Parks Project Heads to the Catskills

Not too far from NYC is home to the great Catskills mountain range. We had the chance last weekend to dedicate a couple days to not only exploring the area but volunteering at the Catskills Visitors Center. Here’s how it went…

We started our journey at Autocamp—one of their newest locations in the United States. At about 5:00 pm, we hosted a fireside chat where we discussed not only our mission, but touched on invasive species in this area and why it is important to care for our local ecosystems. 

We started the next day early, making our way to the visitors center where we learned about the invasive Mugwort plant, Artemisia vulgaris. It was scattered across the entire area and although we couldn’t take the morning to dig it all up, we focused on an overgrown garden right outside the visitors center that will be converted into a pollinator garden to provide more ecosystem support. 

We then collected seedlings from a variety of plants that will be replanted around the property for the following seasons. We cut off the heads of the plants and placed them in labeled paper bags, so there’s no confusion between plant seeds once they are ready to use them. 

The swimming holes of the Catskills are the most over populated outdoor spaces in the area, meaning it’s too easy to come across trash that shouldn’t be there. Make sure if you’re spending the day in any of these locations, you pick up your trash and take out what you brought in! There’s no better way to treat the planet and our local parks than by leaving them better than we found them.

If you’re in the Catskills area and want to volunteer, the visitors center does a great job at promoting local clean up events and committing their time to restoring trails, clearing out invasive species, and much more.

Here are some things to consider next time you volunteer:

1. What does “leave it better than you found it” mean to you?

2. Why do you volunteer?

3. How would you get others to volunteer more often?

Thanks to the Catskills Visitor Center for bringing us on for this wonderful clean up day. You never know what events are happening in your area! Check out our volunteer page for future opportunities to get outside and get your hands dirty, and join us on our mission to restore habitats in parklands.