Otsego 2000 Works To Ensure We Thrive

By Ellen Pope, executive director, Otsego 2000

So what’s in a name, anyway? At the time Otsego 2000 chose its name, in 1983, the year 2000 seemed sufficiently in the future as to suggest a long-term, achievable goalpost—17 years to ensure that our region, with Otsego Lake at its heart, was preserved and protected for current and future generations through intelligent planning. Well, here we are 24 years beyond that goalpost, and we continue to have our work cut out for us. What do you think of when you hear of Otsego 2000?

If you’re a very recent newcomer, you may know us best for our programs that add to the vitality of daily living in Otsego County. The Cooperstown Farmers’ Market (1991) was established to bring farmers and artisans to their customers and those customers back to Main Street at a time when even baseball writers were lamenting the takeover by baseball shops. Glimmerglass Film Days (2013) brings top-notch filmmakers and independent films on environmental themes to the heart of Cooperstown in November, attracting visitors from New England and the mid-Atlantic as well as a loyal and growing core of locals.

Otsego Outdoors (2017), a collaborative effort with the Otsego County Conservation Association, Butternut Valley Alliance, and the Otsego Land Trust (founded by Otsego 2000 in 1991) celebrates the year-round hiking trails and waterway access points that abound in Otsego County, with the seasonal Octet challenges launched in winter 2021, and in 2023, Otsego Outdoors Nature Backpacks for checkout in every public library in the county.

If you arrived in the area 14 years ago in 2010, you know Otsego 2000 for the strong stance it took on protecting Home Rule when it came to the looming threat of fracking (now banned in New York), organizing grassroots efforts town by town to enact comprehensive plans and zoning that prohibited heavy industry in our rural towns and thereby protecting our community character, including the more than 35,000 acres listed or eligible on the National Register of Historic Places.

If you go back to 1999, you may remember the ice cream social held at Glimmerglass State Park to celebrate the establishment of the Glimmerglass National Historic District, the first-ever landscape (and one of the largest historic districts in New York) to be listed for its central role in James Fenimore Cooper’s “Leatherstocking Tales” and its subsequent development as a summer resort destination in the late 19th century. Thanks to this listing (and 14 other historic districts), hundreds of homeowners are eligible for the New York State Historic Tax Credits for which we provide assistance, and our region has an added layer of protection when large infrastructure projects are proposed.

In 2007, you may remember Otsego 2000’s work to protect the Glimmerglass Historic District and the Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville from a massive wind project that would have surrounded the monastery and encroached on the peaceful landscape so central to the monastery’s reason for being in that location.

In 1995, Otsego 2000 spearheaded the Glimmerglass Coalition, an unprecedented partnership of local, state, and national environmental groups to protect Otsego Lake’s unique environmental and historic qualities; its first challenge was combating a state-proposed public boat launch at the north end that would have had significant adverse effects on the lake’s ecology.

And, if you are a long-time local, you’ll remember Otsego 2000 as the scrappy group of volunteers known as Friends of P.R.O.T.E.C.T., led by Henry S.F. Cooper Jr., that pulled together to ensure that the landscape of northern Otsego County, largely unchanged since Henry’s great-great grandfather immortalized it in his novels, was unmarred by a proposed major powerline.

All of these things may seem disparate, but they all represent ways in which Otsego 2000 works to ensure our community thrives now and into the future. We’ll continue to work hard to build up our programs that add to our community’s strength, well-being, and cohesion, and, when threatened, we will stand steadfast to protect our region’s singular environmental resources for future generations. Join us.

This column was written for the March 7, 2024 issue of The Freeman’s Journal and AllOtsego.com