Walking the Fjord Trail with its architect
There are many ways to describe the Breakneck Ridge train station, but “welcoming” isn’t one of them.
Jutting up from the cracked ground is a vast thicket of such invasive plants as tree of heaven and barberry, which not only don’t provide habitat or nutrition for native wildlife but are the preferred homes of spotted lanternflies and black-legged ticks, respectively. Cars roar by, choking the air with exhaust and noise. There’s no shelter from the elements. Concrete blocks and barriers are the only places to sit. And the station is hemmed in with a towering chain-link fence, blocking the view of Storm King, the mountain that led to the formation of Scenic Hudson in 1963 when citizens banded together to stop a power plant from being built into its north face.
“You’re in the birthplace of modern American environmentalism,” said Gena Wirth, gesturing to the mountain. “Let’s let people soak it in a little.”
Wirth is a principal at SCAPE Landscape Architecture, a New York City firm that’s earned a reputation as one of the most climate-conscious groups of designers in the country. Its projects include “living-breakwater” structures being built off the southern shore of Staten Island that are designed to protect vulnerable neighborhoods from increasing storm surges while providing vital habitat for marine life, and the newly redesigned 31-acre Tom Lee Park on the banks of the Mississippi in Memphis.
It’s also part of the ongoing design of the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail, a 7.5-mile linear park that will connect Beacon and Cold Spring along the river. When residents started kicking around the idea in 2006, it was envisioned as a simple walking path. But as Breakneck Ridge became one of the most popular — and riskiest — day hikes in the country, the vision expanded.
According to that vision, the trail will take on the problems of visitor management to keep the village of Cold Spring from being overwhelmed; reduce traffic on Route 9D; make coming to Breakneck less dangerous without making it less thrilling; account for sea-level rise expected from climate change; and restore land trodden by thousands of feet.
Which is a lot. But Wirth said she believes you can’t heal a landscape unless you also change people’s behavior.
“For too long, we’ve said ecology is about conservation, and not about people,” she said during a recent hike along part of the Fjord Trail’s projected route. “This isn’t about trying to create a landscape that looks pretty or looks like someone’s imagination of what happened here. It’s about trying to involve people in the long-term stewardship of the river. You can’t have a relationship with a landscape if you can’t access it or experience it.”
Why should people who live in Beacon or Philipstown, who likely don’t use the Breakneck Ridge train station, care about what it feels like to arrive here?
For starters, if more people come to Breakneck on the train instead of by car, it will mean less traffic, less parking, less pollution and fewer greenhouse-gas emissions. If there’s a free or low-cost shuttle bus, as is planned, Fjord Trail planners believe that will be further incentive to take Metro-North. And if the experience of being at the train station at Breakneck is inviting, instead of making people feel like the conductor has abandoned them, they’re more likely to take the train home from where they disembarked rather than from Cold Spring.
That’s the reasoning. Fjord Trail staff members positioned themselves over the summer on weekends to watch people get off the train. They found they do one of four things: Visit the portable toilets, look at a map, put on bug spray and sunscreen or rush to the trailhead to outpace the first three groups.
“A lot of this project is about trying to create space for things that are happening already,” said Wirth, standing in the wasteland of the train station with Amy Kacala, executive director of the Fjord Trail, which is a project of Scenic Hudson. Wirth pointed to where restrooms will be installed; where people will be able to linger; where the landscape will be raised to accommodate projected sea-level rise; and where berms will shield visitors from the rush and roar of the highway.
The most significant landmark in the first phase of the project is the Breakneck Connector, a bridge over the train tracks that’s scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2026 and will provide access for visitors with disabilities. The bridge will allow people who park in new lots to walk over the tracks to reach the trailhead, providing a parking option besides Route 9D, as well as a soaring view of Storm King.
Kacala said that most of the trail will have a lighter touch, and is being designed to feel invisible. She said a Fjord Trail board member compared it to the aisle of a cathedral: You don’t notice the aisle when you’re walking down it, because you’re too busy looking at everything around you.
Wirth added: “It needs to feel intuitive, and not like we’re just slapping things onto the landscape.”
The Fjord Trail team experimented with this approach on the Nimham Trail, which opened in 2021. It winds its way from Route 9D to the first summit of Breakneck, bypassing the vertical scramble. It allows hikers to turn around if they realize on the rock face that they’re in over their heads. And it allows people to see the view from the first summit without climbing the scramble. The stone staircases that wind up the rock face look more like features that formed over centuries of weathering and erosion than a planned design that was built in months.
