Submitted by Tom Andersen on Wed, 03/04/2009 - 3:00pm
Westchester Land Trust congratulates and thanks
the residents of Ridge Road
and Quicks Lane
in Katonah, the Town of Bedford
and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, for working to
buy a 13.1-acre parcel on Ridge Road
that will help protect the city's reservoirs.
The parcel is part of a woodland that slopes toward the Muscoot reservoir. By buying it and protecting it, the partners will prevent construction of houses and the subsequent runoff that would come from new lawns and septic systems, which would degrade water quality in the reservoir.
The property's proximity to the forested water supply lands owned by New York City makes it an important like in a wildlife corridor that supports coyotes, fox, box turtles, wild turkey, hawks and owls, opposums and of course white-tailed deer.
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| A glade of ferns on the Ridge Road property. |
The parcel is part of a woodland that slopes toward the Muscoot reservoir. By buying it and protecting it, the partners will prevent construction of houses and the subsequent runoff that would come from new lawns and septic systems, which would degrade water quality in the reservoir.
The property's proximity to the forested water supply lands owned by New York City makes it an important like in a wildlife corridor that supports coyotes, fox, box turtles, wild turkey, hawks and owls, opposums and of course white-tailed deer.
 |
The price for the land is $660,000. The town of Bedford agreed on
February 24 to contribute $340,000. The money will come from the town's open
space acquisition fund, which voters approved in 2000.
The New York City DEP will contribute $167,000 from its
watershed protection fund.
Twenty eight of the 35 families living on Ridge
Road and Quicks
Lane donated $153,000 to Westchester Land Trust to complete the purchase.
The land is being sold by the estate of Gwynne O'Donnell. A
closing is scheduled to take place within a year.
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All the photos on this page were taken by Ridge Road resident Chris Sanders (www.chris-sanders.com/).