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| A field biologist searches for turtles in Pound Ridge |
An Insurance Policy for Our Health, Our Water, and Our Communities
Westchester residents have been hearing a lot about biodiversity and biotic corridors lately.
The Metropolitan Conservation Alliance has identified tens of thousands of acres in Westchester as being regionally significant because of their high quality habitat for plants and wildlife.
These areas form two distinct biodiversity regions -- the Eastern Westchester Biotic Corridor, in Pound Ridge, Lewisboro and North Salem (and a recently-added section in Bedford), and the Croton-to-Highlands Biodiversity Area, in New Castle, Cortlandt, Yorktown and Putnam Valley.
North Salem, Pound Ridge and Lewisboro are collaborating on a biodiversity law that will allow reasonable development and the enjoyment of private property while protecting wildlife habitats.
Cortlandt, Yorktown and New Castle are discussing how they can better protect their important biodiversity areas.
Westchester Land Trust has been collaborating with the towns. In 2005, for example, the Land Trust organized a planning session among two dozen officials and residents of North Salem, Pound Ridge and Lewisboro.
An analysis of local environmental protection laws and of biodiversity protection laws from around the country, followed by a concise, abridged version, became the basis for the ongoing discussions about biodiversity protection.
(The former was prepared by a Land Trust consultant and supported a grant by State Senator Vincent Leibell; the latter was prepared by Land Trust staff and supported by grants from the Northeast Land Trust Alliance and the New York City Environmental Fund.)
At the Land Trust, we think biodiversity protection is important for the same reasons the WCS/MCA expressed it in a report released two years ago:
"The diversity of wildlife populations within a town or region is a direct measure of ecosystem health; therefore, it is also a measure of the ability of these ecosystems to provide important and cost-effective services to our communities. The benefits of maintaining ... biodiversity are far-reaching. Issues of water quality, water quantity, rural aesthetics, and human health are all closely intertwined with biodiversity. A biologically diverse landscape is resilient to change and provides an insurance policy that the ecological services in our communities will continue, now and into the future."
Westchester Land Trust's biodiversity work has earned the financial support of numerous government agencies and private funders: the state Hudson River Estuary Program, the New York Land Trust Alliance, the Westchester Community Foundation, the New York City Environmental Fund, the Wallace Genetic Foundation and State Senator Vincent Leibell.
Biodiversity Links