the Catskills. All activities are listed in the Club’s quarterly newsletter, the Catskill Canister, which also includes poetry, short articles about hiking and the Catskills and news about members. Advocacy It has also advocated for the interests of hikers in the Catskills, lobbying against the construction of a trail up the north ridge of Slide and in favor of expanding the amount of Forest Preserve designated as wilderness, for example. In recent years the Club has also begun to take a more active stewardship role, helping to raise money for construction and maintenance efforts and land purchases. Canister controversy This role brought it into conflict with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, which manages the Catskill lands, in 1999 when DEC's Unit Management Plan for the Slide Mountain Wilderness Area called for the removal of the canisters from the trailless peaks in that unit, arguing that they were not consistent with wilderness values and contributed to degradation of the summits. After an overwhelming response in favor of retaining them, DEC and the Club reached a compromise in the pending update to the Catskill Park State Land Master Plan in which DEC would take over ownership of the canisters, the names of mountains would be removed from the exteriors and the canisters themselves repainted a dull grey on those summits that lie within areas designated Wilderness by the DEC. References Waterman, Guy and Laura, Forest and Crag: A History of Hiking, Trail Blazing and Adventure in the Northeast Mountains, Appalachian Mountain Club, Boston, Mass., 1989. 640, 649. The Catskill Canister. Quarterly publication, 1968 to present External links Club website Membership Requirements Hiking organizations in the United States Catskills Environmental organizations based in New York (state) Peak bagging in the United States Sports organizations established in 1965