Contact: Andrew Zepp
607-275-9487
ITHACA, NY -- The Finger Lakes Land Trust announced today that it has received an unprecedented gift of land featuring 1,300 feet of pristine shoreline on Skaneateles Lake. The twenty acre property is located in the Town of Spafford and features steeply sloping woodlands overlooking the lake as well as a significant portion of the Staghorn Cliffs – a 100 foot escarpment that is well known for its scenic character and its abundant fossils.
The gift was made by Syracuse area resident David Dickinsonand his children: Thomas Dickinson, Scott Dickinson, Gary Dickinson, Laura Dickinson Maguire, and Hollis Dickinson Wilson. The land had been in their family for more than 50 years.
The Dickinson property is located in an area known as the Skaneateles Highlands – a mosaic of forest and agricultural lands that encompass the southern half of Skaneateles Lake. The Land Trust recently completed a conservation plan for the Highlands, which identified undeveloped shoreline as the highest priority for protection.
A year in the making, the Dickinson family’s donation to the Land Trust reflects their desire to keep the land in its natural condition. “That was our intention all along,” says David Dickinson. “My mother discovered the property. We wanted to retain the beauty of the cliffs and preserve the gorgeous south end of the lake in appreciation of her.”
“This is a tremendous gift,” says Land Trust Executive Director Andrew Zepp. “We’re grateful to the Dickinson family for their generosity and their commitment to the land.”
“The south end of Skaneateles Lake is truly magnificent,” adds Skaneateles resident and Land Trust board member Doug Sutherland. “This remarkable gift secures an outstanding stretch of that shoreline. We hope it becomes the cornerstone for additional land protection in the watershed.”
“The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) applauds the Dickinson family and the Finger Lakes Land Trust for the donation and preservation of shoreline in this important watershed,” adds NYSDEC Regional Director Ken Lynch. “We appreciate the efforts of such great partners in fostering the conservation of New York’s magnificent open space and natural resources.”
The acquisition of the Dickinson property is the sixth project completed by the Land Trust within the Skaneateles Lake Watershed. Previous projects include the acquisition of Carpenter’s Falls and the establishment of the High Vista Nature Preserve, as well as the acquisition of a conservation easement on more than 2,000 feet of frontage on Bear Swamp Creek – one of the largest tributaries to the lake.
During the coming year, the Land Trust will develop a management plan for this latest acquisition. In honor of David Dickinson’s mother, the property will be known as the Cora Kampfe Dickinson Conservation Area.
The organization is also continuing to pursue the protection of additional lands within the Skaneateles Lake Watershed and fundraising is underway to support these efforts and to cover costs associated with the long-term stewardship of the Dickinson property.
The Finger Lakes Land Trust was established in 1989 to work cooperatively with landowners and local communities to protect those lands that define the character of the region. To date, the organization has secured more than 12,000 acres of significant open space lands through direct acquisition as well as the use of conservation easements on lands that remain in private ownership. The Land Trust today owns and manages a network of 27 public conservation areas and holds and monitors 75 conservation easements. Additional information about the Land Trust may be obtained at www.fllt.org or by calling (607) 275-9487.
]]>Contact: Andrew Zepp
607-275-9487
ITHACA, NY -- The Finger Lakes Land Trust announced today that it has acquired a 65-acre property featuring 1,400 feet of undeveloped shoreline on Cayuga Lake. The land is located in the Town of Romulus, Seneca County, and is situated across the lake from Wells College and the Village of Aurora. The property features frontage on both sides of the Cayuga Lake Scenic Byway and hosts a diversity of wildlife habitats including mature woodlands, meadows, and a rugged gorge.
The property was acquired from the Van Riper and Moran families who have owned the land for many years. They made the land available to the Land Trust for significantly less than its appraised fair market value. The organization was able to purchase the property through lead gifts from several anonymous individuals as well as a low-interest loan from the Norcross Wildlife Foundation.
