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26 acres near Goosepond Mountain to Remain Open Space Middletown, NY (OCLT) Orange County Land Trust Places Conservation Easement in Chester The owner of a 26.6 acre parcel of land in the Town of Chester has ensured that the property will remain untouched by future development forever with a conservation easement placed on the property by the Orange County Land Trust. This is the second property in the Town of Chester preserved as open space in perpetuity by the county-wide land trust. "We are so excited about the protection of this particular property because of its high ecological and conservation value," said Jim Delaune, executive director of the Orange County Land Trust. "We define this as being a property that possesses certain natural, scenic and open space value important to both our human and wildlife populations," he explained. In addition to being located in an area experiencing increased pressure from development, the property contains extensive woodlands and is located near the 1,558-acre Goosepond Mountain State Park, an existing recreational resource and protected, unfragmented forest tract. In addition, the property is near the protected 150-acre McNeil Farm, as well as the Chester Commons Town Park. These adjacent and contiguous properties form connecting corridors of open space and are valuable for their scenic beauty and important for wildlife habitat. According to the New York Natural Heritage Program, the property is also near a documented threatened species habitat and proximate to an oak-tulip tree forest. A conservation easement is a voluntary agreement that allows a landowner to limit development on his or her property forever, while still retaining private ownership of the land. The responsibility of a land trust is to monitor the property and ensure the terms of the agreement are followed in perpetuity. Conservation easements are recorded with the county and conditions apply to all future owners of the property. Many landowners receive a federal income tax deduction for donating a conservation easement to a land trust. The amount of the tax deduction is determined by the value of the conservation easement which is typically the value of the difference in property value after the placement of the easement. The Orange County Land Trust is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to preserve the fields, forests, wetlands, ridgelines and river corridors in and around Orange County through voluntary land conservation. Since its inception in 1993, the land trust has helped preserve nearly 4,000 acres in almost every town in Orange County and one in Sullivan County. To learn more about the organization, how you can preserve your land, and for volunteer opportunities and ways of giving to the organization, please visit the website at oclt.org. |
