Carole Osterink

ccSCOOP Editor

08-06-09 - 6:15 p.m. - On Wednesday, August 5, representatives of Scenic Hudson and officials from all levels of government gathered in Stockport for the groundbreaking of a new park. The park, located on a grassland, offers stunning long-distance views of the Hudson River, the farmland on the western shore, and the Catskill Mountains beyond. The park is named Harrier Hill Park for the Northern Harrier, a long-winged, long-tailed hawk often seen flying low over the site, and it is adjacent to the Stockport Flats Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve, maintained by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), and the Greenport Conservative Area, owned by Open Space Institute and managed by the Columbia Land Conservancy.

A 1.6-mile trail from Harrier Hill Park through protected meadowlands connects with the 3.5 miles of trails in the Greenport Conservation Area.   

The design for Harrier Hill, which was created by Rita Shaheen and the Parks & Preserves staff of Scenic Hudson, was developed in public meetings and is responsive to the community’s desire that “the land should design the park.” The park will have few amenities, only a simple open-sided pavilion—the design for which was inspired by an old corncrib on the site—and a handicapped-accessible trail to an overlook. Hemlock Hollow Farm in Hillsdale will be the contractor for the park.

Congressman Scott Murphy, who was on hand for the event, celebrated the public/private partnership that brought about the park. The not-for-profit Scenic Hudson worked with the Department of Environmental Conservation, and the improvements to the park are being funded by the State of New York through the Environmental Protection Fund. Murphy called the Hudson River and its inspiring landscapes “the focus of the economy” in the 20th Congressional District.

Senator Stephen Saland, acknowledged by Sullivan as a “leader in the economy and the environment,” stressed the inspiring beauty of our region. “There are few places in the world that rival the Hudson Valley in God-given beauty, and it is our responsibility to protect that God-given beauty.”

Assemblyman Marc Molinaro reiterated the theme of protecting scenic beauty for its own sake. “Too often we seek desperate reasons to do this work,” he said, “when the work itself is reason enough.” To describe the vistas that he surrounded him, he quoted his five-year-old daughter, Abigail, who when taken to Poets' Walk in Red Hook, another Scenic Hudson park, declared, “This is awesome!”