There is a view that always gets my heart racing — it's the first peak of the Catskill Mountains while driving north on the Thruway. Better views of the mountains exist, of course, but these first views upon return from elsewhere makes me fall in love with my adopted home all over again. I know I’m preaching to the choir when I say we live in a beautiful place. Thankfully, almost all who live here want to protect it, maintain its character and natural assets. And we mostly do.

Ulster County, all 740,000 acres, hosts numerous parks, the largest being the Catskill State Park with 700,000 acres, more than three times the size of New York City, the majority of which is in Ulster County. We also host the beloved Minnewaska State Park, another 22,250 acres, and Mohonk Preserve next to it, with its 8,000 acres. There are literally dozens of smaller parks and preserves in Ulster. When you add them all up, including those from conservation groups, town and city parks, and privately held in conservation, almost half of the county is set aside for forever protection. This does not include farmland and town zoning that effectively bans any form of building.

With all our preserved bounty of nature, more continues to be asked of us to set aside. No one who lives in Ulster today is far from a park, rail trail or conserved land. We are continuously inspired by the surrounding landscape — remarkable given that the entire county’s forests have been timbered at least once. Living among us are bears, foxes, bobcats, fishers, eagles, sturgeon and seals, and vast forests and open fields filled with wildflowers. With all that is already set aside in protection in the county, what species does not already have a protected home?

Ulster County, to some environmentalists, is seen as a “preservation bank” for the planet — pressuring our little county to make up for poor land management in other parts of the nation. But it feels like we’ve hit a tipping point when government gives more attention to a patch of trees than housing for our people. Do red spotted salamanders and pale-bellied frost lichens have more protection for their homes than human beings? If you think humans are the scourge of the planet, we know your answer. But most people feel there has to be a balance found between the two.

Currently in Ulster, there are multiple proposed housing developments in the crosshairs of one-issue activists who always say “no” and can never get to “yes.” And while new legal battles rage, very well-funded New York City-based organizations continue to purchase more tracts of land for preservation. But no one knows, or is willing to share, what the grand plan or goal for land preservation is for Ulster. And worse, no one appears to know what tracts of land are considered “no-build” locations by environmental groups. If public officials know the answers to this, they are not sharing with developers who time and again have to learn the hard way — in court dealing with endless litigation. This is a problem. Exactly what IS the plan for Ulster County by these inter-related environmental groups that are so well-funded from downstate big-buck interests? And why isn’t development, especially for housing, more efficiently guided to avoid these pointless battles?

With Ulster at or close to 50 percent of its land in conservation, and many of our towns’ zoning requiring 1-3 acres of land per single-family house, how much county land is sought to be preserved forever that would be considered enough? 60 percent? 75 percent? And what does this do to our tax rolls moving forward? What about housing? Where CAN we build?

Recently I decided to put these questions directly to the current executive director of the Woodstock Land Conservancy. While I was promised a response, in the end I received no reply and got ghosted. But not to let a good written word go waste, I will share with you, curious readers, some of the questions I asked of the WLC, so you can ask them too:

Can development ever be done with an acceptable impact upon the environment?
In order to address the local housing crisis, do you believe building new housing is a part of the solution?
Can the local development application and procedures timeline for housing be shortened in order to get it onto the market more quickly? If so, what suggestions might you offer?

Would your organization be willing to identify local areas where development could happen, including multi-family housing, with your support, or at least not your opposition? Would your organization share local maps noting areas where it feels development is inadvisable or will be opposed?

I do not think asking these questions impertinent, but they may be awkward. Since powerful environmental groups hold considerable sway over local officials, control so much county land and publicly weigh in on community issues like housing, we deserve to know what their positions are for solving our housing crises, beyond repeatedly saying “no.” We should also know more about how they are funded, since numerous anonymous donors are currently working in concert with them. I suspect these groups do not want to share their views because it would alarm locals. It’s a roadmap for mass displacement of locals in favor of fewer, wealthier people.

My critique of these professional organizations is not intended to dismiss my many friends who consider themselves environmentalists. I consider myself one too. But well-funded organizations, increasingly guided by macro-social and environmental engineering, are not the same as individuals recycling, planting vegetable gardens or choosing dolphin-safe tuna.

The needless litigation, delay tactics, histrionics and cynical use of development opposition as fundraising opportunities degrade environmental groups’ brands, displays tone deafness and is increasingly at odds with the needs of the local public. They drive up costs to do business locally, demand deal-killing concessions, are unprepared for negotiation and foment local NIMBYism (Not In My Backyard).

In sum, they are increasingly part of the problem, not the solution. Since these groups locally command so much power and influence, it’s well overdue that we know what their master plan is for Ulster beyond bromides of “clean air and water.” Instead of expecting battles at planning boards and the courts, communities should be able to plan for sustainable economic development without looking over their shoulders wondering if another lawsuit is incoming. Our citizens deserve better and deserve to be trusted with the truth.

Raleigh Green is a local business owner specializing in marketing communications consulting and services. If you enjoy this column, please “like” it on social media and share online.