Belleayre Mountain's Mission Statement

• To preserve and protect the environment
• To provide recreation
• To serve as an economic stimulus to the local region
• At no cost to the tax payer
• To serve as a model for future growth of other ski areas
  

The Catskill Park is a mountainous region of public and private lands in Ulster, Greene, Delaware and Sullivan Counties - the "Forest Preserve" counties. 98 peaks over 3,000 feet form an impressive skyline. This special and often remote mountain landscape was only occasionally habitated by native Americans. Later it was settled by the Dutch, English, Irish and Germans. It's rich history includes logging, bluestone quarrying, leather tanning, wintergreen and blueberry harvesting, trapping, fishing, mountain house tourism, railroads, and even World war II pilot training. Today, a balance between the hands of man and those of nature is returning. Nearly 60% of the lands in the Catskill Park are privately owned, the home of about 50,000 year-around residents; the rest is publicly owned "Forest Preserve".

Along with similar lands in the Adirondacks, the Catskill Forest Preserve was created in 1885 by an act of the New York State Legislature. Attempts to weaken the law that established the Preserve led the State to give it even stronger protection in 1894, when these now famous words were added to the New York State Constitution:
The lands of the state, now owned or hereafter acquired, constituting the forest preserve as now fixed by law, shall be forever kept as wild forest lands. They shall not be leased, sold or exchanged, or be taken by any corporation, public or private, nor shall the timber thereon be sold, removed or destroyed.
Since its creation in 1885, the Catskill Forest Preserve has grown from 434,000 to almost 3,000,000 acres.