Pacama Conservation was established in an effort to preserve the rural character of the Olive, Marbletown, and Rochester communities in Ulster County, New York, by a group of concerned neighbors. The group came together in 2020 to strategize how to protect local wetlands, animal habitat, and native plant species in the face of growing development in the area and insufficient town oversight of that development. We created this non-profit conservation corporation, to hold land in trust, preserve its natural character, and educate the community about the beauty and unique attributes of the area. ​

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One of the most significant features of the Pacama land is the "Great Pacama Vly", (“Vly” means “a low, marshy area” originating in Dutch), an approximately 315-acre wetland that straddles the boundaries of the towns of Marbletown, Rochester, and Olive in Ulster County, New York. The Vly is the only site in the Catskills where black spruce can be found, and also has large, high-quality red maple-tamarack peat swamp and hemlock-hardwood swamp. The Vly also holds over 25 species of Carex (sedge) along with more common wetland plants like Dryopteris cristata (crested woodfern), Cicuta maculata (water hemlock), Mimulus alatus (sharpwing monkeyflower), Calla palustris (water arum), and Platanthera clavellata (small green wood orchid).​

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The Esopus-Munsee band of Mohicans, the native people of this area, gave the name Pacama to the wetland/vly in our community.  For more information about these native people who lived in our region, contact the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Tribal Historic Preservation Association. Their motto is "People of the waters are never still."​