Byram Lake Preserve

October 16, 2009 -- The 30 acres we helped buy and protect in North Castle near Byram Lake has a new, official name: the Byram Lake Preserve.

We worked with the town of North Castle and the village of Mount Kisco to buy the land, which sits near Byram Lake, Mount Kisco's sole source of drinking water. The previous owner, the Rene Dubos Center for Human Environments, had wanted to sell it for more than a million dollars to a developer, who envisioned building six houses there. But a judge ruled that because the Rene Dubos Center had aquired the land as a gift and for the purposes of environmental protection, itcould not therefore sell it for a purpose that conflicted with the intent of the gift.

North Castle and Mount Kisco subsequently bought the land for $475,000. Westchester Land Trust contributed $15,000 and the two municipalities split the rest.

The name change came about because early last month, as we were preparing our fall newsletter, we we writing about the closing, which took place in June. It occured to us that this terrific acquisition should be memorialized with a name other than Dubos, because of the Dubos Center's efforts to sell the land for development.

We emailed North Castle Town Supervisor Reese Berman and Mount Kisco Mayor J. Michael Cindrich, suggesting the name Byram Lake Preserve. Governments being governments, the town board and village board had to discuss it and agree on it, which they did (although not in time for the new name to make the newsletter, which came out last week).