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'Gunks plan to be heard
By Dan Shapley
Poughkeepsie Journal, February 6, 2003

WALLKILL -- Town officials and the public will get the first detailed public presentation of the controversial Awosting Reserve development on the Shawangunk Ridge tonight.
The presentation coincides with the first in a series of lectures detailing threats to the ridge's ecology -- a subject at the heart of opposition to the proposal.

The Awosting Reserve is a 2,660-acre forest that climbs the slope to the Shawangunk's landmark white cliffs in the towns of Gardiner, Shawangunk and Wawarsing in Ulster County.

The ''conservation community'' proposed by owner John Atwater Bradley and the development firm Chaffin/Light Associates would create plots for 349 retreats, cottages and cabins around a private village center and a 296-acre golf course near Tillson Lake. It would protect 1,457 acres of forest.

Large houses

The 269 largest plots -- 2.5 acres -- could hold houses as big as 4,500 square feet.

Awosting Reserve staff plan about a 45-minute presentation for the Gardiner town and planning boards tonight. Officials also are expected to attend from Shawangunk -- where development is proposed but a moratorium has delayed consideration of the plan -- and Wawarsing, where no development is proposed.

Roger Beck, president of Awosting Reserve, said he has heard wide-ranging public concerns, including whether the plan conforms to town law, whether it will adequately protect Shawangunk animal and plant life, and whether it will ruin views from the valley and the ridge above.

''We believe that we've submitted a plan that addresses those concerns,'' Beck said. ''The real question is ... has our analysis been thorough enough?''

The first in an eight-year-old lecture series sponsored by the Shawangunk Ridge Biodiversity Partnership is also scheduled for tonight.

This year's lecture series was designed to highlight threats to the ecology of the ridge, and have experts speak about those threats in a wider context than just on the ridge, according to Hatti Langsford, a Minnewaska State Park Preserve educator who organized the lectures.

''We identified a number of threats to the ridge. One of them is sprawl, one example of which is the sprawl the Awosting Reserve represents,'' Langsford said.

Animal protection

Susan Morse, director of the organization Keeping Track, will present a talk titled ''Where the Wild Things Walk,'' a program about wildlife corridors and how to recognize the large animals that inhabit them.

On the Shawangunk Ridge, some of the large animals that need large tracts of wild land include bobcats, fisher and black bear. The Biodiversity Partnership represents landowners and organizations on about 25,000 acres of land, including Minnewaska, the Mohonk Preserve and the Sam's Point Preserve.

''We want people to know what they're losing if they're not protecting a place like this,'' Langsford said. ''And we want people to understand the value of what they have. We want people to use the place in a more gentle way.''

IF YOU GO
PRESENTATION

- What: Presentation about proposed Awosting Reserve development.

- When: 7:30 tonight.

- Where: Wallkill High School, Robinson Drive off Route 208 in Wallkill.

- What: Shawangunk Ridge Biodiversity Partnership lecture.

- When: 7 tonight.

- Information: Call (845) 255-2011.

Where: Lecture Center 100, SUNY New Paltz. See www.newpaltz.edu for a campus
map.