Only two months remain to raise the funds needed to purchase 20 acres of ecologically sensitive land in Twin Lakes. To date, Mianus River Gorge Preserve (MRGP), along with generous contributions from private donors, The Nature Conservancy and the Town of Bedford, has raised $3.85 million towards the total purchase price of $4.25 million. An additional $400,000 remains to be raised before the December 31st deadline.

The 20-acre land purchase (in orange) combined with existing conservation easements (crosshatching) and general protection areas makes the total land protected almost 60 acres and protects the majority of the Pine Brook watershed.

Protecting the 72-acre Twin Lakes property in southeast Bedford NY from development has been a conservation priority for MRGP for over 25 years. Acquiring the entire property ultimately proved to be too expensive, so MRGP has focused its efforts on protecting the most unique and ecologically important land. This 20 acres of continuous forest contains beautiful upland forests, rare flora and fauna and critical watershed lands leading down to the lake. Combined with an existing conservation easement (which MRGP helped secure) and the general protection areas, this land purchase preserves over 60% of the original Twin Lakes forests. An additional 19.5 acres of adjacent land under conservation easement to MRGP on the other “twin” lake across the road makes the total land protected almost 60 acres and protects the majority of the watershed for Pine Brook.

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In March, the Mianus River Gorge Preserve (MRGP) completed a bargain sale for a 5.2 acre lot on Mianus River Road that is contiguous with other MRGP property. The approved building lot runs along the ridge top that stretches from St. Mary’s Church Road south to East Middle Patent Road.

This site protects uplands that are the headwaters of Piping Brook, a tributary of the Mianus River that flows into the Bargh Reservoir, a source of drinking water for 130,000 people in southern NY and CT.

The property is also an important wildlife corridor for many large animal species, including rare bobcats. It is a connector to a 40 acre MRGP parcel to the north and another 100 acre one to the south. If this parcel had been developed, this narrow corridor would have been destroyed, severely impacting local wildlife populations.

By protecting this very visible ridge top, MRGP is also protecting the view from Mianus River Road and East Middle Patent Road as well as helping to preserve the rural character of the Middle Patent area of North Castle.

The Staff and Trustees of the MRGP would like to thank all of the neighbors for their efforts to rally support for this project as well as donate funds that made the project possible. Donors included private donations, the MRGP Land Fund, and The Nature Conservancy.

MRGP Executive Director Rod Christie

Editor Patricia Barry sat down with Executive Director Rod Christie to discuss how recent economic events have impacted the Preserve.

I’ll start off our interview with the question that is probably on the forefront of everyone’s mind. The recession has taken a toll on many non-profits’ operating budgets. How is the Gorge doing?

Last year, we were down by quite a bit in terms of contributions. This year, we are not sure yet, but I would say that it promises to be a similar situation. We are getting hit in a number of ways: fewer givers, supporters giving less, foundations with reduced endowments giving less or not at all. I have to say, though, we do have a good number of very loyal supporters who really believe in our mission and who have been there when times are tough. We are very grateful for their continued support.

With less money coming in, how does that affect what you can do?

Well, because we are small and lean to begin with, we can weather bad times a bit easier. Our undergraduate and graduate students provide a lot of valuable work and research for our investment. And we have part-time employees and volunteer help. There’s also a positive aspect to the recession as the depressed housing and tight credit market may create opportunities for us to purchase land or try to protect land….

So there are opportunities for the Gorge in this market?

Sure, with the proper resources. In the current market, a depressed housing market means lower land values, true, but on the other side, people are more reluctant to buy expensive homes so less building is going on and any land a developer has in their portfolio may have to stay in inventory longer. There is also less cash available so loans to buy land are harder to come by. All this could be helpful for the Gorge in that it slows downs the process of land transfer. It gives us more time to possibly negotiate on a property with the owner. Also, the owner might be willing to sell it for less money or sell their property to ease a tax burden.

Land is still enormously expensive. How can the Gorge compete?

By far, the best course of action is for us to stay in touch with the owners of the properties that interest us and negotiate with the owners well before their properties go on the market. Sometimes the Gorge is able to work out a deal that protects the ecologically sensitive or contiguous parcels of land by conservation easements or purchase and still gives the landowner a tax break and/or some cash. The Gorge might then have lead time in order to raise funds for the purchase.

If talks with the owner do not bear fruit and the land is sold to a developer, the Gorge has several options to protect land. I’ll give you an example. Let’s assume there is a parcel of land contiguous to the Gorge holdings. It is an expensive piece of land making an outright purchase by the Gorge difficult. The first option would be to negotiate a partial development sale. The Gorge could raise funds to purchase the wetlands, wildlife corridors and other ecologically sensitive areas. This would give the developer cash and still preserve buildable and road accessible land for development. This is not a perfect solution, but it is oftentimes the way land is preserved in this day and age when raising funds is so difficult.

Why would a developer agree to a partial development sale?

Aside from the cash, it makes sense for the developer to sit down with us at the beginning before he/she goes to the planning board. If we can work out a plan to preserve the most ecologically fragile or contiguous parts of the property and the developer can show that they have mitigated the impact of their development beforehand, it decreases the time that it will take to have their project approved.

This brings us to another option that the Gorge has for preserving and protecting property – a more adversarial option. If all else fails, the Gorge will work with the planning process of one of the five surrounding towns to protect wetland and water resources and wildlife corridors on that property.  The planning board might then require that easements be put into place or land set aside. Over its 55 years, the Gorge has developed a good reputation as an organization that uses good science to back its land protection recommendations.

Most of these scenarios need funds to purchase land. Where would the money come from?

This is the million dollar question – no pun intended! Westchester County has a fund for land acquisition, but like most funds these days, they may not have much to work with. The NY DEC does have funds for land acquisition and we recently worked with Pound Ridge Open Space Committee to add “Northern Westchester Watershed and Biodiversity Lands”, including the Gorge, to their priority list of areas for land protection projects (and possible NYS funding). We have had some success with Open Space Funds from the local towns. Recently, we completed a purchase with the Pound Ridge Open Space Committee, for example.
For some of the larger land purchases, we could consider other types of financial arrangements, such as working with a group of conservation-minded investors who purchase the land and allow the Gorge to buy it back from them over time at very low interest. Land trusts, of course, have to be careful in the way they go about buying and selling land.

What are some of your biggest challenges going forward?

Our biggest challenge will be acquiring the resources to address any priority land parcels that will be coming to market in the next five years. But we are optimistic. We just received funds from two grants from the NYS Conservation Partnership Program which is DEC funds administered through the Land Trust Alliance. These types of grants are very important to organizations like ours as they help us raise more funds for land protection.

This beautiful property on Middle Patent Road is now protected with two conservation easements to the Gorge totaling 42 acres

MRGP is pleased to announce the donation of a 38-acre conservation easement on a property bordering the Mianus River. The 38 acres placed under conservation easement in July adjoins 4 acres donated as a conservation easement in 2005. MRGP now has 224 acres under conservation easement in addition to the 764 acres under ownership as part of the Preserve. The property includes valuable habitat along the river as well as a critical tributary and its associated wetlands. Much of the land is open pasture and upland forest which drains into the west branch of the Mianus River, a crucial water source during the dry summer months.