The Slide Mountain Wilderness Area is, at , the largest tract of state-owned Forest Preserve in New York's Catskill Park, and the largest area under any kind of wilderness area protection between the Adirondacks and the southern Appalachians. It is located in the towns of Shandaken, Denning and Olive in Ulster County. Location Within those three towns, the Slide Wilderness might be better described as contained within the lands bounded on the north roughly by Esopus Creek and Route 28, the east by Ulster County Route 42 (known in different towns as Sundown Road or Peekamoose Road) almost to the shores of Ashokan Reservoir, the west by Ulster County Route 47, and on the south by Sugarloaf Road and Red Hill Road. The area's wilderness character is buffered not only by restrictive local zoning and conservation of neighboring private lands but also by bordering on two other large state-owned tracts, the Big Indian-Beaver Kill Wilderness Area to the west and the Sundown Wild Forest to the east. Resources Physical According to Catskill forest historian Michael Kudish, the Slide wilderness contains the most extensive tract of first-growth forest in the Catskills. Much of the area remained out of reach during the peak years of logging and barkpeeling from eastern hemlock trees, to make tannin for leather production in the mid-19th century, and thus remained largely untouched. Indeed, the upper valley of the East Branch of the Neversink, located centrally within the SMWA, is the only completely wild valley in the Catskills. It is possible to look out over it from several points on the surrounding mountains and see no evidence of civilization. Within its boundaries lie 10 of the 35 Catskill High Peaks, including the highest Catskill peak, Slide, 4,180 feet (1277 m) of elevation; and lowest, Rocky. Three important regional streams arise within the wilderness as well: the Neversink River, largest tributary of the Delaware; and Hudson tributaries Rondout and Esopus creeks, both of which are impounded to create major reservoirs for the New York City water supply system. There are, however, no lakes or ponds within it. Biological Plant life The tract is almost completely wooded. DEC identifies five distinct forest communities within the Slide Wilderness: three subtypes of the boreal forest found at higher elevations in the Catskills ("mountain fir", "mountain spruce-fir" and "spruce-fir rocky summit"), hemlock-northern hardwood forest and beech-maple mesic forest northern hardwoods, such as sugar