Wirth said that, over time, as native species are restored and grow tall, shading the trail, and invasive species are weeded out, the designers hope that the area will look like it’s been that way all along. “In 10 to 15 years, people will get off the train at Breakneck for the first time, look around and say, ‘I don’t understand, what did they do?’ ” she said.
There’s a reason that so much of the area between the road and the river alongside the projected path of the trail is filled with invasive species, suffers from poor drainage, is prone to flooding and is rapidly eroding: It wasn’t there when the painters of the Hudson River School captured the Highlands in the 19th century.
“This is all fill,” Wirth said as we walked single file along Route 9D toward the trailhead, with cars whipping by inches away. “This is all created space.”
Giving the land back to the river isn’t a practical option, since it is now traversed by train tracks. Instead, the Fjord Trail plan is to transform the landscape from man-made to sustainable. The organization plans to plant 400 native trees and 2,000 woody shrubs on the 5.4 acres that make up the Breakneck Connector section, drawing from native species such as buttonbush (a tall shrub that thrives in wet soils and provides food for ducks) and Virginia sweetspire (the only domestic member of the itea genus of shrubs, and known to excel at erosion control).
Culverts will be built to act as wildlife crossings, but the trail already has a head start after working with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and state parks to remove some of the lower sections of chain-link fencing along the tracks to give amphibians and small mammals access to the river (although they’ll still have to make it across the tracks).
The plan also considers potential habitat, such as what will happen with projected sea-level rise over the next century. In some spots, the riprap that stabilizes the shoreline is eroding. Rather than replacing it, the project will install what Wirth refers to as “planted shelves.” Similar to SCAPE’s Living Breakwaters project, the new riprap will include shelves above the surface of the water that can become habitat for aquatic plants and animals as the river rises.
This summer, the Fjord Trail opened the Breakneck Overlook, which begins at the trailhead by the tunnel and ends at the beginning of the scramble. It’s a small section, but as Wirth and Kacala walked through it, they pointed out the ways in which the modifications are leading to changes in behavior.
Part of the work involved closing off “social trails,” the paths formed when visitors go off-trail. These social trails can be dangerous for wildlife — many disturbed the habitat of the eastern fence lizard, a rare and threatened species in New York — but also for hikers, because some had steep drop-offs.
The work involved examining why people go off-trail. In this case, that included uncertainty about the path of the actual trail; trying to pass groups of hikers to avoid a logjam at the scramble; and hoping to get a better view of Storm King and the river.
The new section has stone stairs that clearly define the path. A permanent shelter for trail stewards with a “green” roof of plants and a solar-powered plug station for emergency responders has been constructed at the beginning of the scramble. This is where stewards can show novices how challenging the climb is and suggest easier hikes nearby.
Across from the shelter is an overlook. It allows faster groups to pass slower ones but also gives visitors the views they were pursuing off-trail. Wirth pointed out the places where crews had started removing invasive species and where native species are returning. As she spoke, two small groups of hikers came to the overlook, took in the view and left without climbing the scramble.
“There’s a lot more breathing room and people now have a much better sense of what the Breakneck experience is like, and they can make their decisions,” Wirth said. The addition of trail stewards and the Nimham Trail has led to a reduction in emergency calls to Breakneck, she said, and it’s hoped that the overlook will continue that trend.
For now, if a large group of hikers with varying levels of ability comes to the trailhead, there will be options for those who feel uncomfortable climbing the rock face. As more sections of the trail are built, those options will increase, she said.
“Maybe people will say, ‘You guys go ahead and hike Breakneck, we’re going to walk to the Visitor Center,’” said Wirth, referring to the former Dutchess Manor that is being transformed into the Fjord Trail headquarters. “Or they will say, ‘We’re going to walk to Little Stony Point and Cold Spring and we’ll meet back here in three hours.’ Each of them will have had meaningful experiences that meet their skill level and their appetite for adventure.”
The Fjord Trail has faced criticism from many Philipstown residents — signs that question or oppose the trail adorn the yards of many homes — who fear that the trail will prove so popular that it will only make the weekend summer crowds worse. But Kacala believes the completed trail has the potential to rein in the problem by giving visitors options along a 7.5-mile span rather than simply hitting Breakneck and Cold Spring.
