Kingston Land Trust protects Wilbur uplands

On an unseasonably warm November day, I pull into a clearing near the foot of Wilbur Avenue. Greg Shaheen, conservation coordinator for the Kingston Land Trust (KLT), waves to me from a low rise in the adjoining forest. 

I’m here to take a look at the six acres of abandoned quarry and woods just acquired by his organization. Judging from the photos accompanying the press release, the place is spectacular, a forgotten wilderness improbably inserted within the city limits. I’ve driven up Wilbur Avenue many times — as a rural jaunt winding through woodlands, it’s my preferred route to Uptown, a way to avoid the traffic and lights of Broadway. But I have never stepped out of the car to take a look around until now.

I climb over the trunks of downed trees, the unfortunate legacy of the previous owner, who cleared away a swath of forest in preparation for developing the site, through thick piles of leaves. Shaheen guides me to a higher rise where I take in a jaw-dropping view of a steep, craggy mountain — so its proportions would suggest — with a thatch of cedar trees and several small birches leaning precipitously from the high sides. 

To the left looms a huge clearing boxed in on three sides by grey-brown cliffs, sheered off in a few places to reveal a yellow face of rock smooth as a baby’s cheek; half in shadow, the only movement is the circling of a turkey vulture high above our heads. It’s hard to believe we’re only a couple of miles from the roar of the 9W bridge and the jangle of traffic on Broadway. 

I’m yearning to climb to the top to catch what must be a stunning view of the creek, Hussy Hill, and the whole lay of the land looking south from Kingston, but there isn’t time. Besides, the property is officially closed, with much work to be done before it can be opened to the public, Shaheen explains. 

Ultimately the plan is to create a trail or series of trails and accompanying safety guards where needed that would take visitors up past the former quarry on the site to the overlook. Only two cars can fit into the small parking area along Wilbur, but Shaheen said the KLT hopes it can expand that capacity by utilizing the city-owned land across the street.

We walk through the forest to the entrance of a cave. The hacked squared-off opening quickly narrows to a shoulder-squeezing passage to an inner chamber, Greg explains — a shimmying I certainly won’t be undergoing. Where we’re standing was a mine 150 years ago, part of the cement works that left this land carved up and hollowed out. It was an outpost of the larger Newark Lime & Cement operation in the ridge over Ponckhockie (some of it now part of Hasbrouck Park). 

Back then, the hamlet of Wilbur was a hive of industry. Bluestone slabs by the ton were stacked upon its shores, and dozens of workers mined the limestone from its hills and cliffs, baking the stone in kilns whose remains are still visible along Wilbur Avenue. The dressed slabs and the barrels of cement were loaded onto barges for shipment down Rondout Creek to the Hudson. 

The culture of the Wilbur docks was akin to the Wild West, unregulated, exploitative, and cut-throat, according to Bob Steuding; as he writes in his book, Rondout: A Hudson River Port, “both buyer and seller hoped that, in any transaction, fairness would occur as a result of combined dishonesty.” In 1884, according to an article in The New York Times, creditors descended on the Wilbur-based Kingston Cement Company, which hadn’t paid its workers in three or four months, for “several thousand dollars of claims” — in vain, as it turned out; a company boat loaded with cement snuck out of the port so late in the evening that the creditors’ messengers couldn’t locate a steam tug to “give chase and bring back the boat.” 

By the turn of the twentieth century, the industries had vanished, and Wilbur was a sleepy hamlet. In the ensuing decades, forest covered the scarred land, lending a picturesque quality to Wilbur Avenue and creekside Abeel Street, with a touch of the industrial sublime supplied by the circa-1910 steel railroad trestle which casts a long shadow over the creek and surmounts the precipitous height of the cliffs. 

The KLT buys the property

To most of Kingston, Wilbur and its wild lands is an afterthought, but long-time residents treasure their rugged environs. One of them, L.K. Noller, was therefore alarmed to discover, one day in October 2019 the whine of chainsaws and roar of excavator engines upon her return home after several months away. 

Noller contacted Kevin McEvoy, a member of the KLT’s board of directors, aware that the KLT had long been interested in the property. The trees were being removed illegally, and ultimately the owner put the property on the market, giving the KLT the opportunity to purchase it for $23,000, a sale that was completed this fall. 

Also this fall, Wilbur resident Valerie Connors donated a contiguous 8.2 acres to the Northeastern Caves Conservancy, a nonprofit interested in the property’s 700-foot-long cave. Together, the two acquisitions total 14 acres and are a very significant step toward conservation of Kingston’s natural resources and biodiversity as outlined in the city’s Open Space Plan, unanimously adopted by the Common Council on November 10. 

The properties also complement the 500-acre preserve, also a former cement works, on the Hudson River purchased last year by Quarry Waters, an affiliate of Scenic Hudson, from AVR Realty Company, which had planned large-scale development of the land. The property straddles the City of Kingston and Town of Ulster.)

Kingston’s Open Space Plan identifies the Rondout Uplands, as it refers to the ridge of limestone cliffs and hills that swings along the creek from Rosendale through Rondout to Ponckhockie and up along the Hudson into Town of Ulster, as one of three types of habitat in the city prioritized for preservation.  “The target in the ‘Rondout Uplands’ is ambitious to reach, but the Kingston Land Trust has taken the initiative and is a leader in taking bold steps toward environmental protection,” noted Julie Noble, the city’s sustainability coordinator and chair of its Conservation Advisory Council, in the KLT press release.

