Some things occurred during the years between that are not without interest - but the momentous facts are these: 12,000 years ago the glacier left us with the landscape we know, and just 40 years ago Scenic Hudson was born and dedicated itself to the novel idea that the landscape must be preserved.
Against all odds this extraordinary mission has been, and is being, accomplished. Scenic Hudson has forever altered the landscape here and across the nation - that is, the landscape of environmental protection, the ways citizens view and value America's natural and heritage resources and the means by which society is obliged to protect them.
Scenic Hudson's grandparent organization was the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, a founder of which was William P. Letchworth, a conservationist who saved the great gorge of the Genesee River in western New York. When in 1872 Chief Cornplanter conferred on Letchworth the rare honor of making him a blood brother in the Seneca Nation, he gave him the name "Hai-Wa-Ye-Is-Ta" - "the Man Who Always Does the Right Thing." Surely the leaders and staffers and particularly the supporters of Scenic Hudson over these past 40 years deserve the same tribute for working so effectively to save our entire valley. |
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Where better to begin this story of Scenic Hudson than with its founders - that intrepid band of six citizens who met on a November day in 1963. Less than 26 feverish months after that meeting at which the name Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference was chosen and the mission set, came the world-altering decision of the Federal Appeals Court in the Storm King case. This monumental victory by Scenic Hudson saved an iconic Hudson Valley landscape from desecration and launched the grass-roots environmental movement. We can only imagine those white-knuckle months of legal maneuvering and argument, of public relations blitzing, and - always - of fund-raising.
The battle for Storm King was to endure for 17 long years; at the end, it was our beloved goad and guru, Franny Reese, who had the matchless satisfaction of co-signing the celebrated "Peace Treaty on the Hudson." But true to form, she and her colleagues had already begun planning for the post-Storm King agenda, and during this period Scenic Hudson's programmatic scope and effectiveness were steadily enlarged. |
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Now under the skillful, vigorous leadership of Chair Marjorie Hart and President Ned Sullivan, a versatile, talented staff is making our valley a more wholesome, greener, life-enhancing place for all.
I particularly revel in the pioneering farmland preservation initiative that has been such a success and the perfection and peace of Poets' Walk Romantic Landscape Park, both in my hometown of Red Hook.
With the continued generous support of its friends, Scenic Hudson ought to be able to continue this magnificent epoch of accomplishment for, well, 12,000 years! And when the next glacier advances on its destructive course in this direction, it will have to deal with Scenic Hudson. It hasn't got a prayer. |
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Wint Aldrich is a former deputy commissioner of the NYS Department of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
Illustration by Dan Baxter |
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