A new overlook deck at High Falls in Philmont is finished, and much of it was built from trees cut down just steps away as part of an ongoing forest restoration project. The Levy Lookout deck gives visitors to the Columbia County waterfall a sturdier, more spacious place to take in the view, replacing a worn hillside viewing spot that years of foot traffic had eroded down to exposed tree roots.
The deck was constructed largely from black locust harvested on site during an ecological restoration effort, according to the Columbia Land Conservancy. “The construction of a new deck at the area overlooking High Falls is now complete!” the conservancy announced. Shanti Nagel of Design Wild designed the seating and landscaping around the overlook, work intended to both expand the Levy Lookout space and address the hillside erosion that had been creeping toward the falls, per the conservancy.
Chronogram Magazine, which reported on the trail and overlook upgrades, notes the deck is reached by a staircase and switchbacking ramp, with a stone seating area offering another spot to pause above it. The lookout is named for Mark Levy, a Columbia Land Conservancy board member, and the added room is meant to let visitors spread out rather than crowd a single narrow viewpoint, according to the outlet.
A Years-Long Restoration Effort Behind the New Deck
The deck is one piece of a larger restoration push at the 13-acre High Falls Conservation Area, where invasive species once made up nearly 95 percent of the site's vegetation, Chronogram reports. The land was formerly farmland and a gravel pit before it became part of the conservancy's holdings, and the forest restoration project now underway is aimed at tackling both invasive plants and heavy deer browsing that has made it difficult for young trees to take hold.
That work is backed by a state community reforestation grant, and separately, the Columbia Land Conservancy was awarded $368,426 for restoration and reforestation at High Falls, according to The Daily Gazette. The funding is meant to restore 13 acres of early successional forest by planting trees, treating invasive species, and addressing deer overbrowsing, the paper reports. Altogether, the conservancy is undertaking projects with nearly $1 million in combined investment at High Falls, per Chronogram.
Plans call for roughly 8,000 native trees and plants, including oak, hickory, pawpaw, and American hazelnut, with planting set to begin in 2027 and take about three years to complete, the Daily Gazette reports. The effort dovetails with a statewide push, as New York has set a goal of planting 25 million trees by 2033, according to the same report.
A Ten-Foot Wall of Sticks to Keep Deer Out
To protect those future plantings, the conservancy has built what amounts to a giant barrier out of invasive trees it has already cleared. “It is essentially a 10-foot-tall pile of sticks,” Columbia Land Conservancy's Patrick Knapp told the Daily Gazette. “Then we build an 8-foot fence around that.” The structure, built from felled trees of heaven — an invasive species with little commercial timber value — is designed to keep deer away from the thousands of native trees and shrubs the conservancy intends to plant, according to Chronogram.
Knapp, who leads the conservancy's public lands work, said the broader project has achieved its meaningful purpose, per Chronogram's reporting. The outlet also notes that older trails at High Falls had exposed rocks and roots, while a new gravel route now offers a consistent, even surface from the parking lot to the waterfall as it winds through the area undergoing restoration. Knapp said the steadier footing could benefit parents pulling wagons, people recovering from knee surgery, and others — adding that most people may find themselves needing that kind of trail at some point in life, Chronogram reports. The trails were built to improve accessibility generally rather than to meet specific ADA guidelines, according to the outlet.
Adaptive Hikes Bring Track Chairs to the Falls
The accessibility push extended beyond trail surfaces. Columbia Land Conservancy president Troy Weldy connected with SOAR Experiences, an Ellenville-based nonprofit specializing in adaptive outdoor recreation, at an outdoor conference in Albany, Chronogram reports. The conservancy went on to incorporate trail modifications SOAR suggested, and on October 22, SOAR led a guided adaptive hike at High Falls using motorized track chairs, according to the outlet.
Event materials for that outing, posted by the Columbia Land Conservancy, described a 0.8-mile hike along Locust Lane to reach the Levy Lookout, over a shaded, firm, packed-earth trail with a typical grade of 7 percent and a maximum grade of 15 percent. The listing noted limited equipment availability and first-come, first-served registration, with applicants confirmed as either registered or waitlisted; the event page now shows the hike has passed. Participant Barbara Monteith described the track-chair outing as “off-roading in a wheelchair,” per Chronogram.
Chronogram notes the work was supported in part by a conservation stewardship grant through the Land Trust Alliance's partnership with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, and that nonprofit Greenagers, based in western Massachusetts, assisted with trail construction. The conservancy hopes to collaborate with SOAR again on monthly hikes during the warmer months of 2027, according to the outlet. High Falls draws more than 45,000 visits a year, Chronogram reports, and the conservancy — which manages 11 public properties in the region — is also weighing accessibility plans for its Ooms, Greenport, and Overmountain sites. High Falls itself remains open free daily from dawn to dusk at 540 Roxbury Road in Philmont.
