VOORHEESVILLE — Laure-Jeanne Davignon calls the John Boyd Thacher State Park “part of my soul.”
Davignon is the interim president of the Friends of Thacher State Park, a nonprofit group of about 300 volunteers who help maintain the park and its amenities. She used to live within walking distance of the 2,100-acre park and said that “a piece of me is still up there.”
The park encapsulates part of the Heidelberg escarpment, a giant cliff that runs north-south and includes an impressive array of fossils. The National Park Service designated the park a National Natural Landmark in 2003, in part due to its panoply of marine invertebrate fossils. The park includes fossils spanning 63 million years that was foundational in the early study and understanding of North American geology and of widespread ancient mountain building, according to the parks service.
Most state parks have a friends nonprofit group associated with them, which are advocated for by Parks and Trails New York…