Hillcrest Conservation Park should be revitalized 

Published in Evening Sun August 19, 2010

Editor,  

Pat Scott’s article “Top o’the Hill: A brief history of the Hillcrest Conservation Park,” in The Evening Sun, Thursday, Aug. 5, 2010, certainly caught the attention of members of the Norwich High School Class of 1955, as we began assembling for our 55th reunion, Aug. 13-15. Not only is Pat an esteemed member of the class, but her description of what was accomplished in the 1950s, and plea for reopening the park, struck a deep chord in many of those who gathered for our reunion.  

On Thursday, Aug. 12, classmate Harris Manwarren arranged for Bullthistle Hiking Club member Don Windsor to take classmates Stan White and myself to the old stone quarry and Hillcrest Park. Don’s expertise in the flora of the area especially was a joy.

 We relived again the days when teachers Lyman Anderson, E. Vail Shelden and Stan Gibson made NY State education history by developing a curriculum and program in conservation. They were ably coordinated by high school principal Russell Hogue and superintendent Earl Soper.

 But what we have today on the original 55.876 acres is an ecological disaster. We planted multiflora rose and honeysuckle as borders. The US Dept. of Agriculture didn’t realize that both would spread into the fields, and take over. We planted 2,000Christmas trees in the meadow, which were supposed to be harvested in 6-8 years and the money given to the Student Loan Fund. The trees are now 30 feet tall, and with the multiflora rose and honeysuckle, have destroyed the 20 acres of meadow. The two lean-tos were early vandalized, and the trails now blocked by multiflora rose, except for a few ATV trails.

 For our reunion of Aug. 13-15, a 20 page article was developed to help revitalize the park: “Hillcrest Conservation Park (and Stone Quarry?) – A Proposal.” It includes documentation from the NHS yearbook Archive for 1952-58, accounts from the high school newspaper The Hi-Tribune, and most importantly, the revival and renaming of the park in the early 1990s to “Hillcrest Environmental Studies Center,” as explained in The Evening Sun, April 15, 1991, p. 3.

 There are two immediate possibilities. First, the Norwich Board of Education can realize that their goal to keep the park “forever wild” (Pat Scott’s article) is certainly not the state the park is in now. It should at least be restored to its 1950s condition, if not improved. Secondly, Rogers Environmental Education Center could partnership with the Board of Education and at least give tours of Hillcrest as an example of how not to keep a place forever wild.

 If you have a chance to visit Steamtown, the National Historic Site run by the National Park Service, Scranton, Pa., you will see what could happen to the bluestone quarries of Norwich and Oxford. Since Chenango, Cortland and Otsego counties are the upper tip of the federal Appalachian Region, there is money available for such projects. Chenango County already has an application to the Appalachian Regional Commission for child care. Hillcrest for ecology and the stone quarry for jobs and tourism could develop side by side.

 Copies of the 20-page “Proposal” have been left at Guernsey Memorial Library, Local History Section, and Chenango County Historical Society Museum. Copies were given to the members of the Class of 1955, and to members of other classes of the same era.

One objection raised is that teens of today are interested only in computers, and have to be pushed into the great outdoors. That is certainly an issue which educators are dealing with.

The effort to combat childhood obesity could result in the park being used for hiking, organized treasure hunts, family picnics, and ecological education. The BP Gulf tragedy means that ecology will be in the forefront of education.  During my time at the class reunion, Lane Anderson loaned me his father’s MA thesis at Colgate University (1951)

“A Study in Conservation Education through The Rehabilitation of School Owned Idle Lands” (180pp). Lane also loaned me the 20 page “For the Preservation and Observation of Wildlife, Hillcrest Environmental Studies Center,” Sept. 1953, revised May, 1972. Both documents are marvelous proofs of what can be done. The second document includes this provocative statement: “I give my pledge as an American to save and faithfully to defend from waste the natural resources of my country – its soil, air and minerals, its forests, waters, and wildlife.”

 Contact your favorite school teacher, administrator, Board of Education member, classmate and friends, to see if the park and quarry can be revitalized in the spirit of the pledge. (Father) Harry Winter NHS 1955 St. Paul, Minn.

You will note Cara's photo, taken by Stan White, (April 2010,) among those posted with Superintendent O'Sullivan's photos. At that time she was director of the Americorps Program at the Christian Neighborhood Center (The Place) in Chenango County. This federally funded program for hiring people to improve the streams, fields and forests of Chenango County enabled Cara to know every nook and cranny of our area. In August 2011, she became coordinator for the Friends of Rogers Environmental Education Center, Inc (Sherburne) after the State of NY told Chenango County that the state would be closing the Center.

Cara led Rogers until January of this year, when various changes occurred in their operations. She has now left Chenango County. She was instrumental in getting BOCES and many other players interested in reviving Hillcrest. She is greatly missed. Godspeed you, Cara, in your future endeavors; may you be most welcome when you visit Chenango County.