 The "forever wild" requirement helped protect the area from logging and commercial development, once the waterfalls area became owned by the state during the early 20th century.They are now part of the North Mountain Wild Forest, a Forest Preserve Unit owned and managed by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).The Kaaterskill Hotel was never rebuilt after a 1920s fire, and the Catskill Mountain House itself was burned to the ground by the State Conservation Department (the forerunner to DEC) at 6