A fundraising goal of $1.2 million has been set to cover acquisition costs as well as site improvements associated with the provision of public access, and a contribution to the Land Trust’s stewardship fund to support long-term management of the site. To date, the organization has secured $900,000 in gifts and pledges, including a grant of $400,000 from New York State’s Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation.
“The state has identified public access to waterfronts as a top priority for land acquisitions in the public interest,” says Tim Joseph, Regional Director for Finger Lakes State Parks. “We’re pleased that this grant is helping to preserve and protect a key piece of undeveloped shoreline on Cayuga Lake and will keep it open for the public to use and enjoy.”
The Van Riper/Moran tract had long been identified as a priority for protection since it borders the Land Trust’s existing Whitlock Nature Preserve. Together, the two properties encompass 1,900 feet of pristine shoreline. During the coming year, the Land Trust will develop a management plan for the two properties that will provide for appropriate public access while ensuring the protection of sensitive habitats. A parking area will be constructed alongside State Route 89 and a hiking trail will be developed at the site.
“This is a tremendous acquisition,” says Land Trust Executive Director Andrew Zepp. “Residents and visitors alike will soon have the opportunity to visit the shore of Cayuga Lake and see how it looked before settlement. There is very little undeveloped shoreline left and we’re grateful to the Van Riper and Moran families for deciding in favor of conservation rather than development in this case.”
This latest acquisition represents the Land Trust’s second shoreline protection project completed on Cayuga Lake during the past year. In early 2010, the organization accepted a conservation easement on 47 acres of woodland overlooking the Lake in the Town of Lansing. This property remains in private ownership but future development is limited by the perpetual easement agreement.
The Land Trust is also supporting efforts by the planning departments of Cayuga, Seneca, and Tompkins Counties to design and develop a “water trail” that will link conserved lands on the lakeshore as well as businesses that cater to kayakers and canoeists.
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The Finger Lakes Land Trust was established in 1989 to work cooperatively with landowners and local communities to conserve those lands that define the character of the Finger Lakes Region. The organization has protected more than 12,000 acres of open space through direct acquisition as well as the use of conservation easements on lands that typically remain in private ownership. Additional information on the Land Trust and its fundraising campaign for the Van Riper/ Moran acquisition may be obtained at www.fllt.org or by calling its Ithaca office at (607) 275-9487.
Contact: Russ Shay
Director of Public Policy
202-638-4725, ext. 305 | rshay@lta.org
WASHINGTON, D.C.-- Voluntary conservation of private land received a boost yesterday when President Obama mentioned the work of land trusts in his remarks introducing the landmark America’s Great Outdoors Report at a reception in the East Room of the White House. The collective voice of land trusts was reflected in the report, which proposes to extend the enhanced tax incentive for conservation easement donations beyond 2011, fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), and focus a portion of LWCF on innovative projects that support urban parks, community green spaces and large-scale land conservation.
Mr. Obama said that “at a time when America’s open spaces are controlled by a patchwork of groups, from government to land trusts to private citizens, it’s clear that conservation in the 21st century is going to take more than what we can do here in Washington…Meeting the new test of environmental stewardship means finding the best ideas at the grassroots level, it means helping states, communities and nonprofits protect their own resources, and it means figuring out how the federal government can be a better partner in those efforts.”
The report draws inspiration from hundreds of land trust participants at America’s Great Outdoors listening sessions around the country. “I am proud of the nation’s 1,700 land trusts for pioneering the voluntary conservation incentives and locally driven partnerships embraced in this report,” Land Trust Alliance President Rand Wentworth said. “This initiative will significantly reorient federal conservation efforts to emphasize working lands and to embrace local governments and land trusts as effective partners in conserving the places that give meaning to our lives.”
The report’s vision statement describes a future in which “Rural lands—our working farms, ranches and forests—are conserved and restored through local partnerships.” The president’s Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Request makes a down payment on that vision by providing $200 million for the Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program and $900 million for the LWCF, some of which “will be competitively awarded to address priorities and leverage resources for urban parks and public-private conservation projects.”
