Barbara Yeaman may not be a familiar name, but her very interesting life left a lasting enrichment on the Delaware River corridor. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she earned her pilot’s license during World War II and flew with the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASP. These civilian women pilots served with the U.S. Army Air Forces, flying military aircraft on noncombat missions so male fighter pilots could fly on combat missions. After the war, Barbara earned an environmental degree from the University of California and later worked as a Water Conservation Coordinator in Washington, D.C., for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. After moving to the Upper Delaware River region in the 1980s, she saw the need for voluntary land protection and, in 1994, founded the accredited Delaware Highlands Conservancy at age 70. The Conservancy went on to permanently protect tens of thousands of acres of forests, farms, and wetlands across New York and Pennsylvania through voluntary conservation easements, which limit privately owned land use to protect natural resources. Barbara Yeaman died in 2025 at the age of 100.

During the early 1990’s a wooden Eagle Observation platform was built along Route 97 in Minisink Ford and named in her honor. For years it was a very popular tourist attraction. After decades of use it had to be torn down due to safety concerns.

The Greater Barryville Chamber of Commerce has carried forward Barbara Yeaman’s legacy with the new Monarch Waystation Pollinator and Educational Garden at the former Observation Platform site. Designed and installed with support from the Town of Highland and the Greater Barryville Chamber of Commerce and funded in part by a Sullivan 180 Municipal Partnership Grant, the garden features more than 200 native plants and nectar species suited to our local Zone 6 conditions and all the stones used for the beds were pulled from the Delaware River. Plantings such as common yarrow, false indigo, St. John’s wort, and flowering dogwoods provide habitat and food for butterflies and other pollinators. Jess Lewis of Mama Garden Company, whose work focuses on horticulture, sustainable ecological design, and native plant landscaping, helped design and install the garden. Lewis explained that the plants are perennials, so they will return each year, and that many are deer resistant, including strongly scented varieties such as ornamental onion, creeping thyme, and sage. Plans include a mulch pathway and educational signs about native ecosystems, habitat restoration, and monarch butterfly migration. The garden was designed to meet the criteria for both the Monarch Waystation designation and Cornell Cooperative Extension Pollinator Friendly Certification.

In addition, Greater Barryville Chamber of Commerce President Laura Burrell helped with the planting, along with John Pizzolato, Town of Highland Supervisor; Mama Garden Company; local project partners including The Dirt Diva (Adrianne Picciano), a local landscape gardener and designer focused on edible gardens; the Town of Highland Highway Department; Kate Jacksy the Town of Highland Intern and agricultural suppliers such as the Delaware Valley Agway in Callicoon.

The Monarch Butterfly Waystation Garden serves as a “living classroom,” where visitors can learn about monarch migration and how sustainable native planting supports butterflies along their journey. With attractive stone benches along the pathway, the garden offers a welcoming public space beside the Delaware River and sits on the Kate Project’s Walking Path leading to the Roebling Bridge. We are grateful and extend thanks to the volunteers who worked in the blazing summer heat to plant this beautiful garden for our community. The Barbara Yeaman Monarch Waystation Garden is located on Route 97, just south of the Roebling Bridge in Minisink Ford.