The Village of Westfield owns 1,463 acres of watershed property on both sides of Chautauqua Gorge. That property is posted as a means to protect our public drinking water supply.  It has always been posted for no trespassing.  There has never been an acceptance or any official authorization by the Village of Westfield to allow for camping, hiking, or nudist activities.  It is posted for a purpose.

Please note that we manage the watershed property to ensure that there is no public water supply contamination. All of the water from this location flows northerly first to our open-source water "Minton" reservoir and eventually on to Lake Erie. This reservoir provides drinking water to the Village of Westfield and several areas of the Town of Westfield as well. 

Any maps, mapping connotations or other online resources indicating that these are publicly sanctioned swimming and nudist activity areas are incorrect and should be amended accordingly. Please note, Chautauqua County and the State of New York maintain many public hiking trails and state land areas for general public use and in some locations on State land, limited camping.  We encourage hikers and campers to find those sanctioned recreation areas to utilize.

This winter the Village of Westfield placed an additional sign at the end of Taylor Road (and incidentally, in addition to the many posted signs that have been there for decades) depicting this as Village of Westfield watershed property and that there is no camping, hiking or loitering allowed.  The sign was stolen recently, and a report has been filed with the Westfield Police Department and the Chautauqua County Sheriff. We have also asked the NYS DEC EN CON to patrol as well.

Village of Westfield
23 Elm Street-Eason Hall
Westfield, N.Y.  14787
716-326-4961 #13 

716-326-4987 fax