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About Us
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
I hope that everyone has had a great summer and fishing was good for all
those that had a chance to cast a line. I was able to fish many of the
Catskill Rivers, the Farmington in Connecticut and a number of rivers in
the Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. All of the rivers and one pond that I
fished were great fun to fish and I was able to release some very nice
fish.
As I fished the rivers both near and far, I found one thing to be
similar in almost all of the watersheds: they have problems with either
water flows or some other threat to the fish populations and the
inhabitants in and around the rivers. The Catskills are certainly not
unique in this respect, and, overall, these problems seem to be becoming
more prevalent everywhere.
We are all lucky to have organizations like ours, TGF, fighting to keep
our watersheds in the Catskills in good shape. It is certainly not easy
and it is something that requires a lot of continuous attention. Our
Conservation Committee has been very vigilant in keeping an eye on the
threats to the rivers in our area and has been working very hard to stay
ahead of everything that is going on. I would like to commend them for the
job that they have
been doing!
Recently, an agreement was reached between project builders of the
Belleayre Resort and most of the parties in a coalition to let the project
go forward. The project was initially something that was very large and
would ultimately impact two different watersheds. Because of the hard work
of many people, including our representative John Barone, the final
agreement in principle came about through closed door negotiations which
took place over many months, after years of meetings. Federal, state, and
local politicians as well as many governmental agencies at all levels all
weighed in on this massive project and all were and are in favor of it in
some form.
After I returned from Montana, John Barone and I spoke about the
project and where it stood. My concern has always been for the river
systems involved and the impact the project would have on them. I have
also been aware of much of what was going on because I attended a number
of the meetings myself in Arkville, NY. And I also spoke with Tom Alworth
from the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development at this time to
get his opinion of where the negotiations stood. Both John and Tom had
concluded that what we called the major “science portions” of this project had
been addressed and that is where I think
TGF’s concerns were, not with what is known as Community Character issues.
The latter issues are very important to the people in that area but they
are not part of the TGF mission.
I also spoke with Roy Hochberg from the Catskill Mountains Chapter of
TU in length. He had attended all the meetings and was fully aware of all
that was going on and agreed with both John and Tom about continuing on
with what would certainly be very expensive litigation over a long period
or agreeing to a settlement. This whole process started over seven years
ago and it was something that was not done in haste. There is still much
that needs to be done including a new supplemental environmental impact
statement for the project as it now stands on only the West Side. Everyone
that was involved before this agreement will get another bite at the apple
to make sure that things are done correctly. A huge part of this
settlement is a victory for the East Side that will have NO development
and will be sold to the NYS Forest Preserve, eliminating another threat to
the already endangered Esopus Creek.
After receiving all the information I could, I told John Barone that he
could sign off for TGF on this project as it stands and thanked him for
all the hours and days that he invested for TGF. Governor Elliot Spitzer
was in Kingston a few days later at a news conference and announced the
agreement to the world. I attended and signed off for TGF as President at
that conference along with many other coalition members. Not every
organization has agreed to the settlement and some may never agree, but
this agreement has gone a long way in helping protect Catskill Rivers and
that is one of the things that TGF does well.
Respectfully,
Bert Darrow, President
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