The KLT provided the money for the purchase, along with $7400 in due-diligence and closing costs, supplemented by donations from Kingston residents and a contribution from the Northeastern Caves Conservancy.  

Funds are needed to clean up the site “in the most ecologically sensitive way,” said Shaheen, which includes removing, chipping and stacking the dead trees into brush piles and possible remediation of soils containing low-level contamination from the quarry and kilns. Shaheen said the KLT hopes to recruit SUNY New Paltz student researchers in the spring to analyze and help remediate the soil conditions. 

He hopes to rally a group of volunteers between now and Christmas to help with the clean up, including pulling up the dozens of ailanthus seedlings that have sprouted up in the clear-cut area. In the winter the KLT plans a virtual engagement with the public, followed by public tours and more ecological engagement and design planning in the spring. 

Some remarkable resources

Besides having dramatic cliffs and views, the site is ecologically rich. Dan Schniedewind is one of three local ecologists who walked the site with Shaheen last August. Schniedewind wrote in an email that the Wilbur property was very similar to Joppenbergh Mountain, in Rosendale, and that the alkaline pH of the limestone cliffs in both places supports numerous native plants, including the purple cliff-brake fern and the smooth cliff-brake fern (the latter was not found by the ecologists but Schniedewind said the habitat made it likely the plant was present). 

“The range of native plants there is remarkable, including rare and threatened species, given the incredible history of disturbance, a real testament to the ability of plant communities to respond to devastating blows,” Schniedewind wrote. However, more recent disturbances, such as the tree clearing that just occurred, unfortunately result in the replacement of native plants by invasives, such as the ailanthus. 

“In the past, in the wake of disturbance, the plants whose propagules (seeds, rhizomes, etc) were circulating in the area and therefore most likely to become established after disturbance (whether human-caused or not) were native plants,” Schniedewind wrote. “The abundance, both in volume and species diversity, of invasive plants continues to increase substantially in the present, making it so that when areas get disturbed now, there is a much higher chance of invasive plants becoming established than there would have been in the past” — one reason why conservation of existing natural resources is so important, given that invasive species represents one of the most dire threats to the ecosystem. 

Besides an array of mammals — Noller has spotted foxes and once even an otter drinking at the spring of the community garden she maintains at the foot of Wilbur Avenue, along with the usual array of raccoons, skunks, possums, squirrels, and ground hogs — there are likely many species of forest birds. During his visit, Schniedewind heard the call of a scarlet tanager in the interior woodlands at the northern end.

The mines and caves are also likely occupied by hibernating bats. Bob Simmons, president of the Northeastern Caves Conservancy, said the probable species at Salmander Cave, as the cave at its recently acquired preserve is colloquially known, are the little brown, the big brown and tricolored bats, all of which have had their populations reduced by white nose syndrome. 

All in all, “the site is a great ambassador for the worthiness of setting forests and other important habitats aside in cities for both human and nonhuman uses,” Schniedewind wrote. “As Kingstonians already know well (between Kingston Point Park, the AVR site, and the Catskill foothills to the west), there are rich plant and animal communities worth protecting within and along the city limits.”

Connecting green spaces

The Salamander Cave preserve, which extends off either side of the railroad trestle, is best accessed from Wilbur Avenue from the KLT property. Bob Simmons said that the “caves” on the Land Trust property are actually mines, while Salamander Cave “is a relic cave when the geology was a lot deeper and the Rondout Creek hadn’t cut so deep into its gorge.” 

There are small areas showing evidence of mining activity, but for the most part the preserve consists of land untouched from the last Ice Age. He said the ecology of caves — “extremely low energy; bat droppings are the main food source” — is as bizarre as that found at the bottom of the sea, with colorless fungi, species of blind anthropods and fish, and ghostly white shrubs. 

Two Kingston residents are serving as interim managers of the preserve. Simmons expects them to become permanent after the organization’s board vote. The conservancy plans to construct a trail from Wilbur Avenue that would circle around the old quarry to the cave, plus an informational kiosk, and a small shelter area where people “can put on a caving suit.” 

Caves “are extremely fragile and unique,” so conservational stewardship is essential, he added. If bats are found to be hibernating in the cave, the Conservancy will close it to the public from October 1 to May 1, as it does at its ten other preserves.

Shaheen said a possible long-term plan would be to somehow connect the preserves with the Midtown Green Line and green space that runs from the Twaalfskill Golf Course, which abuts the protected land at the top of the ridge, to the woods behind the HealthAlliance hospital and Kingston High School to the YMCA farm (coordination with various property owners would be essential and may not be possible). 

The KLT also plans to consult with Scenic Hudson as it works to protect  the natural resources and create a public access plan for its new preserve on the former cement works along the Hudson. The mile-long Hudson waterfront trail will be part of the state-wide Empire Trail. 

To those of us who love nature and the outdoors, such preservation efforts are exciting developments. They will enable residents to bird-watch and hike within the city limits, cutting down on automobile miles driven and helping thus to reduce carbon emissions. Protecting forests also contribute significantly to a healthier environment. 

“The KLT responded to the needless ecological devastation and our collective remorse with deft leadership, valuable partnership and sensitivity to our dire situation,” said L.K. Noller. “Thank you, KLT, from the bottoms of our hearts — and from the top of that fantastic and now-protected site.”