In communities across America, nonprofit land trusts are working with private landowners to keep farm, ranch and forest lands in productive use, create community parks and open space, protect important fish and wildlife habitat, and conserve our scenic and historic heritage. With the help of more than 100,000 volunteers and 2 million members, land trusts have conserved more than 37 million acres, including more than 12 million acres protected by voluntary conservation agreements with private landowners.
The Land Trust Alliance is a national conservation group that works on behalf of America’s 1,700 land trusts to save the places people love by strengthening land conservation throughout America. The Alliance works to increase the pace and quality of conservation by advocating favorable tax policies, training land trusts in best practices and working to ensure the permanence of conservation in the face of continuing threats.
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Download a printable PDF (100KB).
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Contact: Katrina Farmer
Communications Associate
603-357-0600
KEENE, NH -- The New Hampshire Land and Community Heritage Investment Program announced its most recent grant awards at a news conference in Concord Monday. The Monadnock Conservancy is one of 24 recipients statewide.
The up to $113,875 in funds that the Monadnock Conservancy is slated to receive will be used to secure a conservation easement on a working farm in Jaffrey. The conservation project will protect 126 acres — a mix of hayfields, wetlands, and forested lands — in a scenic area of town, near Mount Monadnock. The property owners, the Shattucks, want to see their family farm remain intact and not be subdivided.
According to LCHIP, this most recent grant round is expected to protect an additional 4,317 acres of land and 13 historic structures throughout the state. Prior grant funding to 187 projects has helped conserve nearly 286,000 acres of land and 109 historic structures and sites.
The Monadnock Conservancy has previously received funding from LCHIP for a conservation easement on Tippin Rock Farm in Swanzey; the state’s purchase of Temple Mountain in 2007; and easements on the Houghton Family Farm and Forecastle Timber properties in Chesterfield, both part of the extensive California Brook Natural Area stretching between Keene and Pisgah State Park.
Founded in 1989, the Monadnock Conservancy is the only land trust dedicated exclusively to the 35 towns of the Monadnock Region in southwestern New Hampshire. Its mission is to identify, promote and actively seek protection of significant natural, aesthetic and historic resources in the area; and to monitor and enforce the protection of lands in the trust. Based in Keene, N.H., the Conservancy has protected nearly 15,000 acres of forest, farmland, shoreline, wetlands, wildlife habitat and recreation trails in the Region. For more information, visit www.MonadnockConservancy.org.
Shattuck Farm, at the junction of Fitzwilliam and Great roads in Jaffrey, is slated to be protected by conservation easement with assistance from the NH Land and Community Heritage Investment Program. Photo courtesy of Monadnock Conservancy
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The Massachusetts Land Court dismissed a law suit against The Trustees of Reservations (MA) brought by a neighbor to enforce a conservation restriction (Massachusetts name for conservation easement). The Court entered a final judgment ruling that the neighbor had no standing to enforce the conservation restriction.
“This case required a large investment in time by our staff and outside legal counsel,” explained Chris Rodstrom, Director of the Conservation Restriction Program at The Trustees of Reservations, “but by prevailing we’re now in a stronger position to deal with any other abutters to our 340 conservation restrictions that attempt to unduly influence our stewardship program.”
This decision has limited precedential value because it is a judgment in the Trial Court; nonetheless, it still is useful for any land trust dealing with a neighbor that is threatening a lawsuit. It may also have some value in other lower courts especially coupled with the Tallman decision to show how other courts have dealt with the issue.
The owner of the conserved land granted the conservation restriction in 2008 to the Trustees. The restrictions provided for a building envelope, access and utilities on the 36 acre property in a spot where a home and barn had previously stood. A year later, the land owner proposed to dismantle an existing historic home it owned elsewhere in town and move it into the building envelope. The neighbors, Frank and Jean Granara, objected alleging that the access would have to be widened to accommodate moving the house and would disturb 978 feet of bordering vegetated wetlands. The access driveway abuts the rear boundary of the Granaras’ home on a small lot.
