Poverty Hill Wildlife Management Area
Poverty Hill Wildlife Management Area
DEC acquires land in Ellicottville/Mansfield area to expand and protect wildlife habitat; offers public recreational access for hunters and hikers
Hunters and trappers, hikers and birders, the Poverty Hill Wildlife Management Area is open to public access and joins the Ellicottville area's long list of outdoor recreation attractions.
The vast 946-acre tract is wild and wooded, brushy and overgrown. Some traces remain of the almost-mythical Poverty Hill Ski Resort and the private Concord Ski Club if you know where to look. The ski areas were an important part of the area's colorful history, but since their heyday, it has been managed for private purposes by owner-stewards who have held onto it since the 1960's. Some logging has occurred and it was rented to a hunting club in recent years.
The place was acquired from the Dattner Family Associates, LP, in March by the State Department of Environmental Conservation. It will be managed by the Division of Fish and Wildlife for conservation and wildlife-associated recreation.
In an announcement released around July 1, 2021 by Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul, the Poverty Hill WMA addition to state lands is expected to preserve and protect natural resources and boost tourism and the local economy. The area's "diverse natural habitat" supports upland birds, like wild turkey, ruffed grouse, woodcock, big game like white-tailed deer and black bear, along with beaver, muskrat, raccoon, fisher, red and gray fox, wood ducks and mallards.
Critical resting and feeding areas like Poverty Hill WMA foster migratory waterfowl and songbirds, and other wildlilfe that are rare, threatened or endangered. The management of the wildlife habitat for survival will also support the wildlife-dependent recreation and the public-use goals of the area, she said.
"Folks will have an opportunity to enjoy that property for wildlife," said Emilio Rende, the biologist in charge of the DEC's land management program, who is supervising field work on the WMA that stretches across contiguous lands in the towns of Ellicottville and Mansfield to the north.
"We had noticed that it was up for sale, we contacted the family and they said they would be interested in selling to the state," said Rende, who is enthusiastic about the WMA. He credited the Dattner family for having patience during the couple of years it has taken the DEC to obtain an appraisal, establish a fair market value and complete the acquisition process, complicated by reduced staffing during the pandemic.
"We started the paperwork to get the property appraised and when it came time to make an offer, they accepted," he said.
According to a DEC source, the State of New York, following its official open space plan, acquired it for $1,827,131. Cattaraugus County records show the deal was being assembled as early as 2019. The $16,468 annual tax bill for the Dattner's seven parcels was up to date and their assessed value was listed at $1,039,300. That assessment was at or near a 100 percent equalization rate value and the properties were classed as vacant rural, residential, and commercial at the time of the sale. It is expected that after a review by the state's Office of Real Property Services, the DEC will continue to pay taxes on the property.
The DEC simultaneously announced the purchase of the new 310-acre Genesee River Wildlife Management Area, also earmarked primarily for hunting and trapping on mature forest, brushlands and open fields. That WMA is located in the town of Willing in Allegany County.
Both purchases totaled $2,122,131. A portion of that came from the federal Wildlife and Sportfish Restoration Program's Pittman-Robertson Act revenues. Manufacturers of firearms, ammunition, archery equipment and other products pay an excise tax that is dedicated to wildlife conservation under the Act. Another portion of the money came from the state's Environmental Protection Fund.
Rende said hunting will be the main activity, and just a few of the property's existing trails are getting some minimal development, but there will be no cleared and marked paths, or groomed ski trails. He urged the public to be patient as crews continue the work on the property.
Three designated parking areas will be developed for use by October 31st, when hunting season gets underway. Hiking and birding will be allowed as secondary activities as long as they don't interfere with wildlife management.
"WMAs are managed differently from what people associate with state forest land," said Rende, adding that those areas "promote a different kind of recreation" than the type managed at Poverty Hill WMA.
Currently, parking areas and trailheads are still under construction, though boundaries are marked with small state land signs that can be seen from the road and adjacent private lands. A large wooden sign will be erected by Spring 2022, said Rende, designating the acreage between Maples Road and Poverty Hill Road and stretching north to Hinman Hollow Road.
