The Congressman Maurice D. Hinchey Catskills Visitor Center is more than a place to pick up a map. It is the Catskill Park’s official visitor center. A welcoming front door to the Park, a source of trusted information, and a place where people begin to understand how to explore the Catskills safely and responsibly.
For more than a decade, the Catskill Center and New York State have worked together to make that possible. Today, that public-private partnership is essential to meeting the growing demand for visitor services across the Catskill Park, and it is why the Catskill Center is asking New York State to increase its annual support for the Visitor Center from $250,000 to $325,000 in the Environmental Protection Fund (EPF).
A Gateway to the Catskill Park
The Catskills Visitor Center sits on 60 acres of Catskill Center–owned forests, fields, and wetlands in Mount Tremper. It is home to accessible walking trails, picnic areas, wildlife-viewing opportunities, access to Esopus Creek, and the Upper Esopus Fire Tower. But its greatest value is the role it plays every day: helping people turn an interest in the Catskills into a safe, meaningful, and respectful experience.
Visitors arrive with questions. Where can we hike today? What trail is appropriate for our group? Is parking available? What rules apply at high-use destinations? Where can we find a local restaurant, shop, or cultural attraction after a day outdoors?
The Catskills Visitor Center provides answers before visitors reach a trailhead, a narrow mountain road, or a busy Forest Preserve destination. That matters more than ever as outdoor recreation continues to grow and the Catskills face the same challenges seen across public lands nationwide, heavy use at popular sites, limited parking, changing conditions, and the need to protect the landscapes people come here to enjoy.
A Partnership That Works
The Catskills Visitor Center exists because of a longstanding partnership between the Catskill Center and New York State. The Catskill Center purchased and owns the property; New York State has supported capital construction at the site, including the Visitor Center building, pavilion, and Fire Tower; and the Catskill Center operates the facility year-round under an agreement with New York State.
State funding helps support the daily work that makes the Visitor Center effective: staffing, education, outreach, maintenance, exhibits, interpretation, maps, and visitor resources. The Catskill Center raises the remaining operating support through individual donors, foundations, and other institutional partners.
This partnership allows the State and the Catskill Center to do more together than either could do alone. It ensures that the Catskill Park has a consistent, public-facing source of information and a place where visitors can connect with the region before heading into the Forest Preserve.
Helping People Recreate Responsibly
The Catskills Visitor Center’s work does not stop at its front door. It is part of a wider stewardship system that helps visitors make informed choices across the Catskills.
Through maps, exhibits, printed materials, digital resources, programming, and direct conversations with staff, the Visitor Center helps people understand where and how to recreate responsibly. It supports safe trip planning and connects visitors to the communities, businesses, and cultural resources that make the Catskills a distinctive place.
The Visitor Center also complements the Catskill Stewards Program, which works directly with visitors at high-use locations such as Kaaterskill Falls, Peekamoose Blue Hole, Platte Clove, the Devils Path, and Catskill Fire Towers. In 2026, Catskill Stewards engaged more than 34,213 visitors by mid-July, providing safety information, first aid, stewardship education, parking guidance, and support for responsible recreation.
Together, the Catskills Visitor Center and the Catskill Stewards Program represent a practical approach to active park management. They give visitors good information early, help them make safe choices, direct them toward appropriate experiences, and protect the places that make the Catskills worth visiting in the first place.
Why an Increase is Needed
The current $250,000 EPF appropriation is critical, but it no longer keeps pace with the rising cost of operating a year-round visitor center and its public programs. Utilities, insurance, staffing, maintenance, technology, accessibility, exhibit updates, and visitor services all cost more than they did when the current funding level was established.
The Catskill Center is therefore asking Governor Hochul and the State Legislature to increase the dedicated EPF line item for the Catskills Visitor Center to $325,000.
That additional $75,000 would help the Catskills Visitor Center:
Sustain year-round staff and seasonal stewards who welcome visitors, answer questions, and reinforce safe, responsible recreation.
Maintain and improve exhibits, wayfinding, maps, and educational materials that connect visitors to the Forest Preserve and surrounding communities.
Support visitor education around high-use destinations, including the Peekamoose Blue Hole permit system, regulations at Kaaterskill Falls, and other visitor-use-management efforts.
Maintain the facilities, trails, and grounds that make the Visitor Center a welcoming, safe, and accessible gateway to the Catskill Park.
This is not simply a request to maintain a building. It is an investment in the people, information, and stewardship capacity that help the Catskill Park work for everyone.
An Investment in the Future
The Catskill Center’s strategic plan and the Catskill Strategic Planning Advisory Group’s final report calls for the Catskills Visitor Center to remain a place that inspires respect for the Park, supports responsible access, strengthens local communities, and gives people a deeper connection to this extraordinary region.
Continued State support is central to that work. It leverages private giving, supports a proven public-private partnership, and helps ensure that growing visitation does not come at the expense of safety, stewardship, or the quality of the visitor experience.
The Catskills do not manage themselves. They depend on people, the staff, stewards, volunteers, public agencies, local businesses, and supporters, all working together to care for the landscape and welcome the public well.
A $325,000 annual EPF investment in the Catskills Visitor Center is a practical, cost-effective way for New York State to continue that work.
