Throughout the summer, thousands of day-trippers make their way to secluded locations along the Kaaterskill Creek in the Town of Hunter, often obstructing traffic along Route 23A and leaving significant amounts of trash behind. These activities not only spoil the natural beauty of the area, but produce significant concerns for public safety.
In response to events over this summer, Greene County Tourism is utilizing its advertising and marketing vehicles to reach and inform prospective visitors of the actions being taken by the town and county to mitigate this situation.
As the leading source of information on Google Search for Waterfalls & Kaaterskill Clove in Greene County, and in support of the Town of Hunter, Greene County has launched new initiatives to reduce the overcrowding, parking and safety issues along the Route 23A corridor. This is also in line with I Love NY and the DEC’s “Leave No Trace” Campaign.
This includes:
- Updates to Kaaterskill Falls, Fawn’s Leap, and Hiking pages to include information about overcrowding, safety and parking regulations on the Route 23A corridor. This page will continually be updated as new information becomes available.
- Pushing users to a new waterfalls page suggesting alternative hikes and again notes the parking, safety, and overcrowding issues.
- Running Ads on Google that warn travelers of overcrowding, safety and illegal parking
- Reaching out to media and broadcast news outlets and regional publications, requesting they reinforce the new regulations and advisories taking place along Route 23A and within the Clove.
The town of Hunter has issued a new Kaaterskill Clove Parking Enforcement policy that goes into effect this weekend:
- Beginning on the weekend of August 8th, The Town of Hunter will be operating a Vehicle impound Lot located at 5748, Route 23A, Tannersville NY (Town Hall).
- This impound lot will be in operation every weekend until the illegal parking is dramatically curtailed.
- Any illegally parked vehicle will be ticketed and then towed to the Town Hall Impound Lot which will be manned by a Town of Hunter Police Officer until 8pm.
- A vehicle owner will only be able to retrieve their vehicle once they have paid the Towing Fee, and the Impound Fee in full, via credit card or cash.
- Any vehicle not picked up by 8pm will then incur an additional daily fee.
- The Town has authorized the purchase of equipment to enable our Town of Hunter Police officers to associate parking violations to a vehicle registration via the DMV. Town of Hunter Police officers will soon be able to generate and print parking violations that must be answered in Town Court for the owner to renew their vehicle registration. This will replace the hand-written system currently in use.
The Greene County Legislature continues to work closely with the NYS DEC, Governor’s office, NY State Police, NYS Parks and local municipalities in mutual efforts to protect the health and safety of visitors and residents while preserving the natural beauty of our Great Northern Catskills Mountain communities.