It also may change the behaviors of visitors for the better. “When people think about more visitors coming, they’re envisioning people doing the same things they’re doing, instead of what it will mean to have off-street parking or a shuttle to take people to Beacon,” she said.
“There are things that are going to enable better behaviors that aren’t an option today, and that’s going to take some of the pressure off. But it’s a complex project, and it’s hard to visualize. As we get more tangible examples open, and more of these behavior changes are observed, it’ll help people to feel better about this.”
Even after the trail is complete, some visitors will still scramble at top speed up Breakneck, take their pictures, grab lunch in Cold Spring and leave without a second thought. But Wirth hopes that the Fjord Trail will make it easier for visitors to forge a long-term relationship with the landscape by giving them space to pause and educate them about being better stewards of the places they visit.
“It’s not about the selfie,” she said. “It’s about visiting in the winter and watching the ice floes push up from the river, coming back in the spring and watching a caterpillar munch on a leaf, coming back in the summer to see a swallowtail butterfly.”
One line with no follow up: “The trail will take on the problems of visitor management to keep the village of Cold Spring from being overwhelmed.” This is the story you should be covering.
The Fjord Trail says [in an advertisement] that “accurate information is critical to productive conversation.” I couldn’t agree more, but I am going to harp on cost until our elected officials pay attention, and the HHFT and Scenic Hudson come clean. How much is this going to cost to build? Who is going to pay for cost overruns? How much is needed to maintain it? And what’s the strategy for raising those funds?
HHFT says parking and shuttle fees and an endowment will pay for annual maintenance. But then why sign a contract that says HHFT can raise money by commercializing the trail? Without knowing what the annual budget is, we, the public, have no way of knowing how robust their commercial activities will need to be. Bryant Park gets rent from all the holiday stalls. Do we want holiday stalls at Dockside to compete with Main Street businesses? How else will they raise enough money?
We turned to other public-private partnerships for cost estimates. Hudson River Park pays $7 million a year for liability insurance and that does not include indemnifying the city or state. The Hudson River Park has budgeted $10 million for 2024 for incidental repairs, saying that the pilings that hold up their esplanade are expensive; the esplanade is on land and is hardly a boardwalk 25 feet west of the railroad tracks. The Mario Cuomo Bridge has four security guards who respond to accidents or problems which they spot on cameras or from golf carts. How much do you think that costs?
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has told HHFT that it will not guarantee access across its tracks to the boardwalk if the boardwalk is damaged. If the tracks are damaged will the HHFT allow Metro-North to gain access to the tracks? If so, who will pay for the replacement of that section of the boardwalk? How is HHFT calculating staff costs and benefits? Staff costs are already in the tens of thousands. Barry Diller paid $260 million to build his Little Island and then was forced to cough up another $120 million to maintain the island for 20 years, but after that who will pay? No one knows.
Build a modest trail and many locals would support it, but please don’t tell us that “accurate information is critical to productive conversations” and then not tell us who will pay for what for how long. That is both cynical and dishonest.
I have been a resident of Cold Spring for about eight years; my husband is a lifelong resident. We do not want the Fjord Trail to be built. The village will not be able to handle the traffic and tourism and would slowly be destroyed. This is a small community that prides itself on being just that. Building the trail will overrun our town, not to mention raise our taxes to handle the increased influx. Residents pay high taxes as it is. Currently some tourists have no problem walking or even parking on private property. When addressed they laugh, don’t understand or act as though they have been offended. They leave garbage behind. We are homeowners who choose to reside here and do not need the extra populous invading our property further. The trails will also be impacted by the extra traffic, wildlife and ecosystems will suffer, this is a beautiful area admired by the world, leave it be!
You must be receiving quite a few responses to your long front-page article about the proposed Fjord Trail. The article’s credulous embrace — hook, line and sinker — of a massive public relations campaign is stunning. Words fail. In what way is this journalism?
Rather than addressing each of the depressingly Panglossian points in the article, I’ll select one, a comment by Fjord Trail Executive Director Amy Kacala:
“Kacala said that most of the trail will have a lighter touch, and is being designed to feel invisible. She said a Fjord Trail board member compared it to the aisle of a cathedral: You don’t notice the aisle when you’re walking down it, because you’re too busy looking at everything around you.”
