Winnakee will offer new trails and forest management workshops at “Robert’s Refuge”
In 2022, a generous donation of 218 acres of forest and wetland by local landowners to Winnakee Land Trust was a huge step forward in our vision of protecting and enhancing forested lands in our community. The preserve, named Robert’s Refuge in honor of the donor and his love for the land, is located in both Clinton and Hyde Park and will soon be home to new trails that will enrich the Hyde Park Trails network. Additionally, Winnakee is opening the site this spring for a forest management workshop.
In 2024, Winnakee received a grant from the Land Trust Alliance and NYS Department of Environmental Conservation’s Conservation Partnership Program that allowed us to improve the parking area and driveway at Robert’s Refuge to better facilitate public access to the preserve. The new parking area will accommodate up to ten cars and will be open once trails are complete.
This March, Winnakee’s Trails Committee braved cold weather to start mapping out potential trail routes on the ground.
Robert’s Refuge will provide much needed public trails to the residents who live in and around northeastern Hyde Park, Staatsburg, Clinton and Rhinebeck. The trails are being designed to reflect the vision of donating landowners for the site to be a sanctuary for wildlife as well as “a quiet place for human visitors to enjoy.”
While exploring the preserve this early spring we were greeted by spring peepers as we passed vernal pools, crossing through deciduous forests, ascending hilly areas where outcropping covered with moss, tall pines and an airy stand of hemlocks opened up to us. This forever protected preserve will provide a hiking haven for generations of its local residents.”
Kathleen Davis, Chair of the Winnakee Trails Committee
Winnakee Land Trust staff, interns, and volunteers are set to begin work on one of these trails this summer. The first loop is planned to be approximately one mile and pass by vernal pools and interesting rock formations and lead up to a robust hemlock forest that has a view of the Shawangunk Mountains (see above photo). We hope to add additional hiking and mountain biking trails throughout the preserve after the summer season.
The Town of Hyde Park as well as Hyde Park Trails Committee is very excited about the news of trails project at Robert’s Refuge. We are pleased to hear Winnakee Land Trust will be adding a little over two miles of hiking trails to Robert’s Refuge. This project will be a nice addition to the current 34 miles of hike trails throughout the Town of Hyde Park. We thank Robert Davis, Jen Adams and the whole team at Winnakee Land Trust for their continuing efforts to grow the amount of hiking trails the town residents can enjoy.
Rob Pollard, Hyde Park Recreation Director and Coordinator for the Hyde Park Trails partnership
“Winnakee is excited to bring these trails to life and offer new ways for local residents and visitors to engage with the natural world,” said Jen Adams, Director of Land Stewardship.
Robert’s Refuge reflects an important land protection effort in our region as a large parcel of contiguous, unfragmented forest of an ecologically significant size, both from a conservation perspective and as a relatively rare large parcel in this part of Dutchess County. The NYS DEC ranked the site in the top 5% for local connectivity of Core Forest in a Forest Linkage Zone. It is also designated as a Significant Biodiversity Area and includes the headwaters of the Fall Kill, a 38-mile long tributary of the Hudson River.
However, like many regional forests, Robert’s Refuge also faces challenges. The local deer population has caused widespread destruction to native tree seedlings, stunting forest regeneration. The property is leased annually to a local hunting group to try to reduce the local deer populations and mitigate their harmful impacts on the forest. During hunting season, the preserve will be closed to the public to ensure safety of both hunters and hikers.
Additionally, the property, which was an agricultural site and red pine plantation 60 years ago, has naturally reforested over recent decades. The even-aged forest stand with significant areas of dead red pine has led to an overall decline in ecosystem health, including lack of understory and midstory habitat for species that depend on it, such as songbirds. The generous donation of this land to Winnakee came with the intent for Winnakee to implement critically needed active management strategies to address the major environmental challenges that the land faces.
This spring, Winnakee will open the site for a special forest management workshop to bring landowners the opportunity to be a part of that active stewardship.
Trevor Keough, Winnakee’s Conservation Forester, is leading a program on May 17th at Robert’s Refuge to demonstrate best practices for collecting forest inventory data and crafting a silvicultural management plan for the forest, which has conditions reflective of many of the forests around Dutchess County.
“Forest management allows us to create ecological conditions that encourage forests to regenerate and become more resilient to climate-related impacts.”
—Trevor Keough, Winnakee’s Conservation Forester
This on-site workshop is one of many new landowner assistance programs that Winnakee Land Trust is rolling out in the coming months. With the majority of NYS forests being privately owned – 13.2 million acres—Winnakee has committed to working with local landowners to teach forest management strategies that can be applied effectively on their land. Visit our Landowner Assistance page to learn more about this pilot program and ways Winnakee is partnering with landowners to equip them with resources for a forest management approach that prioritizes the long-term health, resilience, and ecological function of forests.
Join Trevor on May 17th for his program on “Crafting a Silvicultural Management Plan.”