The Trustees had reviewed and approved the landowner plans as consistent with the purposes of the restrictions. The Granaras sued the landowner, Stetson Kindred of America, Inc. for violating the restrictions and the Trustees for failing to enforce the restritions. The Granaras claimed that they personally benefit from the restrictions on the Stetson property since it increases their property values and therefore they have the right to enforce the restrictions. The Trustees countered that the Granaras’ lacked standing to sue and to enforce the restrictions and that in any event the contemplated actions are consistent with the restrictions. On joint motion of the parties, the court considered two issues: whether Stetson’s activities violate the restrictions and whether the Granaras have standing to enforce the restrictions.
The court held for the Trustees on all counts finding that only named holders in the restrictions have any right to enforce them.
“It helped to have a good conservation restriction stewardship program in place,” added Chris Rodstrom, “since we could demonstrate to the judge that our approval of the building was carefully considered and well documented.”
Elizabeth Tallman filed a case, (Tallman v. Outhouse, et. al.) against her neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Outhouse, the owners of abutting property partially protected by a conservation easement, the Rockingham County Conservation District (conservation easement grantee) and the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests (executory interest holder in the conservation easement). Ms. Tallman claimed she had a third party right to enforce the easement, and that the Conservation District and the Forest Society were failing to enforce the terms. She also asserted a right of unfettered access to the protected property, which the Court rejected, upholding the landowners' right to post against and to control public access. Essentially, she sought a ruling that conservation easement prevented her neighbors from building their home on land not encumbered by the easement, and that the easement prevented access to the residence site. Elizabeth Tallman asked the Court to order that, among other things, the easement precluded the construction of the house and access to it, and that the conservation restrictions also extended to the excluded 1.23 acres as a result of an equitable servitude.
The neighbor’s legal positions required the easement holders to vigorously oppose the assertion that abutters have legal standing to interpret or enforce easements, or to restrict or utilize easement land for their personal goals. There were other related disputes at issue in the lawsuit, but the critical matter for the Forest Society, and for the land conservation community as a whole, was the whether abutters or other third parties can sue to enforce conservation easements granted to land trusts, municipalities and state agencies. The New Hampshire statute that authorizes conservation easements does not include an express statement that only the holders of a conservation easement have legal standing or a right to sue to enforce the easement.
This was essentially a dispute between neighbors that escalated to include both easement holders. One of the neighbors had very nice land subject to an existing conservation easement. The complaining abutter tried to use the easement as a sword for her personal purposes against the wishes, interpretation, and authority of the easement holders. Voluntary settlement attempts proved fruitless. The court ruled explicitly that New Hampshire recognizes no third party right of enforcement, and further that the Outhouses’ plan to build a house on the unrestricted portion of their land cannot be viewed in any way as a violation of the easement. The court also acknowledged that the Outhouse’s use of the historic access route that crossed a small potion of the easement land was not a violation of the easement.
The Court found for the defendants on all counts and also held that the easement did not require open access to the general public. This is what the Conservation District and Forest Society sought from the court and is a very good result for the NH land trust community.
WASHINGTON, DC – Every year, one land conservation leader is selected to receive the Land Trust Alliance’s prestigious National Conservation Service Award for making a significant contribution to the advancement of land conservation. Ms. Anne Codey, an indefatigable volunteer for her local conservation community in Port Washington, New York, was presented with the award this year at Rally: The National Land Conservation Conference in Hartford, CT, on October 3, 2010.
Rand Wentworth, Land Trust Alliance President, said “Anne's tireless engagement with youth and the connections she makes with communities is the link between project implementation and its successful permanence through stewardship. It is our hope that presenting Anne with this award will send an important message to the land conservation community that we value this kind of humble, consistent service that is not always recognized but is always needed and appreciated.” He added, “We congratulate Anne on her tremendous dedication to the conservation efforts underway in this country and personally working to make a difference.”
When presented with the award, Codey said, “Growing up on suburban Long Island during the 1950's, I watched with dismay as the land where I explored and rode horses, from estates to farmland and wetlands, was plowed under and built into housing developments, universities, golf courses and shopping malls. Spaces that had been open to all for walking, hiking or horseback riding were no longer available. I decided to dedicate my time to volunteering on conservation projects to make a change in my community.”
