Conservancy gets Knox land
Preserve: 138 acres of tremendous benefit


KNOX — Daniel Driscoll is excited about the new preserve in Knox, calling it a "tremendous benefit" to the town, and he’s doing everything he can to get the town involved and allow visitors access to the property.

Dr. Steve Brown, a retired biology professor at the University at Albany and environmentalist, donated his land along Bozenkill Road this summer to the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy, a private, not-for-profit organization based in Slingerlands.

The 138-acre preserve includes land on both sides of Bozenkill Road with about 3,000 feet of frontage, and on both sides of the Canadian Pacific railroad. Wolf Creek and an unnamed creek run through it, and the forest is made up of hardwoods — maple, oak, and hickory. The preserve also has six waterfalls.

During the 25 years they owned the land, Brown and his wife, Dr. Patricia Brown, also a biology professor and environmentalist, slowly created a network of trails.

Patricia Brown, who taught at Siena College, died in 2004, and the family donated the land to the conservancy to preserve it for public enjoyment. According to Knox Town Assessor Russell Pokorny, the 138.6-acre parcel has a full-value assessment of $163,077.

To date, Driscoll said, the conservancy has protected more than 1,300 acres in the region. Driscoll, its president, helped found the organization in 1992. Last week, he introduced the latest aquisition to the Knox Town Board and asked for the town’s help.

The property, he said, doesn’t have an adequate parking area for visitors.

Driscoll asked for the town to help access the property by grading an area along Bozenkill Road, clearing it of trees and brush, and adding a layer of shale to make a small parking area large enough for six cars.

A culvert, he said, is already in place, to access the property. Supervisor Michael Hammond told The Enterprise this week that he and Highway Superintendent Gary Salisbury haven’t yet looked at the property, but plan to in the future.

Driscoll also plans to erect kiosks with visitor information about the trails and features of the preserve.

The property, Driscoll said, will foster recreation and preserve the town’s rural character.

The conservancy has three preserves in the town: the Hudson and Nancy Winn Preserve, the Bozenkill Creek Preserve, and the most recent addition — Brown’s property on Bozenkill Road — is yet unnamed.

The conservancy, Driscoll said, doesn’t want to name it after the donor. He asked the board and residents for suggestions, and added that the name should relate to the history or features of the property.

Brown, who now lives in Michigan, had a house and cabin on the property; the house was sold to a man from Long Island, and the cabin, Driscoll said, was given to Brown’s daughter, who lives there part-time.

History of the preserve
"Part of the 12,000 square mile Van Rensselaer estate, known as Rensselaerwyck, this parcel — initially 160 acres — was first passed into public ownership in 1864, when Andrew Van Auken received legal title to the land," Steve Brown wrote in a history of the land.

The land was originally used to raise sheep; the wool went to the Huyck Woolen Mills in Rensselaerville. After the felt market collapsed, the land fell into disuse.

The original farmhouse and barn, located on the north side of Bozenkill Road, were destroyed, and the cottage that now stands at 816 Bozenkill Road, was built on the remains of the farmhouse.

A succession of owners purchased the land during the later part of the 19th century and the first 75 years of the 20th Century. These owners used the land in a variety of ways — operating a commercial stone quarry, building a pheasant-raising barn and cabin for hunting, and erecting barbed-wire fencing for beef cattle.
The Delaware & Hudson Railroad once had "switched siding" on the north side of the property to facilitate loading washed stone into hopper cars.

Exploring

Driscoll, a retired engineer, was born in Brooklyn and now lives in Knox. He said he chose to live in the area because it is close to the Adirondacks and the Catskill mountains.

Having served in the Air National Guard for six years as a surveyor, Driscoll is methodical and precise in measuring. He paces along the road from the prospective parking area on Bozenkill Road to what he thinks would be the best entrance for the public.
As he hikes along the trails on the Bozenkill Road preserve, he stops when coming upon a unique feature of the property. Since the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy acquired the property this summer, Driscoll has walked its trails and explored it about "half a dozen times," he said. Each time he visits the property, he said, he finds something new.

As he walks along the trails, Driscoll often breaks free from the footpath and scouts. He studies the property’s boundaries, and considers the most suitable places for public entrances.

Consulting his map of the preserve, Driscoll also takes note of the features of the property. Some features are noted, while others are not. Revisions need to be made.

Though he hasn’t worked with Albany County before on clearing land, Driscoll said, he’s going to talk to the county about clearing brush from a ditch along Bozenkill Road and ask to have a section of a guardrail removed to allow visitor access.

He is also going to ask neighbors for cooperation — maintaining the preserve as well as creating new trails for the public that would edge their properties.

Driscoll stops and takes note of the stone walls that had once served as pens for sheep. The stones, he said, were pushed from under the ground to the surface. This took thousands of years, and, throughout the next thousands of years, the rock will slowly descend back below the surface.

The Browns cleared some spots of the forest and placed benches in the clearing. Driscoll said Brown told him that he and his wife went to these places to meditate.

On the north side of Bozenkill Road, there are ruins of an abandoned wash house, where, Driscoll said, rocks from the nearby quarries were brought and washed. They were then loaded onto railcars just to the north.

A number of waterfalls also cover the property, and shale and glacial erratics — boulders left by glaciers — line the banks of the streams. Driscoll looked at the waterfalls, not yet frozen by winter’s cold temperatures.
"This is an amazing gift Steve Brown gave to the town of Knox," he said.