Unmentioned here, as in all Fjord Trail literature, is the more than 2½-mile stretch of “trail” from Dockside Park to Breakneck Ridge. No land exists there for a footpath, so a 10- to 14-foot elevated bike and pedestrian walkway is planned, on concrete pilings and surrounded by an 8-foot chain link fence. Think Sing Sing, not cathedral.
There are no drawings of this trail section on the HHFT website. Eyesores are omitted — that’s marketing, baby. Differentiating truth from propaganda falls to us as citizens. It’s not an easy task, especially when information is deliberately withheld.
The HHFT says “accurate information is critical to productive conversation.” Last week’s article includes this statement pertaining to the “Breakneck Connector and Bridge” segment (which will extend between the DEP structure adjacent to the (North) tunnel entrance and the existing MNR “South” platform): “The bridge will allow people who park in new lots to walk over the tracks to reach the trailhead…”
The statement is not accurate. While the “Connector” portion of this segment, which includes parking and improved MNR platforms in both directions would potentially improve the safety of visitors, the proposed “Bridge” portion of the segment would in no way contribute to the safety of visitors or provide access “over the tracks to the trailhead.” In reality, and as indicated on the construction documents for this segment, the extension of the trail providing access to the Breakneck trailhead bypasses the Bridge entirely. Aside from limited maintenance access to the DEP facility, the Bridge would only provide pedestrian access to the future Shoreline trail to running from Breakneck, South to Dockside.
It is critical to note that the Shoreline trail segment, a 10-14 foot wide concrete boardwalk supported on piles at the water’s edge which could potentially have significant environmental impact, has not yet been approved, or even reviewed pursuant to the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA), a process which includes comments by numerous involved agencies and the public. (Our understanding is that Draft Environmental Impact Statement – DGEIS, is due sometime early next year.) The inclusion of the Bridge in the Connector segment is clearly based on the assumed approval of the Shoreline segment. The approval of the Bridge in the segment was based on a misrepresentation and provides a running start to the yet unapproved and more controversial segments to the South. This is not conducive to constructive conversation.
To the chorus of incredulous replies, I’ll add that also going unmentioned here are the roughly 1,000 new and reallocated parking spaces, including 400 new spaces at the foot of the Notch trail. We don’t need more parking for more cars. No matter how many consultants are hired, you can’t argue with “induced demand.” More parking means more cars and more traffic.
Also unmentioned is that all of this infrastructure will require lighting, blighting a rare dark spot on the lower Hudson with the cool dim glow of countless LED lights shining into the night.
Let’s come together and scale back this project: Remove the boardwalks, remove the lighting, scale back the parking, en-sure accessibility at key points, save Dockside and double down strategically on bike/pedestrian safety along Route 9D. Pair this with sensible and strategic trail maintenance throughout the Hudson Highlands (and Nelsonville Woods) and this project will be a success for locals and visitors alike.
Thank you, Ethan and others for sharing your thoughts here. I am the Community and Visitor Relations Manager at HHFT, chiming in to share information and allay confusion on some of the numbers that were mentioned.
“1,000 new and reallocated parking spaces” is not in any part of the Fjord Trail plan. The number currently being discussed is 500 spaces total — 320 of which already exist or are being relocated from existing spots. Included in that 500 total, we are planning for 120 spots at Notch, not 400.
Parking is still being explored and shaped so that it is set to optimal levels and doesn’t contribute to existing overcrowding. HHFT’s visitation management partners are working on these numbers. They are estimates and will be solidified in the site planning phase.
And a quick note about lighting, per the Fjord Trail’s Draft Master Plan, lighting will be minimally applied and consider light pollution impacts on adjacent towns and undeveloped landscapes. The Fjord Trail will be open from dawn to dusk, but street and parking lot lighting may be required for safety. Lighting will be environmentally sensitive and generally down-facing to minimize light pollution impacts. You can find this info on page 440 in the Master Plan flipbook at hhft.org.
Lighting and parking are areas where community input is still being gathered. Feel free to send thoughts and ideas to me, at [email protected] so I can share them with the team.
I share the incredulousness others have expressed over the one-sided nature of this article, which reads like a public relations piece in HHFT’s well-funded campaign to sell the Fjord Trail to local residents, instead of a carefully examined journalistic inquiry.
One of HHFT’s justifications for building the Breakneck Connector, as the article states, is “if more people come to Breakneck on the train instead of by car, it will mean less traffic, less parking, less pollution, and fewer greenhouse-gas emissions.” And yet hundreds more parking spaces are being added to the narrow 7.5-mile stretch of Route 9D as part of HHFT’s plan. Is there any credible scenario in which building additional parking spaces would actually reduce the number of cars, rather than what would more realistically happen — encourage more cars to come?