Codey's first conservation project began in 1994 when she assumed management from her siblings and cousins for her family's 72 acre woodlot in central New Hampshire. She had become bothered by the results of previous logging by the method known as "take the best and leave the rest" and began working with a local forester and with New Hampshire Cooperative Extension to develop and implement a forest plan. The woodlot is now a certified New Hampshire Tree Farm, open to the public for hiking, fishing and hunting.
When Codey retired in 2006, she began volunteering at The Nature Conservancy (TNC) doing presentations on invasive species, and monitoring the boundaries of TNC properties on Long Island. While monitoring properties for TNC, she was introduced to Jane Jackson, Associate Director of Stewardship for North Shore Land Alliance (NSLA), and began assisting her with monitoring NSLA preserves and easements, and maintaining the trails as well as assisting with education programs for children. "Having worked with children and families throughout her career, Anne is adept at communicating a love of nature to almost any audience, largely because she practices what she preaches. She is a genuine role model," said Jane Jackson, Associate Director of Stewardship, North Shore Land Alliance.
In 2007, Codey began volunteering weekly with a horticulturist at Planting Fields Arboretum, a New York State Park, planting, pruning, weeding and learning about plant care. While working on the grounds of the Arboretum, she learned about a series of outdoor education classes the Arboretum offered to local preschool and elementary school groups.
"I had loved teaching my own children about gardening and nature. Seeing my grandchildren picking up worms, identifying birds, and running through forests reminded me how vital it is that we introduce the excitement of nature to urban and suburban children, who are far too often cut off from the natural world," Codey said.
Currently Codey works at the Planting Fields Arboretum in the education department, teaching seed germination and planting in the spring and leaf and tree identification in the fall. In addition, she volunteers for a group called PW Green in her hometown of Port Washington, NY. PW Green leads field trips for all local 4th grade classes at a Port Washington preserve. In this capacity Codey helps the children discover the wonders all around them in the woodlot and field habitats of the preserve.
“While members of PWGreen have only had a brief working relationship with Anne, it has been beneficial to both the students with whom we work and to our adult leadership. She seamlessly stepped in as a volunteer leader for an outdoor education program PWGreen provides for fourth grade students in the Port Washington School District, and she immediately captured the attention of a large group as she prepared them for their adventure as scientists and naturalists,” said Holly Byrne, Education Coordinator, PWGreen, Inc., Port Washington, NY.
A new project she's also involved in calls for working with New York State Audubon to bring their unique program called "For the Birds," which uses birds to connect elementary school children to the environment where they live, to three low/moderate income communities in Nassau County, Long Island.
Conservation needs abound all year long, and Codey has also been volunteering for the last three years with US Fish and Wildlife to monitor piping plover nesting at two sites, and she volunteers with North Shore Audubon for the Christmas bird count. “Anne loves to lead children through the natural world showing them how to reveal its wonders for themselves,” said Peggy Maslow, President, North Shore Audubon Society.
"Through my work with the Land Trusts (TNC and NSLA) I have discovered special and important places, watersheds, fields and woods that are preserving habitat for plants and wildlife. Some have been neglected, overrun by invasive vegetation with trails no longer usable, but we are working with these sites, setting goals to restore the land and make it friendly for both people and wildlife, seeing progress little by little," Codey said.
About The Land Trust Alliance
The Alliance is a national conservation organization that works in three ways to save the places people love. First, we increase the pace of conservation, so more land and natural resources get protected. Second, we enhance the quality of conservation, so the most important lands get protected using the best practices in the business. And third, we ensure the permanence of conservation by creating the laws and resources needed to defend protected land over time. The Land Trust Alliance is based in Washington, D.C., and has several regional offices. Visit www.landtrustalliance.org.
