Vascular plants to be found in the forest understorys include several fern varieties (predominantly woodfern and hay-scented), stinging nettle and jewelweed.

trillium, wood sorrel, clintonia, bunchberry, starflower and foamflower round out the biome for the flowering plants.

White-tailed deer, who were successfully reintroduced into New York in 1887 via a protected habitat on lands now part of the wilderness area, winter here.

Fisher were reintroduced to the area in the late 1970s and have thrived in numbers significant enough to make life difficult for the porcupine, always abundant in the Catskills.

The streams of the Catskills, including those in this wilderness, are famous for their trout, and the brook, brown and rainbow varieties can be found here, although not in sufficient numbers to allow for intensive fishing.

Ironically, the lands around Slide Mountain were added to the original legislation not for conservation purposes, but to settle a tax debt Ulster County owed to the state.

The forest rangers of DEC's Office of Public Protection provide law enforcement services to the unit.

No powered vehicles are allowed within (The use of chainsaws for trail maintenance is also permitted only by explicit written authority of the DEC commissioner).

The state has built 10 separate parking lots along or near roads that abut the Slide wilderness, five of which serve as hiking trailheads.

Similarly, camping is available at the southeast corner in the Peekamoose Valley Wild Forest, near the Bull Run trailhead.

The club seems willing to allow hikers on a limited basis as long as you leave the trail as you found it and sign a release first.