Westchester Land Trust will work to implement local open space plans by 1.) acquiring
land through the creation of partnerships among citizens and local, state and county
government; and 2.) by working with local advocates to secure conservation easements
as a complement to local open space acquisition plans.
1. Acquiring land through partnerships: Since 2000, Westchester Land Trust has
worked with the towns of Pound Ridge, Bedford, Lewisboro, North Salem,
Somers, Yorktown and New Castle to buy more than 1,400 acres of land
indentified locally as important for water quality protection or wildlife habitat
protection.
These projects originated in recommendations from local residents following
open space ballot propositions or the creation of other local funding. Based on these
acquisitions, Westchester Land Trust has built a model for forming successful
partnerships that it will use to acquire land in the New York City watershed and in two
large areas identified by the Wildlife Conservation Society/Metropolitan Conservation
Alliance as being important biodiversity regions – the Eastern Westchester Biotic
Corridor (in Pound Ridge, Bedford, Lewisboro and North Salem) and the Croton-toHighlands Biodiversity Area, in New Castle, Yorktown, Cortlandt and Phillipstown.
The partnership model to be used in each acquisition involves organizing local
advocates into a “friends” group to secure support among fellow residents and elected
officials, and to organize public walks of the property; coordinating press coverage of the
preservation effort; drafting a vision statement to be used to build support among county
and state officials; negotiating with landowners; securing funding from state and county
officials; and, where necessary, raising money through private donations.
Securing conservation easements: A consequence of the creation of land
preservation funds in Westchester has been the interest of local open space committee
members and their municipalities in using conservation easements to complement their
open space plans.
Conservation easements have been the foundation of Westchester Land Trust’s
work since the organization’s founding in 1988. A conservation easement is a legal
agreement on the part of a landowner to permanently give up most development rights; in
return the IRS allows the landowner to deduct the value of the easement as a charitable
donation. The Land Trust’s role is to serve as the qualified agency to “hold” the easement
and to ensure that its provisions are enforced – that is, to see to it that the conservation
values are protected forever. Conservation easement land remains privately owned and
except in unusual cases is not open to the public.
Typically, the Land Trust has worked directly with landowners on conservation
easements. But as local governments look for ways to stretch their open space funds,
local advocates and officials have begun to come to the Land Trust for help in soliciting
and securing easements.
Our proposal calls on us to work with local advocates and officials on easements
in two ways:
 by helping identify and solicit potential easement donors based on local open
space priority lists;
 by using the land acquisition model detailed above as a springboard for
soliciting easements near the land to be bought.
The Land Trust staff will work with local advocates, committee members and
officials to identify potential easement donors on local open space priority lists. Priority
lists typically identify lands that are of the highest importance and which should be
protected using public funds, as well as lands that are of a second rank and for which
public funds are unlikely to be available. Many of these second-rank properties are worth
preserving through easements. Good easement land is often land that is valuable for
biodiversity protection or watershed protection – land that might be damaged by the
public access that the expenditure of public funds usually requires. Easement donors are
often found among people with the financial resources to take advantage of IRS tax
deductions for donating land.
The Land Trust staff will collaborate with local committee members on letters of
solicitation to potential easement donors; participate in meetings with landowners; supply
brochures and other materials; and provide the technical and legal support necessary to
complete conservation easements.