Public Access

Riverkeeper believes that every citizen deserves not only a clean river, but also a way to experience and enjoy it. If people are allowed to use the river, then they will appreciate it, and they will defend it.

• Accessing a shared public resourceOverview

  Once highly polluted, the Hudson River has experienced a remarkable recovery in the past 30 years, rebounding from decades of neglect and abuse. The improvement in water quality has sparked a renewed and widespread interest in water-related recreation. As the river gets cleaner, opportunities for recreation and enjoyment increase. But those opportunities are only theoretical if there’s no access. The significance of this natural treasure in our midst is greatly diminished if the communities living along its shores are physically disconnected from it. And, unfortunately, that has been the case for many years.

  Typically, much of the riverfront has been off-limits to ordinary citizens. Towns often treated the river as their “back door” – a place to hide unsightly factories, sewage plants and garbage dumps. Access to the river has been blocked by industrial uses, barbed-wire fences and, most significantly, railroad tracks. Most of the Hudson shoreline, both east and west, is girded by train tracks, which severely limit the public access to the river. Riverkeeper first got involved in the railroad issue in 1993 when it received a call from a fisherman who had been arrested for fishing on the river side of the tracks.

  To truly appreciate the Hudson and all its wonder, people need to be able to get to the water’s edge, and also onto and into the river for swimming, boating and fishing. Many riverfront communities are currently redeveloping their waterfronts. Our challenge is to ensure that true public access is not denied by commercial development. We endeavor to protect all the various recreational uses of the river – fishing, sailing, motor boating, canoeing, kayaking and swimming, as well as more passive forms of recreation. And this access needs to be provided in an environmentally-sensitive manner, not harming – and preferably enhancing – habitat in the process.

• Maps

  To review and download maps showing boating and fishing access points throughout the Hudson River Estuary visit the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation site: http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/41728.html