2024 marks the 100th anniversary of New York’s state park system, which oversees more than 250 state parks, historic sites, and recreational trails across New York. It serves about 79 million people per year.
To celebrate, the state is sponsoring the Centennial Challenge, which includes 100 missions that can only be completed at state parks and historic sites. Those who complete 24 out of the 100 missions will earn a commemorative sticker and be entered into a prize drawing for a three-year Empire Pass, which waives day-use and parking fees at all state parks.
"I think I have the best job in state government," said Eric Kulleseid, Commissioner of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, which has organized the Centennial Challenge. "Because I get to steward what are really New York's greatest natural landscapes: our state parks."
New York has always been a leader in conservation and public parks access.
"New York got into the park business really before almost any other state in the country. New York was a leader in the parks movement. In fact, the oldest state park in the country is Niagara Falls, which dates back to the 1880s," said Kulleseid.
It was also in the 1880s that the Adirondacks were set aside as a Forever Wild Preserve.
Kulleseid said that New York, as an early-to-industrialize state, saw the effects of development, "and said, 'We got to set some of these places aside before they become commercialized or industrialized'!"
He said the reason that there are no national parks in New York is because the state was ahead of the game. "It's because New York made those [wilderness areas] into state parks before the federal government was even in this business," said Kulleseid.
In 1924, the New York State Council of Parks was formed, which brought previously uncoordinated and mostly private conservation efforts under one umbrella. That's also when there was a big shift from focusing on scenic beauty, to focusing on public recreation, said Kulleseid, "and providing an outlet for people for healthy lifestyles and affordable, affordable leisure destinations."
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the NYS Council of Parks, the state is encouraging New Yorkers to explore, adventure, and learn about the history of state parks through the 100 unique missions of the Centennial Challenge.
"And we're asking people to complete 24 missions out of those hundred," said Kulleseid.
Example missions include camping at one of the state's 8500 campsites, visiting a park you've never been to before with a picnic, and joining a volunteer event at your nearby state park. "These are kinds of things just to make people just think about the park system and maybe ask questions and have new experiences that they haven't had before," said Kulleseid.
Kulleseid said that "there's a risk sometimes that people take our park system for granted," and that the goal of the Centennial Challenge is to get New Yorkers to see the state's park system with new eyes and "with new appreciation."
And learn a little history.
After the founding of the New York State Council of Parks in 1924, 55 new state parks were created in New York in less than a decade, and there was continuous expansion of the park system until the late 1900s. "During the Depression, a lot of federal dollars came in to help continue to build the park system," said Kulleseid. "And you continued to see this expansion of recreational facilities."
Then, in the late 1900s, budget cuts weakened the system. "It really started suffering, the whole system started to really suffer from and deteriorate from lack of investment," said Kulleseid, noting that 2008 "was the very bottom of the barrel." The financial crisis prompted proposals to close about a third of the state's parks.
But they weren't closed, and Kulleseid said that out of that dark moment came "a whole new era of of investment, and recapturing and rebuilding our parks. And that's we're sort of celebrating 100 years of: the continued restoration and return of the state park system."
He encourages residents to get out and visit their favorite parks, as well as find new ones to love. They might be surprised.
"You know, we've invested a lot. There's been a transformation in our parks," he said. "Maybe people who haven't been to a park in a while will come back and see how we've upgraded and become a whole different quality experience than we were 20 years ago."