Journal News 70th RCCA anniversary

Members of the Rockland County Conservation Association heard about some weighty topics yesterday at their summer quarterly meeting.

Among the issues were two major Palisades Interstate Park openings, the continuing fight by environmentalists to save the Torne Valley in Ramapo from further industrial development, and efforts to close the Indian Point power plants in Buchanan.

Carol Ash, executive director of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, touched on several topics during her annual state-of-the-park address for about 30 members of the Conservation Association.

The Fort Montgomery Battle Site, just north of the Bear Mountain Bridge, will have a formal opening on Oct. 6, Ash said. The dedication comes on the 225th anniversary of the American Revolution's 1777 Battle of the Twin Forts of Montgomery and Clinton.

"The Fort Montgomery site is nearly fully interpreted, with paths to take visitors to the fort's original remains," Ash said. "And we'll continue to find ways to link the forts and rejuvenate Fort Clinton."

The Palisades Interstate Park built its Trailside Museums and Wildlife Center at Bear Mountain on the remains of Fort Clinton, south of Popolopen Creek, in 1934. The New York state Bridge Authority is replicating a pedestrian footbridge over the Popolopen Creek that will connect Trailside to Fort Montgomery, Ash said.

The second major opening will take place Oct. 21, Ash said, when the park commission debuts its new U.S. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg Visitor Center at Sterling Forest State Park. The project was paid for with $4 million in public and private funds.

In an effort to spark tourism and economic development in the Hudson Valley, the park commission is continuing $8 million in improvements to the Bear Mountain Inn. The project, which is headed by New York restoration architect Hugh Hardy, is intended to restore the inn to its 1915 ambience while it updates the facility's operation.

"We'll be closing the inn's first floor in January to begin the restoration," Ash said. "And we'll be installing new heating and cooling geothermal systems to make it as close to a 'green' building as we can."

Ash said the public will soon be asked to write their legislators to pass the Highlands Stewardship Act, whose bipartisan supporters include Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman, R-Greenville.

The proposed Highlands legislation would authorize $25 million annually over a 10-year period to help New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut protect critical lands and waters in the 2 million-acre Highlands region, and $7 million a year over 10 years for technical assistance to communities and private landowners.

Ash also encouraged the conservationists to help support the fight to save the Torne Valley from further industrial development.

"It's going to be an expensive fight, but I think it will be saved as a park in perpetuity," she said.

In addition, Hazard Gillespie, chairman of the Tappan Zee Preservation Coalition, spoke of his group's resolution urging state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to take steps to close Indian Point.

"This area is in a terrible risk for something catastrophic happening," Gillespie said.

The Conservation Association honored Spring Valley High School graduate Giselle Negron with the $500 Eleanor Burlingham Award for outstanding achievement in environmental conservation. Negron was a member of her high school's Hispanic Active Bicultural Leadership Association, which requires students to do something to improve the environment.

Negron is attending a summer program at Binghamton University, SUNY, which she will attend as a full-time student in September. Her sister, Denise, accepted the award on her behalf, along with a certificate of recognition from County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef, delivered by Legislator Ellen Jaffee, D-Suffern, and a plaque presented by the Rockland County Conservation Association featuring a framed photograph of the Ramapo River.

Rockland group considers ways to preserve Torne Valley