New York U.S. Senator Charles Schumer is calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to lend assistance after a forest fire devastated land at a popular hiking destination in the Hudson Highlands.
Schumer has written to the United States Forest Service urging it to work with New York State and local communities to identify funding for restoration efforts through the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Program and USDA disaster assistance programs. This comes after a large forest fire on Sugarloaf Mountain in Putnam County burned for 18 days, until October 8, destroying land spanning 67 acres. About two-thirds of the damage is in the state-owned Hudson Highlands State Park and the remaining one third, on private land.