For better or for worse, September will always be synonymous with going back to school to me. The better: new school supplies, a fresh haircut, reconnecting with friends. The worse: returning indoors after a summer spent running through damp grass to catch fireflies, getting sunburnt fishing from the bank of a stream, picking blueberries until your fingers were stained.
For students of all ages in Hudson, there will be something to look forward to after school lets out – big improvements are coming to Charles Williams Park, as well as two new trails that will connect this community hub to thousands of acres of conserved land.
The Plan to Conserve Columbia County identified three strategies to pursue in service of ambitiously advancing the pace, scale, and scope of conservation work in Columbia County: conserving 30% of critical lands by 2035, supporting conservation partners, and catalyzing 2,500 acts of caring for land each year. This project advances all three of those strategies.
Renovations to Charles Williams Park
CLC and our partners at New City Parks, Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects, and the City of Hudson will begin work to transform Charles Williams Park into a welcoming community hub later this fall. The result will be more than improved infrastructure – it will be a meaningful expansion of opportunity for recreation, health, connection, and stewardship.
In Hudson and surrounding neighborhoods, families live within sight of extraordinary landscapes yet lack easy ways to experience them. By revitalizing Charles Williams Park and building a connector trail, this project will create a gateway to outdoor spaces that support physical wellbeing, environmental learning, and community connection.
A grant from the State of New York and funds from the Eutopia Foundation will make it possible to complete the first phase of improvements at Charles Williams Park next spring. Grant funds will support key capital improvements including: a destination playground with nature play features, a much-needed basketball court and two pickleball courts, a new pedestrian circulation system with connections to existing and proposed trails, adult fitness stations, improved stormwater infrastructure, and enhancements to biodiversity with native trees and plantings.
What’s next for this project? CLC has applied for a grant from the NY PLAYS: Places for Learning, Activity, and Youth Socialization initiative. Those funds will be used to ensure the full vision for the revitalization of Charles Williams Park is realized.
Connecting Charles Williams Park to Hudson
Before work at Charles Williams Park begins, CLC and Tahawus Trails LP, a professional trail design and construction company, will work together to create a new trail system in Hudson. These trails will connect North Third Street to Mill Street and beyond to the Empire State Trail. Work commenced in early September, and is scheduled to be completed by mid-November.
The new trails will include stone steps, crushed stone landings, and a trail that gradually switchbacks between destinations, making it easier and safer to access the thousands of acres of conserved land and public trails close to Hudson.
Connecting Charles Williams Park to CLC’s Greenport Property
The final piece of the project will be a new trail that connects Hudson to CLC’s Greenport property and beyond to Scenic Hudson’s Harrier Hill Park and New York State’s Stockport Wildlife Management Area.
Making it possible for people to walk from downtown Hudson to CLC’s Greenport property has been a dream more than twenty years in the making.The missing puzzle piece of that dream was a complicated one – how can people connect without crossing dangerous streets or walking across the North Bay landfill? CLC has acquired land from the Hudson Industrial Development Agency, which will make it possible to create the “Whale Trail,” which will connect Charles Williams Park to CLC’s Greenport property.
People who live in and visit Hudson have always been only steps away from hundreds of acres of protected landscapes. With the completion of these trails and the upgrades at Charles Williams Park, it will be possible to choose from a wider variety of outdoor adventures. Hikers can stay close to town, enjoying the small waterfalls and streams carving through the clay around the Park, or make a day of it and use the trail system to go as far north as Scenic Hudson’s Harrier Hill Park – a hike that’s a little over four miles in each direction.
This project will kick off with a groundbreaking in spring of 2028. Work will include construction of new bridges across some of the streams, thoughtfully designed trails designed for high use and longevity, in addition to wayfinding signs and a kiosk.
I’m already excitedly planning my first adventure to experience the newly connected trails. Thank you for the generosity you have already shown with your support of CLC.
Sincerely,
Troy Weldy
President
