The Department of Environmental Conservation is providing 150 trees that we, Permaculture Land Trust, with the Town of Wawarsing and the DEC, are organizing and planning to plant on the banks of the Sandburg Creek, just across from the Village of Ellenville sewage treatment plant and just above where the Fantine Kill flows into it.

This will be our first permaculture forest garden on public land!

A true legacy landscape for future generations to appreciate, many of the species we are planting will live for centuries on this protected land providing abundant harvests of high quality, nutrient dense food, while improving the stream habitat by providing shade and leaf litter for macro invertebrates. The land will be able to mature into a truly old growth anthropogenic forest, as it is protected under DEC easements.

Join Us on Saturday, October 17, 2026 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. at the Sandburg Creek in Ellenville for DEC’s program Trees for Tribs with Beth Roessler and Dustin Meny, Hudson Estuary Trees for Tribs Staff, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the NYS Water Resources Institute.

Hudson River Estuary Program are teaming up with me, Andrew Faust of the Permaculture Land Trust, and the Town of Wawarsing to plant 150 curated native trees and shrubs in Bob Mangles Park along the banks of the Sandburg Creek where it is in need of some love.

If you are interested in volunteering for this event, please RSVP to andrewfaust12@gmail.com.

The Wawarsing Watershed Educational Park will provide a legacy planting of diverse native trees and historically valuable and productive trees and berries, planted in the Riparian zone, where water meets land. These are universally important places to protect and reforest for optimal stream health. We will be creating this Native Food Forest in the floodplain of the confluence of the Sandburg Creek, the Beer Kill, and the Fantine Kill, on land that is protected under easements.

We will be planting a forest garden and will create an educational park informed by the permaculture model that blends well and improves the local ecology. This will include selected varieties of regionally appropriate and valuable nut trees, fruits, berries, fuelwood, and lumber trees while providing improved water quality in the streams and preventing bankside erosion and pollinator habitat throughout the proposed planting areas.

After the forest is planted we envision high quality signage about:

• The stream corridors, the watershed

• Historic uses

Land management techniques by indigenous and colonial eras

• Specific plants and existing species

• Describing key habitats of note

• Indigenous uses, practices

• Local colonial heritage, and contemporary uses

The informational signage will highlight:

• Watershed science

• Local ecology

• Natural & Cultural History

• Economic realities

There will also be signage about natural succession and how to “Read the Landscape,” interpret local ecology, and natural history from what plants and geography reveal.

The early phases of the project will include approval by the town board and applying the DEC Trees for Tributaries grant funding for the plantings supplemented with donations and fundraising work we will pursue.

The park is open to the public with some areas having more limited access.

The park will be a resource for nature enthusiasts, school field trips; SUNY and other college students. It will provide education on watershed science, ecology, evolution, the natural history of the area, land management practices in the region, becoming a valued resource for our cultural heritage.

Permaculture Land Trust will work with Rondout Creek Watershed Alliance, Riverkeeper, and other nonprofit organizations to inform and create the signage about the watershed, with High Quality well researched graphics.