ULSTER PARK – The 96-acre Esopus Meadows
Park and Preserve became more accessible to visitors Saturday, when it
unveiled nearly $400,000 in improvements to the resource, located alongside
the Hudson River in Ulster Park. The event featured food, music, hula
hoops, remarks from officials, and a pigeon launch.
Breathtaking views of the Esopus Lighthouse are available at that location.
The Town of Esopus has the longest amount of Hudson River shoreline between
New York City and Albany. But for many years access to the river was in
short supply.
Steve Rosenberg, Scenic Hudson; Heather Blaikie, Scenic Hudson
park designer; and Esopus Supervisor Kyle Barnett, cut the ribbon
The improvements were coordinated by Scenic Hudson, using its own resources
plus $175,000 from the state’s Environmental Protection Fund. Featured
in the work is a new 12 x 25 foot, flood resistant, multi-use outdoor
pavilion.
Also included are new disabled parking and trailhead amenities, to make
the park compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act.
“We’re tremendously proud today to dedicate this new extremely
beautiful, more resilient pavilion,” said Steven Rosenberg, executive
director of The Scenic Hudson Land Trust. “We hope this special
site will continue to inspire and excite everyone who visits it,”
he said.
“I happen to think that the Town of Esopus has some of the most
beautiful landscape in the entire Hudson Valley region,” noted Esopus
Supervisor Kyle Barnett. “It’s just an amazing town in terms
of the natural resources that we have.”
Fran Dunwell, director of the state DEC’s Hudson River Estuary Program,
said her agency’s new five-year plan, released in April, includes
making the river more accessible, to people of all ages and abilities,
with amenities more impervious to storms and sea level rise.
