• Accord reached on resort development
• Bush Administration rejects casino plan

The Bush Administration rejected a plan for two proposed Las Vegas-style casinos that would have destroyed the rustic character of New York's historic Catskill State Park. Casino-related activity would have degraded air quality and caused a wave of secondary development that would have encroached on the area's wildlands, endangered family farms and jeopardized water quality in the New York City watershed. BioGems Defenders in New York State spoke out repeatedly against this harmful proposal.