In her response to readers’ comments on the article, HHFT staff member Rebecca Ramirez notes that out of the 500 total parking spaces being planned, 320 already exist or are being relocated from existing spaces. If that 320 number includes the ~200 parking spaces located at Dutchess Manor (purchased by HHFT to serve as a future FT headquarters), then the comparison would not be an accurate “before-and-after” depiction of the FT’s impact on area car traffic. The Dutchess Manor parking spaces were not historically available for local trail parking use, making this comparison misleading.
Looking for ways to encourage visitors to come by train, shuttle or other means aside from cars is the way to reduce traffic, pollution and greenhouse gases. Building more parking spaces into an already crowded 9D is not the answer, and in fact, only adds to the problem.
Gena Wirth, the architect for the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail, said in your article that the addition of trail stewards and the Nimham Trail have led to a reduction in emergency calls to Breakneck. The numbers bear this out. The Cold Spring Fire Department made an average of 15 calls (including a rope rescue) to Breakneck and Bull Hill in 2019, 2020 and 2021 but only nine in 2022 and only three this year to date, according to a log we keep at the park.
In addition to these calls, which mostly involve injured hikers, the park staff, park police and state police handle the vast majority of lost hiker incidents all over the Hudson Highlands, which average about one a month over the course of a year. Many are resolved by guiding hikers to trails and out of the woods over the phone.
We have done a tremendous amount of work over the past several years re-blazing trails, establishing designated hiking loops at Bull Hill and Breakneck, and increasing our presence at the trailheads and on the paths. I am hopeful that the recent drop in rescue calls is attributable to these efforts and not just a statistical anomaly.
Thompson is the manager of the Hudson Highlands State Park Preserve.
The fact that The Highlands Current continues to publish these Fjord Trail fluff pieces rather than dig into the environmental impact, approval process or funding of the trail speaks volumes about the journalistic integrity of The Current in 2023. It’s far removed from the paper that Gordon Stewart founded. (via Facebook)
Thank you, Highlands Current, for your insightful article on what is going to be a beautiful and much-needed asset to our community.
Your article is a complete dereliction of balanced journalism and instead a nauseating display of unvarnished favoritism. The Current is solidly in the deep pockets of Chris Davis and Ned Sullivan [of Scenic Hudson]. Shameful!
Such a beautiful spot for a walk! Great idea, great location. (via Facebook)
I have been watching and participating in the democratic process in Philipstown community development since we arrived in 1992. There are so many entry points: Philipstown task forces, PTA, school referendums, biodiversity assessment training by Hudsonia Ltd, 2020 Comprehensive Plan, volunteering at nonprofits (Manitoga, iterations of a therapeutic equestrian center) and open Town Hall meetings, to mention a few. Foundational concerns are always: What is the value added to the community, the environmental impact and the funding for sustaining a community project?
I am an avid hiker and appreciate the collective approach to stewardship of our area trails. I have been following the HHFT project, which our community is wrestling with in open meetings, social media and print advertising campaigns, as well as home and street corner conversations.
This past weekend I attended the Walk & Talk at Dutchess Manor — built on Lenape land in 1868 for the Wade family — to hear about a portion of the HHFT project. I was so impressed with the creative resourcing of a financial grant for restoration of the only Second Empire public building in Philipstown. It will be the keystone of the HHFT, which sits on a rise south of the historic site of Timoneyville and the Melzingah dam.
Kudos to the creative and collaborative efforts of the HHFT team. There is a lot of oral history and physical history in the walls (of local brick) of Dutchess Manor that the HHFT staff respectfully shared and continue to gather.
I hope our community can continue to benefit from the collaborative vision and efforts of the HHFT committee. Community members can continue to attend Q&A forums about the Fjord Trail as it moves forward. I also encourage neighbors to get out and “forest bathe” on our unique highland trails.
In order for a driver to reach Breakneck Ridge via New York City, he or she will most likely take the Palisades or Sprain Brook parkways, beautiful roads that happen to be part of the exclusionary legacy of Robert Moses, the legendary builder who reshaped New York State throughout the mid-20th century (no relation to me).
