Great Flats Nature Trail

The Great Flats Nature Trail is a protected wetland habitat mostly located in the town of Rotterdam, New York, United States. It is situated just west of the city of Schenectady on West Campbell Road (NY 337).HistoryThe Great Flats date back to 1661 when Van Curler, a statesman from Schenectady, New York along with 14 other persons applied to Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch Director-General of New York for permission to buy a tract of land known by its Dutch name of Groote Vlachte, (Great Flats) from the Indians.The area was originally an alluvial tract of land alongside the Mohawk River and contained several hundred acres of land. At that time it was a mainly cleared area which held water well enabling crops to be grown but had good drainage to prevent flooding. The area was settled by the Dutch and many farmsteads were set upAs the towns of Schenectady and Rotterdam grew, the area became an important source of water for the towns in 1897 the first public wells were installed to utilize the Great Flats aquifer. and still remains so today drawing more than 54 million gallons a day.In the 1960s a proposal was put forward to build a shopping mall called Rotterdam Square Mall on the land. The building of the mall was dogged with controversy when it was first proposed. The area was at the time a nature preserve and environmental groups were concerned that the building of the mall would endanger wildlife and pollute the wet lands. Eventually a permit was given containing numerous deed restrictions These restrictions, were put in place in order to protect this critical area, prohibit any further construction or excavation activities, improvements or changes of any kind or nature, except as permitted by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) for a wildlife sanctuary, park, and nature trails.