About WLT

Westchester Land Trust Chairman George Bianco

Westchester Land Trust was founded in 1988 by a group of residents of Lewisboro and Bedford who were concerned about the increasing pace of development in their towns, and who wanted to take action to protect environmentally-important open space and the character of their communities.

Today Westchester Land Trust has grown into a truly countywide organization. We have protected land in 25 of Westchester's communities and continue to seek land preservation opportunities throughout the county.

Westchester Land Trust is based in Bedford Hills and has a staff of 12.

Our Mission

Westchester Land Trust...

• Protects land in partnership with private property owners
• Helps communities create new parks and preserves
• Fosters sound land use planning rules

Our Methods

We work with ...

• private landowners on conservation easements
• government agencies and local advocates to buy important properties
• developers and local planning boards to acquire conservation easements during the development review process

Our Accomplishments

We have protected 6,148 acres in 26 communities:

• 4094 acres on 170 conservation easements
• 583 acres on 29 preserves we own
• 1472 acres on 14 preserves and farms that we helped negotiate preservation agreements for

Fourteen of our preserves are open to the public (although seven of those have no trails):

• Guard Hill Preserve, Bedford Village
• Tom Burke Memorial Preserve, Bedford Hills
• Seth Tobias Preserve, Bedford Village (no trails)
• Westchester Wilderness Walk (including the Zofnass Family Preserve), Pound Ridge
• Frederick P. Rose Preserve, Waccabuc, Lewisboro
• Love Preserve, Vista, Lewisboro (no trails)
• Old Church Lane Preserve, South Salem, Lewisboro
• Pine Croft Meadow Preserve, Waccabuc, Lewisboro
• Goldsby Preserve, Chappaqua (no trails)
• Lifton Family Preserve, North Salem (no trails)
• Hemlock Brook Preserve, Yorktown (no trails)
• Hunter Brook Preserve, Yorktown
• McGregor Pond Preserve, Cortlandt (no trails)
• Danner Family Preserve, Yorktown-Putnam Valley