Westchester Land Trust Receives Challenge Grant

to Preserve Yorktown Land through Regional Partnership

BEDFORD, NY – Westchester Land Trust (WLT) announced today the award of a $55,000 challenge grant toward the $200,000 acquisition of an environmentally significant parcel adjacent to Turkey Mountain Preserve in Yorktown, NY. The grant, from the John T. and Jane A. Wiederhold Foundation, provides a major boost to WLT’s fundraising efforts to acquire the parcel and preserve it in perpetuity. With additional financial support from the Town of Yorktown, private donors, and WLT’s own funds, the land trust hopes to fill a $50,000 funding gap in order to close on the acquisition within the next several months.

The 24-acre parcel, located on Saw Mill River Road in Yorktown, lies directly to the east of Turkey Mountain Preserve, a 125-acre preserve owned and managed by the Town of Yorktown. The protection of this parcel will create a 550-acre contiguous corridor of permanently protected forest and wetland, that also adjoins other protected lands owned and managed by NYS DEC and NYC DEP as a critical watershed area. The property lies within the Croton-to-Highlands Biodiversity Area, explicitly prioritized in the 2016 New York State Open Space Conservation Plan. For these reasons, Yorktown’s Advisory Committee on Open Space (ACOS) and the Yorktown Land Trust ranked this parcel their top preservation priority.

“We are deeply grateful to the John T. and Jane A. Wiederhold Foundation for their generous support of this exciting project. We have been working with Yorktown Land Trust (YLT) and the Yorktown ACOS through the Hudson to Housatonic Regional Conservation Partnership (H2HRCP) for several years to identify and protect ecologically sensitive land, and we are hopeful that this challenge grant will inspire other donors to help us bring this acquisition to completion very soon,” said Lori Ensinger, WLT’s President. “The H2HRCP, which WLT co-coordinates, is a 40-organization regional partnership created to increase the pace of land protection between the Hudson and Housatonic Rivers.”

“We are delighted to be working with WLT and YLT to realize our longstanding vision for linking this parcel to Turkey Mountain Preserve, and to expand the preservation of a beloved resource in our community. The addition of the John T. and Jane A. Wiederhold Foundation to this wonderful public-private partnership brings us one step closer to success,” said Michael J. Grace, Yorktown Supervisor.

Once it acquires the property, WLT will manage the land as an extension of the Preserve, and construct a new public trail that links directly to the existing trail network at Turkey Mountain. The Town of Yorktown will hold a conservation easement on the property, further ensuring that it will always remain a nature preserve. Those interested in contributing to the fundraising effort for this acquisition are encouraged to contact Kara Whelan, WLT Vice President: Kara@westchesterlandtrust.org or 914.234.6992 ext 12.

403 Harris Road Bedford Hills, NY 10507 914.234.6992 westchesterlandtrust.org