Slide Mountain Wilderness Unit Management Plan OCTOBER 1998 New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Region 3 Office, 21 South Putt Corners Road, New Paltz, NY 12561-1696 (914) 256-3000 George E. Pataki, Governor fl) John P. Cahill, Commissioner a New York State Department of Environmental Conservation ~ Commissioner's Office, Room 608 ....., 50 Wolf Road, Albany, New York 12233-1010 Phone: (518) 457-1162 FAX: (518) 457-7744 ~ John P. Cahill Commissioner MEMORANDUM TO: The Record FROM: Commissioner Cahill SUBJECT: Unit Management Plan (UMP) Slide Mountain Wilderness Area A UMP for the Slide Mountain Wilderness Area has been completed. The UMP is consistent with the guidelines and criteria of the Catskill Park State Land Master Plan, the State Constitution, Environmental Conservation Law, and Department rules, regulations and policies. The UMP includes management objectives for a five year period and is hereby approved and adopted. SLIDE MOUNTAIN WILDERNESS UNIT MANAGEMENT PLAN PREFACE The Slide Mountain Wilderness is the largest and most popular of the four designated wilderness areas in the Catskills. A variety of recreational opportunities are available for public use. The hiking trail complex is extensive, over lofty peaks and provides access to much of the interior of the unit. Slide Mountain, with its many unique features, is the highest peak in the Catskills. A Unit Management Plan identifies a segment of Forest Preserve and provides direction for the management and use of the unit within the constraints of Anicle XIV of the State Constitution, Environmental Conservation Law, Department policies and the Catskill Park State Land Master Plan. Through the classification of the Forest Preserve lands, according to their characteristics and capacity to withstand use, comprehensive UMP' s provide specific management objectives and a schedule of actions needed to meet those objectives. Accomplishment of management actions outlined herein is dependent on legislative budget appropriations, and sufficient personnel to carry them out. However, where possible the Depanment will work with volunteer groups and pursue alternative funding sources to accomplish some of the proposed projects. For example, volunteers from the NY-NJ Trail Conference have helped the Department maintain most of the hiking trails within this unit. Coordinator of Unit Management Planning: Bill Rudge Region 3 Staff Contributors: Lands & Forests: Nelson Sears - Original UMP Coordinator Fred Geny, Regional Forester Forest Rangers : Raymond Wood, Steve Scherry, Patti Rudge Steve Preston Fisheries: Mike Flaheny - Conservation Biologist Wildlife: Richard Henry - Sr. Wildlife Biologist Ted Kerpez - Sr. Wildlife Biologist Operations: John Harrington - Regional Operations Supervisor Gary Van Laer - Conservation Operations Supervisor Real Propeny: Gary Coutu - Cartography Keith Matteson New York State Department of Environmental Conservation 21 South Putt Comers Road New Paltz, NY 12561-1696 914-256-3000 TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE .......................................................... i WCATION MAP .................................................... iv I. INTRODUCTION . 1 A. Area Description . 1 B. History . 1 H. INVENTORY, USE AND CAPACITY TO WITHSTAND USE ................ 3 A. Natural Resources ........................................... 3 1. Physical Resources . 3 a. Geology . 3 b. Soils ......................................... 3 c. Terrain . 3 d. Water ........................................ 4 e. Wetlands . 4 2. Biological Resources . 5 a. Vegetation . 5 b. Wildlife . 6 c. Fish Resources . 7 3. Visual Resources ...................................... 7 4. Unique Resources . 7 5. Historic Resources . 8 6. Wilderness . 9 B. Man-Made Facilities . 9 C. Cultural Resources . 18 D. Economic Impact . .. 19 E. Public Use . 20 F. Capacity of the Resource to Withstand Use . 24 HI. MANAGEMENT AND POLICY . 27 A. Past Management .......................................... 27 Wildlife . 28 Fisheries . 29 B. Constraints and Issues . 31 1. Constraints . 31 2. Issues . 31 C. Goals and Objectives . 33 1. Goals ............................................. 33 2. Objectives . 33 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS IV. PROJECTED USE AND MANAGEMENT PROPOSED . 35 A. Facilities Development and/or Removal . 35 B. Maintenance and Rehabilitation of Facilities . 37 C. Public Use Management and Controls . 38 D. Fish and Wildlife Management . 41 1. Fisheries . 41 2. Wildlife . 41 E. Wild, Scenic and Recreational Rivers . 41 F. Fire Management . 41 G. Administration ............................................ 42 1. Staffing . 42 2. Education . 43 H. Land Acquisition . 43 I. SEQR Requirements . 44 J. Relationship of this Unit With Other Forest Preserve Units . 