GARDINER … New York state opened a 2,518-acre expansion of Minnewaska State Park Preserve Tuesday, ending a four-year episode that sparked the Save the Ridge campaign against the largest private land owner on the Shawangunk Ridge.
In 2002, John Atwater Bradley partnered with investors and a developer to build a golf course and 350 homes on the scenic Awosting Reserve. Their relationship soured, and ended up in court, leaving a court-appointed arbiter to determine the fate of the land.
The conservation groups Open Space Institute and the Trust for Public Land bought the Awosting Reserve property for $17 million late last year, beating out a bid from movie star and Gardiner resident Robert De Niro.
The groups re-sold the land to New York, which bought the addition to Minnewaska with money from its Environmental Protection Fund.
