Alder Lake, a popular swimming and camping spot in the summer, can be found tucked in the more than 700,000 acres of wilderness that make up the Catskills Park and Forest Preserve.

"Since the internet and people Instagramming beautiful places like this, it's really increasing the visitors in the Catskills and the Adirondacks," said Wes Gillingham, the associate director of Catskill Mountainkeeper, “and with COVID and people wanting to get out of the city and populated areas, it's quadrupled.”

Gillingham lives in the Catskills and sees the good and the bad when it comes to spikes in visitors. At the entrance to Alder Lake, Wes pointed out a discarded tent filled with cans and garbage.

"In a place like this, that becomes a safety issue,” Gillingham said. “If you’re leaving garbage, you’re basically training bears and other animals to think of this as a source of food.”

At a joint legislative budget hearing, Catskill Mountainkeeper Deputy Director Katherine Nadeau testified the Catskills region receives more than 12 million visitors every year, twice as many visitors as the Grand Canyon. Last year, visitors to the popular Catskills Blue Hole increased by 60% compared to 2018.

In the recently passed state budget, the Catskills and Adirondacks will get a boost in funding to the tune of $5 million. Of that, $1.5 million will address the spike in visitors, and $100,000 will go to hire more staff called stewards for the parks.

"The Catskills are here for us all to enjoy, so if we have these stewards who are able to interact with people that are coming and tell them to go 'hey, go to this other place that’s just as beautiful and fewer people are there, you'll have a better experience,' and kind of spread out the use, that will be good for everyone and for the place itself," said Gillingham.

Catskill Mountainkeeper plans to also use that money to hire bilingual stewards to accommodate visitors who don’t speak English.

The budget also dedicates $2 million for smart growth grants for Catskills and Adirondacks communities; $1 million for the Bellayre Ski center; $150,000 for the Catskills visitor center; and $500,000 to fight invasive species threatening hemlock trees.

"I grew up running around in the woods in the Catskills," said Gillingham. "I love this place. I traveled the country and came back here, and it's really important to me to see that the state, the state government and our elected officials really stepped up to help protect the place that I love."