44 V. SCHEDULE FOR IMPLEMENTATION/BUDGET . 45 VI. BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES . 47 APPENDICES . 51 A. SEQR Negative Declaration B. Wildlife Inventory C. Facilities Map lii ·--/ D E L E W A R E I I "-. PEPACTON / / / / SUDE MOUNTAIN <DA~.. 'll'§JK..Jiff.Af., fl:D .1-~Il?i.IK . / .~ / "-.. / "-.. / SULLIVAN I I LOCATION MAP ""' SECTION I. INTRODUCTION I. INTRODUCTION to the numerous people coming to the area seeking their own land. Most of these early A. Area Description settlers were farmers who opened up lands in the river valleys as the steep hillsides were too The Slide Mountain Wilderness is difficult to farm. located in the Towns of Shandaken, Denning, and Olive in Ulster County. It lies generally Three industries developed in the area west of West Shokan and Woodland, south of in the early 1800's which drastically changed Phoenicia, east of Oliverea and Frost Valley, the natural conditions of the mountains. Two north of Denning and Bull Run and north and were dependent on the forests while the other west of Peekamoose. The area ranges from 1 used the mountains themselves. to 10 miles in width, is about 13.3 miles long, and contains approximately 47 ,500 acres of Most destructive to the prevailing land. The length of the wilderness boundary is original wilderness was the leather tanning 118 miles. industry. Much of the lower elevations (below about 2500') of the Catskills were covered by B. History dense stands of hemlocks. The bark from these trees was used in the tanning process. Most of Human influence to the area began with the hemlocks were cut only for their bark and the Indian tribes from the surrounding river the peeled logs were left to rot. As a result, valleys. The Algonkian-speaking Indians of faster growing hardwood species invaded the the Hudson, Rondout and Esopus River valleys areas where the hemlocks had been the came as hunting parties in the fall of the year predominant species. Today hemlocks grow as to hunt deer, bear, turkey, beaver and other scattered trees or in clumps and though not game animals. Since they were only short rare, do not form the large stands they did in term visitors to the area, they had relatively the past. minor influence on the pristine wilderness. Roads were built from the forests to Major changes were experienced by the the tanneries to draw the needed hemlock bark. region as the early Dutch and English settlers Many of the "bark roads" are visible today on expanded their trade, real estate holdings and the mountain sides. The process of tanning business enterprise westward from the hides into leather required a large and constant Kingston and New Paltz settlements. water supply, so the tanneries were located in the valleys. The effluents released during the In 1708 Johannis Hardenburgh and tanning process polluted the streams, a source seven other men obtained a land grant of 1.5 of annoyance and frustration to people living million acres from Queen Anne of England. downstream. By 1870 most of the hemlocks The Slide Mountain Wilderness Unit is were gone and the tanning industry in the contained within the grant known as the Catskills came to an end. Hardenburgh patent. The second major forest based industry By the mid 1700's, early surveyors occurring during this period and into later such as Henry and Ebeneezer Wooster had years was the harvesting of hardwood forests. divided the Hardenburgh Patent into smaller The hardwoods were cut for a variety of uses lots which the patent owner then sold or leased ranging from lumber for construction and furniture to the making of charcoal. The Slide Mountain Wilderness Unit Management Plan 1 forests were often clear cut. The whitetailed Legislation in 1885 was to preserve public deer, wild turkeys and other game animals lands in the Adirondacks, numerous lands in were almost completely decimated as a resuit the Catskills were saved when they came under of loss of their habitat. A few areas escaped the "blanket protection" of the newly the axe and saw and remain as virgin forest. established Forest Preserve in Ulster, Sullivan ·1 ·ne trees in these areas are a mix of balsam and Greene Counties. Later, legislation gave fir, red spruce and hemlock which were saved the same Forest Preserve protection to lands in from destruction by their location on steep and Delaware County. inaccessible terrain. In 1985 the Department completed a Another major industry arising during Catskill Park State Land Master Plan. the period was bluestone quarrying. The Providing overall guidance for consistent and sedimentary bluestone was easily worked, yet uniform management of state lands durable enough for the paving of streets and administered by the Department within the sidewalks. From the 1870's to the early Catskill Park, the Catskill Park State Land 1900's