[at-l] Laraunce Rockefeller OT

[RoksnRoots at aol.com (RoksnRoots@aol.com)]

          Died at 94. NY hikers probably don't realize his conservation 
efforts helped preserve several pocket parks near the NJ border on the Palisades 
helping the NY Long Path with forest buffer as it winds up through Rockland 
County. Due to Rockefeller's efforts the 500 foot cliffs of the NJ Palisades were 
saved from having high rise apartments along the ridge. The Long Path enjoys 
this wooded clifftop strip for its first 15 miles from New York City.

            Rockefeller pulled into St Johns, US Virgin Islands on his yatch 
in 1952 and eventually established a 50,000 acre national park there 
preserving a large intact area of Caribbean dry forest landscape. His hotel at Caneel 
Bay was one of the first "eco-tourism" lodges designed around getting people 
into wild surroundings directly from the premises. The moderately upscale lodge 
had no phones or TV's in its habitations. 

          Rockefeller was appointed to the Palisades Park Commission in 1939. 
This was the bureaucratic epicenter of the Appalachian Trail and conservation 
lands meant for public recreation of the era -including Bear MT and Harriman. 


        Rockefeller recently donated his 1000 acre ranch to Teton National 
Park...