User:Seanny101/Saving John Boyd Thacher Park

Saving John Boyd Thacher Park is a collaborative effort of the residents and local governments of New York State to stop the closing of John Boyd Thacher State Park. There are a few Facebook pages as well as various petitions included in the effort.

Brief History of the Park

John Boyd Thacher State Park [1] is a state funded park that resides along the Helderberg Escarpment. It contains roughly 2,155 acres of land and has many hiking and mountain biking trails. The park is used by families, recreational groups, schools, and many others as a facility to become better acquainted with nature and the beauty that Upstate New York has to offer.

Hundreds of years ago, the Mohawk-Iroquois Indians used this land as a traveling route to reach the trading post run by Henry Hudson. In 1914, the land was donated to the people of New York State by the widow of the former mayor John Boyd Thacher. Since then it has been run as a state park. [2]

Call to Action

In late 2009, the current Governor of New York, David Patterson, announced that due to the states' massive budget deficit certain areas of the budget would have to be "trimmed" in order for the state to maintain proper functions. In his budget cuts, the department of Parks and Recreation was included which meant certain parks were either going to be reduced in their functions or totally shut down.

Social Media

In Mid-February the Facebook group 2,000 to Save Thacher Park was created to help organize people in a collective effort to protest the closing of the park. Currently the page has 26,174 followers with the number increasing daily. They offer a forum for people to discuss the park, find out information on how to help, and keep up to date with the latest news through an RSS type feed on their home pages.

Since then several other similar pages have been formed as more and more people have become aware of the parks closing; Save John Boyd Thacher State Park is the most popular and has just over 6,000 followers.

There have also been many people with Twitter accounts that have made brief postings about the park and the petitions involved with it.

Petitions

There are several petitions that have been created for this cause, however a "Google" search only brings up 2. Stop The Closing of Thacher State Park has the most signatures to date with 5,065, and Save John Boyd Thacher Park has 542 signatures to date.

Website

A website has also been created for those to are interested in becoming involved in the fight that includes the latest news, update, links, and other important information relative to the cause.

News Media

There have been several news media sources that have covered those who are advocating for the park to stay open. Fox23 News , WNYT , All Over Albany AndyArthur.org , The Times Union and many others have all included links to their print media and some have included live news stories as well.

The media has played an important role in assisting the people who are fighting against the state by frequently covering their actions and keepin the local people up to date with the latest news regarding the park.

Outcome

There has not been an outcome regarding the efforts of the people involved, although the Government did release an official list of parks slated for closure and Thacher Park made the list.

Add to This Article

If you have read this and feel it's not thorough enough please feel free to add to it or make any corrections you deem neccessary, just leave a note about what you did and why please :)