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Contact: Caroline Hamling
(845) 343-0840, x14
www.oclt.org
Middletown, NY -- The Orange County Land Trust has taken an active role in advocating for farmland protection, asking New York State to honor its contracts with local farmers and restore funding for the protection of farmland in the state budget.
Over the last several years, the State of New York has entered into agreements to purchase the development rights to 64 farms in the state, three located in Orange County. The three local farms are the historic, eight generation Lain farm in Minisink in operation since 1775, and the Buckbee family’s Iron Forge Farm and the Bollenbach Farm, both in Warwick. Now, those deals are threatened as funding from the New York State Environmental Protection Fund’s (EPF) Farmland Protection Program has been reduced from $22 million last year to an initial amount of $10.7 million this year. However, with $5 million taken out of the fund this year to keep New York’s state parks and historic sites open, the fund for farmland protection is now further reduced to just $5.2 million.
“Farm families promised state funding to protect their farmland for future generations have been left in financial limbo,” said Orange County Land Trust Executive Director Jim Delaune. “Many of these farmers have put thousands of dollars of their own money into complying with New York’s rigorous application requirements, requirements such as updating surveys and getting appraisals, leaving many of our farm families scrambling to save their farms and their way of life.”
Delaune said that farm families often build their business plan around farmland protection funding, reinvesting the money into buying equipment and building barns. These funds also enable future generations to remain farming. “Without this economic investment in our farms, many will fail to make the transition from one generation to the next, and risk being bought up for development,” he said.
According to Ethan Winter, New York Conservation Manager for the Land Trust Alliance, New York State’s farmland protection program saves farm jobs and keeps valuable farmland in production. He said the program also enables farmers to reinvest in their enterprise and reduce debt, as well as provide healthy, locally produced foods.
“It is irresponsible to pull the rug on the farm families who have made commitments to conserving some of the most productive agricultural lands in New York State. As well, it is unfair to leave not-for-profit land trusts in the lurch after their significant investments and good faith efforts to partner with local farmers, municipalities, and the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.”
Winter added “New York is falling farther and farther behind other states, like New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Vermont- states that have made voluntary farmland protection and robust state funding a central part of their economic development strategy.”
Town of Warwick Supervisor Michael Sweeton said the state budget cuts to farmland protection will definitely impact the pace at which his town will be able to protect farmland in the future. Warwick is one of the few municipalities in the state that has a voter approved real estate transfer tax to help purchase the development rights to its farms. Funding for development rights, however, is often a combination of state, county and local funds and sometimes private and nonprofit organization funds as well. “We will still have our program,” said Sweeton, “but this just sets it all back”. He said there are 12 farms in the pipeline for protection in Warwick, five of which are ready to close. He said it is unfortunate if the State reneges on its portion of the funding to protect farmland, because he feels people really understand now the importance of locally grown food and preserving open space.
For the Lain family of Minisink, selling the development rights to their 170-acre farm meant that a ninth generation of Lains would be able to continue to farm. The farm has gone through many changes over the years to remain viable. Originally a dairy farm, the farm now raises certified organic, grass fed beef and is host to a nature camp for children during the summer months. According to Deborah Lain, only four farms remain in the Town of Minisink, a traditional farming community. She called Orange County “the breadbasket of New York City”.
Said Deborah’s brother Marty Lain “Fertile farmland that is close to the population provides fresh, nutritious food crucial for our health, for strong communities, and in the most basic way, for our local and national security. If our local farmland is lost to development, we will have to depend on food from thousands of miles away and from other countries. What will we do if that’s not available?”
Here is what you can do to help protect Orange County farms:
New York State Senate: http://www.nysenate.gov/senators
William J. Larkin: larkin@senate.state.ny.us
John J. Bonacic: bonacic@senate.state.ny.us
Office of Thomas P. Morahan: morahan@senate.state.ny.us
New York State Assembly: http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/
Nancy Calhoun: http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/?ad=096&sh=contact
Aileen M. Gunther: http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/?ad=098&sh=contact
Frank K. Skartados: SkartadosF@assembly.state.ny.us
Annie Rabbitt: http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/?ad=097&sh=contact
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