Rensselaer Plateau Alliance
Trail and Wildlife Corridor on the Rensselaer Plateau:
A Vision for Recreation, Tourism, and Conservation
One of Rensselaer County’s special places, the Rensselaer Plateau is one of the largest and most ecologically intact areas of native habitats in New York State. The Rensselaer Plateau Alliance presents here a vision of this landscape preserved for future generations through the development of a trail and wildlife corridor extending down the center of the Plateau.
The Rensselaer Plateau covers about 105,000 acres in the Towns of Berlin, Brunswick, Grafton, Hoosick, Nassau, Petersburgh, Pittstown, Poestenkill, Sand Lake, and Stephentown. An escarpment steeply rising from the surrounding lower elevations marks the Plateau’s boundary. The Plateau’s relatively high elevations (1,000-1,800 feet) and relatively cold climate, its acidic soils, and its poor drainage contribute to plants, forests, and wetlands more similar to the Adirondacks than to the surrounding local area.
The Plateau is estimated to be the seventh largest forested region in New York State, and its forests still exist in relatively large continuous blocks with few dividing roads. The Plateau’s forests provides habitat for many native plants, and for wildlife that require large areas of unbroken forest, such as fisher, bobcat, bear, moose, porcupine, hermit thrush, and black-throated blue warbler. Many of these forest birds are experiencing declining population numbers in the Northeast due in part to loss of large blocks of forest. Several of the plants found on the Plateau are found nowhere else in Rensselaer County, and some are found at only a few locations on the Plateau.
The ecological distinctiveness of the Rensselaer Plateau has led it to be included in the New York State’s Open Space Plan, to be designated as an Important Bird Area by the Audubon Society of New York, and to be the focus of conservation efforts of the Rensselaer-Taconic Land Conservancy and The Nature Conservancy.
Threats to the ecological integrity of the Plateau include large-scale hard-rock mining and residential development spreading from the Albany-Troy area.
The Rensselaer Plateau Alliance, a coalition of local organizations, trail users, and groups, envisions a corridor of protected land connecting existing State Forests, State Parks, private easement lands, and the County’s Dyken Pond Environmental Education Center. This corridor would preserve the large forest blocks and wildlife habitat, while also increasing opportunities for recreation and tourism.
Affiliated Organizations: