HIGHLAND – Franny Reese was known as “the mother of the modern environmental movement.”

The state and Scenic Hudson named a new 250 acre park in her memory Friday.

The park sits between the Mid-Hudson Bridge, and the Walkway Over the Hudson, visible in background.  Right, Sullivan (left), with Alex Reese, son of Franny Reese

The park, in the Town of Lloyd, offers expansive views and opportunities for hiking, mountain biking, cross-country skiing, picnicking and birding, said Scenic Hudson President Ned Sullivan.

“The park is a beautiful piece of land that stretches from the west side of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Bridge, that’s the Mid-Hudson Bridge, and it extends almost a mile down river and has extensive hiking trails and provides extraordinary views of the Mid-Hudson Bridge, of the Walkway Over the Hudson that recently opened as a new state park, and of other landscapes around Poughkeepsie and Ulster County areas,” he said.

Using its own funds and a $200,000 grant from the state Parks Department, Scenic Hudson developed the park. Scenic Hudson bought the property in 2003 to protect it from development and preserve it as a public resource. The state assumed ownership in 2006. The park will be managed by Scenic Hudson and the Palisades Interstate Parks Commission.