The area is part of the DEC's Wildlife Management Unit 9M and will provide increased access to hunters. In other seasons, it will invite public activities compatible with the management of the lands, which were owned since the 1960's by the Dattner family. The pioneering clan's Poverty Hill Development Corporation's ski resort, and later the Concord Ski Club played a brief role in the local ski industry that was already dominated by Holiday Valley and HoliMont. It was a time when the love of skiing, a lot of hard work and nature's abundant resources could be combined to create an enterprise.
According to local lore and especially the 2002 book by skiing pioneers Edna Northrup and Lillian Congdon, "For the Love of Skiing, Our Story of Skiing in Ellicottville," some of the Dattner's Poverty Hill Ski Area property was owned in part by William Nannen, Ellicottville's former mayor. This probably gave it a boost, along with an opening skiing exhibition by Stein Erickson to kick off the debut. Unfortunately, lots of vertical terrain, several legendary ski school instructors and two T-bar lifts, with scenic vistas and great natural snow wasn't quite enough to keep the fledgling resort from bankruptcy. The next decade saw a reopening with added slopes and an updated chairlift under the banner of the private Concord Ski Club, and links to Kissing Bridge Corporation, before ultimate closure around 1990.
Since then, the Dattner family's stewardship and land-holding tenacity has paid off by bringing the property forward for public use and conservation.
Rende said the DEC has no plans to established manicured or groomed trails, but will make some improvements to the rougher trails that crews have found on the property.
The densely vegetated WMA's higher elevations and steep terrain reach beyond 2100 feet where there should be prominent views into the Ellicottville landscape. The north-facing bowls and cresting topography, broken by streamlets and wetlands, should not only be a haven for wildlife but, could prove to be a rewarding and challenging destination for both summer hikers and more intrepid winter back-country Nordic-style skiers, once those activities receive the official go-ahead. The surrounding residential neighborhood too, is dotted with mountain-style homes and vacant rural lots, and appears to have benefited from the Dattner family's generational safekeeping.
To get information about Poverty Hill WMA, go to https://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/123210.html or call Region 9 Wildlife Management office in Allegany at 716-372-0645. Follow the web page links to obtain a simple PDF map of the Poverty Hill WMA.
The coordinates for future parking areas are also listed on the web page, but check with the DEC to be sure the parking areas are completed. Be warned that all three parking area links don't really give driving directions but direct readers to the same spot on the map along Poverty Hill Road, 1500 feet south of Dickey Road, where there is no parking area. Rende said some of these details are being finalized administratively and the area will have its own official large wooden sign by the spring of 2022.
EllicottvilleNOW visited the three planned parking areas. On Hinman Hollow Road, the North parking area is marked with a "State Land" sign hanging from a cable blocking the entrance. Rende said this leads to a logging landing that is being developed for public parking. On Maples Road, the West parking area will sit on a bench that has also served as a logging landing. It is possible to park a couple of cars at each of these spots, but the future East parking area is not yet deemed accessible. It is on the right side of Poverty Hill traveling north, in an area where a small portion of the property acquisition has not yet been completed due to problems with the deed.
It's important to note that the Finger Lakes Trail parking area on the west side of Poverty Hill Road is not part of the WMA, but instead leads into the official segment of the FLTC trail that is well maintained by the Finger Lakes Trail Conference. It skirts the edge of the south boundary of the new WMA.
Here are the coordinates for the future Poverty Hill WMA parking areas: West parking area on Maples Road, or County Road 13 (42.300616⁰ N, -78.706268⁰ W); East Parking area on Poverty Hill Road at coordinates (42.322434⁰ N, -78.690980⁰ W); North parking area on Hinman Hollow Road (42.328352⁰ N, -78.708167⁰ W)
Fires are not permitted at the Poverty Hill WMA. Also prohibited are motorized vehicles, swimming or bathing, horseback riding, mountain biking, target shooting, camping, metal detecting or removing historic or cultural artifacts without a permit; damaging or removing gates, fences, signs, or other property, cutting, removing, or damaging living vegetation, construction of permanent blinds or tree stands, littering, and storing personal property. Visitors should obey "no trespassing” signs.