In her 1899 gardening calendar Wood and Garden, Gertrude Jekyll writes: “What is one to say about June — the time of perfect young summer, the fulfillment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade?”
This June certainly feels like we’re beginning to fulfill the promise of spring. Earlier this year, CLC and our partners completed The Plan to Conserve Columbia County (The Plan). The Plan identified three strategies to pursue in service of ambitiously advancing the pace, scale, and scope of conservation work in Columbia County:
• Conserving 30% of critical lands by 2035,
• Supporting conservation partners, and
• Catalyzing 2,500 acts of caring for land each year.
I am excited to provide an early look at two projects in progress that address these strategies: a new Austerlitz Community Forest and the Bell’s Pond Community Space.
The Austerlitz Community Forest:
Conserving important landscapes and creating new public access
The future Austerlitz Community Forest is a 560-acre property home to steep forests, a pond, two swamps, and nearly a mile of streams draining into the Green River.
CLC considers each new property using the criteria developed in The Plan: habitat quality, climate change, water quality, public access, and farmland. The forest achieves the highest possible rank for habitat quality and is located in one of the two priority areas identified in The Plan – the Mid-Hudson Wildlife Corridor. This pathway connects habitats and enables species to move, migrate, and find food and mates. This corridor extends from the Southern Appalachians into Canada and is one of only two of its kind on the East Coast of the United States. The future forest also ranked highly for its potential to be resilient to the impacts of climate change. The wetlands and forests on the property are among the top 20% of important forest blocks to protect in the Hudson River Estuary.
What’s next for this project? CLC has applied to a new grant program offered through the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation for a portion of the funds needed to purchase the property. The goals of the grant include enhancing public access, mitigating the impacts of climate change, increasing habitat connectivity, and enhancing water quality. We are currently awaiting the results of this application.
Once CLC is able to purchase the land, the next step will be to identify people who will champion this forest, as members of the town of Taghkanic did for the recently opened Taghkanic Community Forest. A community forest is a conservation model in which land is permanently protected and managed in partnership with community members.
The community forest model requires a group of trained volunteers to help design trails, participate in habitat restoration, monitor ecological health, and make shared decisions about land care. CLC provides technical guidance and conservation expertise, and ultimately owns the land.
The Bell’s Pond Community Space:
Caring for land and for our community
If the Austerlitz Community Forest exemplifies the importance of protecting high-value conservation land, the Bell’s Pond Community Space (Bell’s Pond) demonstrates the opportunities for a critical partnership among conservation and housing organizations. Identifying high-priority landscapes in The Plan serves two purposes: highlighting those that are essential for protection and identifying those landscapes that are less critical but can still contribute to making Columbia County a vital community.
CLC and our partners at Columbia-Greene Habitat for Humanity, Trillium Community Land Trust, and Scenic Hudson are combining forces to pilot an innovative approach to conservation that also makes it possible for average-income earners in our community to pursue home ownership.
Bell’s Pond is a 145-acre property in Greenport and Livingston that’s full of potential. When CLC analyzed this land using the criteria from The Plan, the rankings reflected this site’s potential and its suitability for the development and restoration CLC and our partners plan to pursue. Previously, the land was approved for use as a large baseball facility with dormitories for Columbia-Greene Community College, and before that, it was used as a dairy farm. If CLC can successfully raise $3.5M, we plan to purchase the property and donate 15 acres each to our housing partners, restoring the remaining 115 acres.
Each housing partner plans to build approximately 20-25 affordable, climate-conscious, clustered homes. CLC will manage restoring the site’s open meadows and streamside habitats to become a shared asset – a shared greenspace with an accessible walking trail, interpretive signage, and pollinator habitat. CLC envisions using a management model similar to the one being proposed for the Austerlitz Community Forest to care for the land as a community.
These two projects couldn’t be more different. Still, they share a common thread – using the best available data and the concerns highlighted by our community to advance conservation in Columbia County.
Thank you for the generosity you have already shown with your support of CLC. May your summer be filled with fulfillment.
P.S. Curious about anything in this letter? Get in touch with me at [email protected] or 518.557.1762.
Sincerely,
Troy Weldy
President
