Nan Hayworth's Visit to Angle Fly

L to R: Michael Barnhart, President of Somers Land Trust; Bob MacGregor, Somers Land Trust board of directors; and Representative Nan Hayworth. Photo credit: Mike Lubchenko

Representative Hayworth toured the 654-acre Angle Fly preserve during a volunteer work day organized by Somers Land Trust and Friends of Angle Fly Preserve. Angle Fly’s history of public and private partnerships was the day’s theme. The Town of Somers has management responsibility for approximately 400 acres of the preserve. With the benefit of a Conservation Partnership Program grant from the Land Trust Alliance and New York’s Environmental Protection Fund, Somers Land Trust partnered with Westchester Land Trust and Teatown Lake Reservation on planning, public access improvements, and management of the preserve on the Town’s behalf. Since opening the first trail in 2008, Somers Land Trust has completed management plans and sponsored numerous environmental initiatives.  With the help of over 350 volunteers and donations of goods and services from scores of businesses, Somers Land Trust is completing ten miles of trails with a $75,000 Federal Recreational Trails Grant awarded in 2007 to the Town and Somers Land Trust.

Acquired in 2006 with a complex agreement between the Town of Somers, County of Westchester, New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection, and the State Department of Conservation, it was one of the largest public land purchases ever in Westchester County. Westchester Land Trust played a key role in negotiating and closing the $20.5 million purchase. The preserve, named for its Angle Fly Brook protects a key section of the Croton watershed, 140 acres of federal, state and local wetlands, and a vast wildlife habitat. It provides miles of new hiking trails and potential trail linkages to the County’s Lasdon Park and Muscoot Farm.

Lori Ensinger, Westchester Land Trust’s board of directors, talks to Representative Nan Hayworth about the value of conservation easements in protecting private property near preserves. Lori is joined on the left by Somers Town Supervisor Mary Beth Murphy and on the right by Westchester Land Trust’s director of conservation outreach Eileen Hochberg.  Photo credit: Mike Lubchenko

Representative Hayworth was the first new member of New York’s congressional delegation to co-sponsor legislation in the House of Representatives to extend a highly effective conservation tax incentive for private landowners who protect their land through voluntary conservation easements. Representative Hayworth’s leadership inspired other newly elected representatives from New York to co-sponsor the bill. This legislation currently has more bipartisan co-sponsors (260) than any other tax bill pending in the 112th Congress. The Congresswoman also successfully championed an amendment that restored $4 million to the Highlands Conservation Act, which provides federal funds to augment and match state and local funding to conserve priority lands in the Hudson Highlands Region.