Winnakee Land Trust has purchased 279.43 acres of forest and fields across Gallatin, Pine Plains, and Milan for $1,397,150, permanently protecting roughly a mile of the Roeliff Jansen Kill and a landscape assembled over nearly four decades.
The sale transferred nine properties from Mount Ross resident Carl Popp to the Rhinebeck-based conservation organization. The deed was signed June 15 and recorded in the Dutchess County Clerk’s Office on July 6.
Popp assembled the land through a series of purchases recorded between 1978 and 2014, joining properties on both sides of the Dutchess-Columbia county line into a largely connected stretch of wilderness.
“Winnakee is thrilled to have closed on the permanent protection of an ecologically invaluable property that had been highly vulnerable to development,” Bob Davis, the land trust’s CEO told the Herald. “To be able to preserve a large intact forest of this size in Dutchess County is increasingly rare.”
The deed names the property the Mount Ross Wildlife Sanctuary, but it does not create a conventional public preserve.
General public access for hiking, fishing, hunting, and other recreation is prohibited. Winnakee may offer advance-registration educational walks and seminars for no more than 50 people at a time, with no more than five programs each month. Registered volunteers may also enter the property for stewardship work, and the land trust may conduct wildlife and forest research.
The deed requires about 36 acres of fields to remain in active agricultural use in perpetuity. Winnakee said Lo Nan Farms, a Pine Plains dairy that has grown corn on a large portion of the property for years, may continue farming there. Forest management must follow a plan prepared by a certified forester and updated at least once every 10 years. Mining, quarrying, drilling, and other resource extraction are prohibited, and the property may not be transferred to New York state or one of its agencies.
The public access restrictions emerged late in the negotiations after the seller raised concerns that unrestricted use could damage wildlife habitat and the banks of the Roeliff Jansen Kill. Winnakee accepted the terms as a grant deadline approached.
A separate state Department of Environmental Conservation fishing access site, just across the preserve on the other side of a small bridge on Mount Ross Road, is not affected by the sale.
Winnakee said the New York Natural Heritage Program’s Hudson Valley Forest Patch Assessment ranks the newly protected forestland among the top 5% for local connectedness and found that it strengthens a Hudson Valley core forest.
The Nature Conservancy’s Resilient Sites tool rates portions of the land as having “far above average resilience,” identifying it as a biodiversity stronghold capable of adapting to the effects of climate change, according to the land trust.
“This forest will play a vital role in protecting biodiversity, enhancing climate resilience, strengthening landscape connectivity, and securing long-term forest carbon storage,” Davis said.
Uri Perrin, Winnakee’s senior director of external affairs, said the acquisition depended on cooperation among several conservation organizations who issued grants to fund the purchase.
The purchase was supported by funding from the PCLB Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, and Scenic Hudson. It increases Winnakee’s outright landholdings to more than 2,000 acres. The organization also holds conservation easements protecting about 2,500 additional acres.
“This acquisition is a wonderful example of the power of partnerships to achieve meaningful conservation success,” Perrin said.
Gallatin Town Supervisor Tara Silberberg lives across the street from the property.
Silberberg said she regularly sees bears, foxes, and other wildlife move through the surrounding fields and forest.
“We have all sorts of animals coming through here because they have this big open, preserved stretch that Carl Popp has created,” Silberberg said. “What a testament to him that he did this for us.”
This is an incredible victory for conservation but seems a shame that there will be no access for the public to enjoy this beautiful land.
But there will be. As someone very familiar with the property I encourage everyone to go on a sanctioned woods walk there. It’s a priceless piece of property. Thank you Carl Popp.