ALBANY COUNTY — Friends of Five Rivers has received $27,638 from the state to increase marketing and outreach throughout the greater Capital Region.

The award is “to ultimately drive up community engagement, membership, and volunteerism,” according to a Jan. 5 release from the governor’s office.

The focus for this round of grants is on the 2024 New York State Park Centennial Celebration, which promotes public use of the parks.

Twenty-seven not-for-profit organizations involved with stewardship of state parks, trails, historic sites, and other public lands were awarded a total of $1.8 million.

The Five Rivers Environmental Education Center, located in the towns of New Scotland and Bethlehem, includes over 450 acres of wetlands, forests, and fields, with 10 miles of trails.

The Friends of Five Rivers is a not-for-profit group of volunteers that supports environmental programs at the center.

The center started in 1933 when the state’s conservation department purchased two farms to create the Delmar Experimental Game Farm, according to a history provided by the Department of Environmental Conservation.

Upland game birds and waterfowl were in serious decline and the department wanted to learn more about the propagation and management of those species.

In the midst of the Great Depression, a Civilian Conservation Corps Camp put up buildings and fences and developed access roads throughout the property to prepare the site for game farming. CCC crews also created ponds by damming the Vlomankill, using limestone blocks salvaged from the abandoned Watervliet Lock of the old Erie Canal.

Each fall, upland game birds and waterfowl raised at the farm were released on state lands throughout New York. “The Canada geese that nest at Five Rivers today are thought to be descended from birds originally raised here,” says the DEC history.

A Wildlife Research Center was established in 1941 to expand ongoing pathology studies, as well as to field test theories in wildlife management. “Techniques developed on site such as aging deer via dentition, perfecting the cannon-net and modeling wildlife populations via biometrics revolutionized the wildlife management profession nation-wide,” the history says.

In 1948, to redirect increasing public interest away from the sensitive conservation research activities on site, staff began developing an exhibition of caged wildlife in the area next to the main parking lot.

“The menagerie came to be known far and wide as the Delmar Zoo, and firmly established the site as a vibrant educational institution,” he history says. “Tens of thousands of families and school groups visited this remarkable collection annually.”

When the conservation department reorganized as the DEC in 1970, the game farm and zoo were closed.

“Because the site had become such an important community asset, a group of concerned citizens organized and successfully convinced the state to transform the abandoned site into an environmental education center,” the history says.

The new facility, opened to the public in 1972, was renamed the Five Rivers Environmental Education Center, a name suggested by University at Albany meteorologist Vincent Schaefer, to denote the five rivers which comprise the watershed within the center’s service area: the Hudson, Mohawk, Hoosic, and Sacandaga rivers and the Schoharie Creek.

“Friends Groups are crucial to helping our State Parks succeed, and these grants will help leverage their hard work to make our State Park system even better for all,” said Governor Kathy Hochul in the release announcing the awards.

Five other grants were announced for Capital Region venues:

— The Upper Hudson Northern Catskill Natural Resource Trust, doing business as Greene Land Trust, got $26,500 for the replacement and sizing of a washed-out culvert at Brandow Point Unique Area including correcting the hanging culvert at the outlet to reconnect the stream with the Hudson River;

— Friends of Schuyler Mansion in Albany got $33,264 for a floor cloth, drapes, and accessories for the first floor parlor. The project also includes an 18th-Century fabric catalog reproduction for a tactile experience, and a partnership with The Center for Independent Living to teach descriptive interpretation for visual impairments and for those who learn differently;

— Saratoga Mountain Bike Association received $11,835 to hire a designer to create a new user-friendly website as well as new marketing and promotional materials to help increase membership and visibility;

— Friends of Clermont got $54,000 to restore a historic garden wall that will allow for the replanting of flowers and plants within the garden, improving it for future programs and events; and

— Harlem Valley Rail Trail Association received $125,100 to build capacity and expand its outreach by hiring a professional marketing, fundraising, and communications firm and to devise a multi-year plan to raise funds for the completion of the trail.