The celebration of Earth Day on April 22, 1970 was the national eye-opener for considering the natural environment beyond a local scale. As for the Town of Rockland, environment protection before Earth Day meant placing the town dump out of sight and downwind, change the recently drafted local zoning document to accommodate developers, ridding the town of junk cars by means of riverbank stabilization and clearing litter along local rivers so as to not offend out-of-town fishermen. Overall, most town officials and village businessmen pitted the issue of tax relief against long-term environmental protection. Beginning in 1971, the struggle between these two opposing philosophies found a battleground on the shores of Edgewood Lakes, becoming front page and editorial fodder by both the publisher and manager of Don Battey’s two local papers, the Livingston Manor Times and the Sullivan County Press.

The Beaverkill and Willowemoc rivers are two of the most prized resources in our area, and they have been vigorously defended over the years from various degradation schemes. Acid factory operations throughout the region were on the decline during the early twentieth century as hardwood timber, necessary for the operation, was becoming harder to come by. Arthur Leighton, whose acid factory was located below Horton, devised a scheme to harvest lumber from the Hardenburg section of the Beaverkill headwaters and float the logs, willy-nilly, down the length of the river to his factory. Wealthy landowners along the river as well as the Beaverkill, Salmo-Fontinalis, and Balsam Lake fishing clubs succeeded in obtaining court injunctions to stop the folly.

New York City has long been attracted to the waters of the two rivers to help satisfy their thirsty needs. Throughout the first thirty years of the twentieth century, river gauges placed along both rivers monitored water quantity flow and the valley walls were probed in search for suitable location for dam sites. In 1931, the spirited drive by sportsmen and conservationists succeeded in their fight to preserve both river valleys from inundation by a United State Supreme Court decision. Still, as late as 1948, surveys conducted in both valleys continued to spur speculation as to their purpose.

Both the Willowemco and Beaverkill rivers have long gained national attention with sportsmen and conservationists. It is therefore no wonder that environmental and conservation groups at the national level became interested in the Edgewood Lakes project. Though small in comparison to earlier incidents, the new public awareness of environment degradation was now being proven to be no longer just strictly a local issue.