Submitted by Tom Andersen on Thu, 01/14/2010 - 1:39pm
Westchester Land Trust is working harder to preserve agricultural land in the county, while still focusing on its traditional land preservation work. The Journal News and Patch.com published interviews with Westchester Land Trust staff in January 2010 that touched on both of those themes -- Patch.com with then-Executive Director Ben Spinelli (click here) and the Journal News with Communications Director Tom Andersen (see below for an excerpt).
Here's the heart of the Patch.com piece:
Spinelli hopes to broaden WLT's mission of preserving land for water quality, aesthetics and habitat preservation to include a new purpose: agricultural use. "Agriculture has been widely overlooked so far, but Westchester County has great potential to grow its agricultural business," he said.
The timing may be right for such outreach. A wave of interest in local foods and sustainable living had led to a proliferation of farmer's markets, as well as local entrepreneurs approaching Bedford and Katonah landowners in pursuit of farmable land.
Spinelli and his staff are working on creating a land match program, which he hopes will faciliate relationships between farmers and landowners and provide a means for that community to network and share information.
"By adding agriculture to our mission, we will have a new audience, and, it's important to note, a new set of supporters. In these tough times we need to be more relevant and I think that's an important part of our mission," Spinelli said, referring to the economic woes many non-profits currently face.
"It's nice to have pretty viewsheds, but it's more than that," he emphasized. "We can protect more farmland, grow more local food, possibly create a few jobs and dollars spent locally. We want to help create a community that's favorable for agriculture."
And here is the crux of what Tom told the Journal News:
There are so many good things about Westchester County. It still has really strong, vibrant communities, it has good schools. It’s close to New York City, which obviously is important for a lot of reasons, economic and cultural. And it has incredible scenic beauty. And part of why everyone likes to live here is because it’s beautiful, and not just northern Westchester but places along the Sound and places along the Hudson River. And that beauty is also part of our environmental infrastructure, so to speak. The fact that we still have some lands that are relatively pristine means we have a water supply that’s still relatively pristine, means we still have in some places really good, vibrant wildlife habitats. And none of those things exist in isolation. They’re all important. We need all of them. We need good strong downtowns, we need economic development. And at the same time we need to have land preserved for all of those reasons. So it’s important that people recognize even in difficult economic times that there’s always got to be a balance and what Westchester Land Trust tries to do is help provide the balance. The other thing I really ought to say even though it’s not particularly germane to this question is that Westchester Land Trust does very few things on its own. Almost everything we do is with partners and if we don’t continue to, if people don’t continue to want to work in partnership and see how we all need each other, then the whole thing will fall apart.
Here's the heart of the Patch.com piece:
Spinelli hopes to broaden WLT's mission of preserving land for water quality, aesthetics and habitat preservation to include a new purpose: agricultural use. "Agriculture has been widely overlooked so far, but Westchester County has great potential to grow its agricultural business," he said.
The timing may be right for such outreach. A wave of interest in local foods and sustainable living had led to a proliferation of farmer's markets, as well as local entrepreneurs approaching Bedford and Katonah landowners in pursuit of farmable land.
Spinelli and his staff are working on creating a land match program, which he hopes will faciliate relationships between farmers and landowners and provide a means for that community to network and share information.
"By adding agriculture to our mission, we will have a new audience, and, it's important to note, a new set of supporters. In these tough times we need to be more relevant and I think that's an important part of our mission," Spinelli said, referring to the economic woes many non-profits currently face.
"It's nice to have pretty viewsheds, but it's more than that," he emphasized. "We can protect more farmland, grow more local food, possibly create a few jobs and dollars spent locally. We want to help create a community that's favorable for agriculture."
And here is the crux of what Tom told the Journal News:
There are so many good things about Westchester County. It still has really strong, vibrant communities, it has good schools. It’s close to New York City, which obviously is important for a lot of reasons, economic and cultural. And it has incredible scenic beauty. And part of why everyone likes to live here is because it’s beautiful, and not just northern Westchester but places along the Sound and places along the Hudson River. And that beauty is also part of our environmental infrastructure, so to speak. The fact that we still have some lands that are relatively pristine means we have a water supply that’s still relatively pristine, means we still have in some places really good, vibrant wildlife habitats. And none of those things exist in isolation. They’re all important. We need all of them. We need good strong downtowns, we need economic development. And at the same time we need to have land preserved for all of those reasons. So it’s important that people recognize even in difficult economic times that there’s always got to be a balance and what Westchester Land Trust tries to do is help provide the balance. The other thing I really ought to say even though it’s not particularly germane to this question is that Westchester Land Trust does very few things on its own. Almost everything we do is with partners and if we don’t continue to, if people don’t continue to want to work in partnership and see how we all need each other, then the whole thing will fall apart.