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Credit: New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation

New York State Parks: Funding Heritage Innovation

Urban cultural parks and heritage areas have a history that now dates back almost four decades, yet they often still struggle to receive adequate and predictable support at the local, state and federal levels. Why do programs so often touted as the future of conservation and preservation receive so little support from agencies and public officials charged with managing their funding?

Read More »
Photograph Courtesy of the National Park Service

New York State’s Recreational Areas Deserve Spotlight

New York State has played a pivotal role in shaping the history of conservation in the United States. The Adirondack Park, Central Park, and the Hudson River Greenway, among other sites, have all influenced patterns of protected area management, as did the state’s innovative urban cultural parks (now heritage areas) program.

Read More »
Credit: New York State Government

Help NY State Heritage Areas

New York’s heritage areas are “partnership parks” encompassing public and private interests as well as partnership between state and local government. The first such effort, RiverSpark, dates to 1977, eight years before the federal National Heritage Areas program began to take shape. In recent years, however, the New York effort has suffered from a lack of funding and staff support.

Read More »

The Italian-New York Connections on Parks and Protected Areas

As an advocate of parks, protected areas and historic preservation in New York State and beyond, my interest has been less with the traditional public estate parks (local, state and national) and more with area wide parks, greenways, landscapes and heritage areas like the six million acre Adirondack Park, the 3 million acre Hudson River Greenway and state and national heritage areas. I expected to find historic landscapes in Italy that were being managed as parks, but thanks to the emerging effect of the European Union (“EU”) I found more park interest and activity than I expected.

Read More »

Adirondack Park: Landscape No Longer Contested

Has the time come for the Adirondack Park to be “inspirational, educational, recreational, ecological and economically sustainable?” If so, what has changed in local and state politics to allow for such a transformation. Paul Bray explains how a contested landscape is now becoming collaborative.

Read More »
Credit: New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation

New York State Parks: Funding Heritage Innovation

Urban cultural parks and heritage areas have a history that now dates back almost four decades, yet they often still struggle to receive adequate and predictable support at the local, state and federal levels. Why do programs so often touted as the future of conservation and preservation receive so little support from agencies and public officials charged with managing their funding?

Read More »
Photograph Courtesy of the National Park Service

New York State’s Recreational Areas Deserve Spotlight

New York State has played a pivotal role in shaping the history of conservation in the United States. The Adirondack Park, Central Park, and the Hudson River Greenway, among other sites, have all influenced patterns of protected area management, as did the state’s innovative urban cultural parks (now heritage areas) program.

Read More »
Credit: New York State Government

Help NY State Heritage Areas

New York’s heritage areas are “partnership parks” encompassing public and private interests as well as partnership between state and local government. The first such effort, RiverSpark, dates to 1977, eight years before the federal National Heritage Areas program began to take shape. In recent years, however, the New York effort has suffered from a lack of funding and staff support.

Read More »

The Italian-New York Connections on Parks and Protected Areas

As an advocate of parks, protected areas and historic preservation in New York State and beyond, my interest has been less with the traditional public estate parks (local, state and national) and more with area wide parks, greenways, landscapes and heritage areas like the six million acre Adirondack Park, the 3 million acre Hudson River Greenway and state and national heritage areas. I expected to find historic landscapes in Italy that were being managed as parks, but thanks to the emerging effect of the European Union (“EU”) I found more park interest and activity than I expected.

Read More »

Adirondack Park: Landscape No Longer Contested

Has the time come for the Adirondack Park to be “inspirational, educational, recreational, ecological and economically sustainable?” If so, what has changed in local and state politics to allow for such a transformation. Paul Bray explains how a contested landscape is now becoming collaborative.

Read More »