May, 2008

Farmers markets are enjoying a renaissance, and local food is a fad that a lot of us hope becomes a trend and then a custom. At Westchester Land Trust, we've tried to do our part by working to protect local farms, and by supporting farmland preservation beyond Westchester County. But with our 2008 Gala around the corner (Saturday evening, June 14), we thought it important to become the first local non-profit (to our knowledge) to put our meal money where our mouth is.

Congress has restored the enhanced tax benefits that are available to donors of conservation easements, although getting to the bottom of the situation in Washington can be confusing.

Damon Oscarson and Bill Kuebler of Westchester Land Trust's land preservation staff, and John Schroeder of the Yorktown Land Trust, organized a cleanup detail at the Danner Family Preserve in Yorktown on Saturday morning.

The signs in Congress are good for the Farm Bill, which includes an important provision about conservation easements. The bill working its way through Congress would reinstate the expanded federal tax incentives for conservation easements, which expired at the end of 2007.

We're formally opening our newest preserve -- the Danner Family Preserve, spanning the Yorktown-Putnam Valley border -- at 11 a.m. on Thursday, May 22. The preserve is on Indian Hill Road, just north of the Jefferson Valley Mall, in Yorktown (although the entrance is across the town line, in Putnam Valley), and anyone who would like to drop by for the opening is welcome.

It's a fascinating preserve -- more than half of its 28 acres is relatively flat, and thick with shrubs and small trees, some native, others invasive. We went there for a quick visit this morning and without even really trying heard 18 species of birds singing, including red-breasted grosbeak, ovenbird, black-and-white warbler, common yellowthroat and wood thrush. The air was redolent with the scent of blooming flowers.