Spring goes by many names – mud-luscious. Puddle-wonderful. Nature’s way of saying “Let’s party!”
It can also be an unpredictable time to enjoy the outdoors. One day it’s sunny and daffodils are sprouting. The next, they’re covered in a light snow and you’re inside under a blanket.
CLC has spent nearly two years creating a guide dedicated to helping people navigate outdoor recreation. We call it GoCoCo – Go Columbia County. This project was funded by a grant from the New York State Conservation Partnership Program.
Creating this guide supports one of the three pillars of CLC’s 2024-28 Strategic Vision – connecting people to the land. But how can you connect to the land if you aren’t sure where to go or what activities you can do there? GoCoCo answers that question! As one of CLC’s closest friends, we’re excited to share a sneak peek of this new initiative!
What is GoCoCo?
It began with a series of questions. Visitors to the CLC office, inquiries to the [email protected] inbox, phone calls from curious folks. “There’s so much beautiful public open space in Columbia County,” they’d say, “but I’m not sure where I can go fishing.” Another would ask about trails suitable for a visiting friend who uses a wheelchair. Another wondered about the best places to catch a glimpse of migrating birds. Often, the answers weren’t clear.
CLC has made efforts in previous years to make it easier to find the answers. First, there was the book Walks by Protected Lands by former trustee Sheldon Evans. Folks love this book and still ask for it by name! But updating and producing an entire volume is a large undertaking in terms of time and expense. Then, we created Columbia County Outdoors – a series of maps and smaller guidebooks that were easy to tuck into your back pocket. But the smaller size made it hard to include relevant information, and relying on print media made staying up-to-date difficult.
GoCoCo is, first and foremost, a website – LetsGoCoCo.org. You can search the site in several ways – filtering for activities like fishing, hiking, hunting, or swimming. You can filter by amenities like ADA-accessible trails, picnic tables, and bathrooms. You can exclude sites from your search if they won’t allow you to bring your dog along with you. In addition to the filtering and mapping features, the site also includes a blog with useful updates about outdoor recreation in every season, tips for enjoying nature safely and respectfully, and information about volunteering and getting involved.
CLC has also created a single-page print map with every public site in Columbia County and answers to frequently asked questions about recreation opportunities. English and Spanish-language versions of the guide are available for free at the CLC office and participating libraries throughout Columbia County. The guides will officially be available on Earth Day 2025, and CLC will celebrate with a launch party on May 3. Stay tuned, more details to come!
Going beyond the trails
GoCoCo isn’t just about helping people find nature in their neighborhood – it’s also about recognizing and honoring the many ways people have cared for land for centuries.
A keystone piece of this effort was collaborating with Justin Wexler of Wild Hudson Valley to conduct archival research and create a report on the precolonial human history of Columbia County. This report includes substantial information about the Mohican people and their Lenape relatives, their language and dialects, and how their clans functioned and still function today. In addition to this thorough grounding in precolonial culture, the report invites the reader to imagine the precontact landscape, specifically at properties currently stewarded by CLC today.
At each of these places, and in the areas surrounding them, this research draws a throughline through time. The fields and forests we see at these public properties today are the result of active management by Native peoples, who practiced techniques like low-intensity burning. This report is currently being finalized, and CLC will make it available to our tribal partners and the public once it is completed.
In addition to exploring the precolonial history of the area, GoCoCo fostered a series of other collaborations with local leaders and volunteers. Maria Jimena Concha, Spanish teacher at Hawthorne Valley, translated the site into Spanish, taking great care to ensure that the site was not only accurate, but also conveyed the meaning behind the idioms and place names used for various sites. Sarah Katan, artist and storyteller from Ancram, spearheaded the effort to include social stories for each of the CLC public lands and provided valuable feedback on the accessibility features of the site. Leigh McBride and Mack McCormack, birders extraordinaire from Craryville, visited every Columbia Land Conservancy property (and every trail at each property!) to test new georeferenced maps. Stuyvesant Falls resident Kathryn Schneider, past President of the New York State Ornithological Association and former member of the Columbia County Environmental Management Council, shared her expert insights on the best places for birding.
I can’t wait for you to explore GoCoCo and see what you find! Thank you for being part of the community of donors, volunteers, and supporters that makes so much good work happen in Columbia County.
Sincerely,
Troy Weldy
President
P.S. Want to get out and GoCoCo together? Find your next favorite place on the website and get in touch! You can reach me at 518.557.1762 or by email at [email protected].
