Warm winters? No problem for Dutchess County parks
As the climate continues to change across the Hudson Valley, the local parks systems are learning to adjust with the seasons. But, the lack of winter events can create opportunities for the parks in other ways.
Dutchess County saw record lows in snowfall and record highs in temperature throughout the winter months. Save for the winter storms in late February and early March, the area was largely without snow accumulation despite averaging over 44 inches of snowfall per year.
For many local parks, this meant that many standard winter events and activities were unable to be held.
“The kids didn’t get to do much sledding this year,” said Serge Naly-Wayko, the assistant parks and recreation director for Dutchess County. “They really didn’t get to do any because we really only had big snow for maybe one or two days and that was it.”
The Dutchess County parks department also planned to hold the Dutchess Rail Trail Nordic Ski Weekend in Poughkeepsie in collaboration with the Hudson Valley Ski Association. The event, planned for Feb. 11 and 12, had to be canceled due to the weather. On Feb. 11, it was 44 degrees and sunny with no snow on the ground.
Despite the lack of winter activities in the county, the low levels of snowfall have lifted a major financial burden for the parks department. Winter events are costly against the county budget, but snow removal costs are responsible for a large portion of the department’s spending during the winter.
“It definitely kept our expenses lowered,” said Naly-Wayko. “We can definitely use that to add some activities coming up due to the fact that we didn’t have to use all of that snow removal money for fueling all of those vehicles.
Naly-Wayko did not have any information on the upcoming events that would be held; once they are announced, they will be available on the department website.
For the Town of Wappingers parks and recreation department, the solution to the unpredictable winter weather is not scheduling winter events at all.
“Other than our tree lighting, we haven’t really been booking events throughout the winter,” said Jessica Fulton, the recreation programming director in the Town of Wappinger. “We don’t do a winter fest or anything where we expect to have snow on the ground.”
Moving forward, the spring and early summer months are projected to be warmer than average with high levels of rainfall. This could be problematic for parks in the Town of Wappinger that commonly struggle with flooding.
“The main way the weather has affected our change in programming is that some parks that were prone to flooding are now flooding much more frequently,” said Fulton. “Some of our parks have had minor flooding issues in the past, but it’s gotten significantly worse over the last couple years, especially at Schlathaus Park.”
Schlathaus Park is the main venue for the majority of the events coordinated by the Wappingers recreation department, including the annual Community Day Parade and the Summer Concert Series. No adjustments are expected to be made to these events for the time being.