The portrait of Moses painted by Robert Caro in his iconic 1974 biography, The Power Broker, is that of a visionary public servant transfigured by prejudice. In order to discourage access to his parks by public transportation, for example, Moses punctuated his parkways with low overpasses, making bus travel arduous or unsafe.
Moses saw New York’s most beautiful areas as preserves for the wealthy. So do the residents trying to torpedo the Fjord Trail with misleading letters to the editor and conspiratorial yard signs. Drive through the communities that the Fjord Trail intends to connect, and you’ll notice that those yard signs are most prevalent in Cold Spring (rich) and Garrison (richer). The debate over the trail isn’t really about the environment. It’s about economics. By improving train and trail access, Scenic Hud-son is helping to open the area to all New Yorkers.
It takes a lot of imagination to dream up a project like the Fjord Trail and a lot of passion to bring it to life. I am hopeful that it will democratize access to one of the most beautiful parts of the Lower Hudson Valley.
The assertion that opposition to the Fjord Trail in its current form is exclusionary or elitist is a classic red herring. For the price of a train ticket or two, anyone in the metro area can travel to Cold Spring and access Dockside, Little Stony Point, Breakneck, etc.
What many of us are asking is: Is this proposed Fjord Trail a reasonable expenditure of present and future resources and is it the best solution to the mutually agreed upon problem of coinciding overuse and underdeveloped facilities? Why not, for example, divert the proposed expenditure of resources to improving existing infrastructure and trail networks for generations of locals and visitors to come, without necessarily expanding development within an already over-utilized site?
The assertion that just because we live here we have no right to voice an opinion about proposed development within the mutually owned and publicly enjoyed resources that surround us is alarming and exactly the type of language which has many in the local community sitting up and taking notice.
Couldn’t this argument easily be turned on its head? Why should a community such as ours, which has so much in the way of river access and scenic bounty be further endowed with even more “world-class” recreational infrastructure? Why not turn our attention, for example, to the neglected Dutchess Mall site, which sits glumly at the headwaters of Clove Creek, and create a Northern Gateway to the Hudson Highlands park for the many in Southern Dutchess who have little access to the Hudson Highlands without driving all the way around Mount Beacon?
There is no doubt that it took “a lot of imagination” to dream up the Fjord Trail project, and envision how a 2.5-mile, 10 to 14 foot wide concrete trail on piles at the shoreline would work in reality. t is also being developed with “a lot of passion” and high-priced full-court-press publicity campaigns. A problem with the trail, aside from significant environmental involves scale and access. (For economics, see Gretchen Dykstra’s letter, above.)
Notwithstanding improvements to Metro-North access, all the drivers reaching or attempting to reach Breakneck from the south and east on the Palisades or Sprain Brook will need to pass through the lone traffic light at the intersection of Main Street and Mor-ris Avenue — a single lane in each direction. They will come to see fall foliage, but by the time they get to Breakneck it might be spring.
A contemplated solution would be to widen the roads leading to the intersection, thereby busting up the scale of the scenic and historic village, similar to Robert Moses’ Cross Bronx Expressway.
Gena Wirth of SCAPE makes a couple of interesting comments in this article. The first is, when talking about the project, that “It needs to feel intuitive, and not like we’re just slapping things onto the landscape.” Based on the engineering drawings of the massive bridge to be built over the tracks just north of the Breakneck tunnel (drawings available on https://www.protectthehighlands.org/documents), it is going to look exactly like something slapped onto the landscape.
Secondly, she says “as native species are restored and grow tall, shading the trail, and invasive species are weeded out, the designers hope that the area will look like it’s been that way all along.” Based on Scenic Hudson’s demonstration of poor stewardship at the West Point Foundry Preserve, this seems like wishful thinking. Years ago, they talked at length about the removal of invasives when briefing the public on their plans for the preserve, but made virtually no effort to remove them and restore native plants there. The exception is the presence of the pollinator gardens that community volunteers created after Scenic Hudson granted permission.
Gena Wirth also made a revealing comment recently in another regional publication (the River). She said of the Fjord Trail: “It’s about opening up this state park for a wider swath than the incredibly capable people who can hike Breakneck.” This is what Protect the Highlands and others have been saying for the past year — that the Fjord Trail would bring even more visitors than we get currently. Cold Spring and Breakneck Ridge were completely overwhelmed with visitors last Saturday, with traffic backed up and cars parked illegally for miles. How can the solution to the problem of overtourism be a major attraction that brings yet more people?