Govs. George Pataki of New York and Christie Whitman of New Jersey.
- 1994-1999: State director, New York Nature Conservancy.
- 1992-1994: First director, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's Office of Environmental Policy and Management.
- 1985-1992: New York City regional director, state Department of Environmental Conservation.
- 1981-1984: Consultant.
- 1979-1981: Publisher, SoHo News weekly newspaper.
- 1975-1978: Director, program development, New York State Energy Office.
- 1970s: Assistant commissioner, government relations under Gov. Hugh Carey.
- 1960s: Administrative assistant at U.S. Justice Department during Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy's investigation of Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa.
- Grew up in Washington, D.C.
- Married to journalist Josh Friedman; one daughter, Susannah.
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