Sugar Loaf (OCLT): In what is being hailed as “groundbreaking” by New York’s conservation community, the Town of Warwick and the Orange County Land Trust recently entered into an agreement in which the Land Trust will be responsible for monitoring and stewarding the town’s 24 properties under conservation easement, about 3,000 acres of farmland and open space.
The agreement, initiated by Supervisor Michael Sweeton and
approved by Warwick’s Town Board, establishes a one year contract with the
nonprofit Land Trust to monitor the town’s conservation easements for changes
and violations, and also, when requested, for the Land Trust to create baseline
documentation for any new conservation easement properties acquired by the
town, as well as for existing conservation easements without baseline
documentation.
Many of the town’s easements are co-held with Orange County,
Orange County Land Trust, Scenic Hudson Land Trust, or Open Space
Conservancy. Orange County Land Trust will either assist these partner
organizations, or take the lead role in monitoring as necessary to ensure all
Town of Warwick conservation easements are annually monitored and in compliance.
According to Ethan Winter, New York Conservation Manager for
the Land Trust Alliance, this relationship between a land trust and a
municipality is a very new concept in New York State and even more so in the
Hudson Valley. The only model for this type of partnership is one also
formed recently between the Wallkill Valley Land Trust and the Town of New
Paltz.
“The Town of Warwick is pleased to work with Orange County
Land Trust, and trusts their professionalism
