Thoughtful landowners like you can ensure vibrant, successful, and healthy communities with good farmland, clean air, abundant water, and a high degree of climate resiliency. It’s a wonderful way to keep your land as healthy as it is today. We are so grateful for your partnership.

We hope this will eventually become a place where people can walk,” said Peggy Palmer as we finished a stroll through their 80-acre property nestled in the hills of Oneonta. “Hopefully people will enjoy it in the future,” she reflected.

Steep forested ridges and broad fertile valleys – that’s the landscape that defines the Upper Susquehanna watershed. Otsego Land Trust’s most recent easement, filed in March 2024, protects 248 acres of farmland at the confluence of two creeks in a scenic valley just outside the town of East Meredith.

Otsego Land Trust has been awarded $100,000 by the Department of Environmental Conservation through the New York State Conservation Partnership Program with the Land Trust Alliance. The grant will be used to develop a new walking trail and paddling launch on the north side of the Brookwood Point Conservation Area. “We are grateful to New York State and the Land Trust Alliance for their generous support,” said Gregory Farmer, executive director.

Farming is a way of life for many in our region, but low margins and changing weather patterns are a constant challenge to farmers. Some agricultural landowners have had to sell their land to developers for non-agricultural uses. Otsego Land Trust is dedicated to helping keep farmland in active agricultural use, preserving the farms that feed us and the pastoral landscape that defines our region.

Imagine an outdoor education center with miles of forested trails, lakefront access for canoes and kayaks, and programs for families and children throughout the year. That’s the vision that Otsego Land Trust has for reuse of the former BSA Camp Henderson property on Crumhorn Mountain in Milford.

There’s snow on the ground, but work is already underway to prepare the Brookwood Point Conservation Area for spring and summer use. The 22-acre conservation area two miles north of Cooperstown is a quiet refuge for residents and visitors with formal gardens, walking trails, and a natural launch area for canoes and kayaks. It has been owned and managed by Otsego Land Trust for public use since 2011.

“The first step in preparing the gardens this year was to remove the overgrown hemlocks along the east side,” said Gregory Farmer, executive director. The hemlock hedge was designed in the early 20th century to be about five feet high. Over the years, the trees had grown to 30 feet and were casting deep shade on the lawn and garden beds. The tight row of twenty hemlocks also increased the risk of infestation by the hemlock woolly adelgid, an invasive insect that attacks and kills North American hemlocks.

“THE GREENING OF GLIMMERGLASS: Frederic dePeyster Townsend’s personal lakeside paradise, Brookwood, remains relatively intact, powered by an avid taskforce of volunteers. It’s a small but potent evocation of the golden age of American country-house gardens.”

By Mitchell Owens

Over the past two months, a fledgling group has formed to take on the task of a natural resource inventory for Otsego County, representatives from Otsego Land Trust, SUNY Oneonta, and the town of Richfield Springs have organized the initial steps of a Regional Natural Resources Council, and a solid stakeholder group is taking shape. Representatives from Otsego 2000, Otsego Land Trust, Otsego County Conservation Association, County Soil and Water, Mohawk Valley Economic Development District, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, SUNY Oneonta, and Hartwick College are all on board.

We protect special spaces like Thayer Farm so that more of our community can learn from and connect with nature. Located along the west side of Otsego Lake, Thayer Farm has 256 acres of rolling hills, mature forest, trails, and active farmland that are under conservation easement with Otsego Land Trust. Thayer Farm is owned and operated by SUNY Oneonta and is a hub for student and faculty projects and research. Originally established by William Thayer and located within the Glimmerglass Historic District, the farm is used by the SUNY Oneonta Biological Field Station and houses natural history specimens, labs with microscopes galore, and even some graduate student rooms.

Otsquago Farm, Regenerative Agriculture

2023 was a year full of events!

Over one hundred property owners have conserved their special spaces through a conservation easement with Otsego Land Trust. Thoughtful landowners play a significant role in ensuring that current and future generations can enjoy vibrant, successful, and healthy communities with good farmland, clean air, abundant water, and a high degree of climate resiliency.

A conservation easement is a way for private property owners to protect the land while still retaining ownership. An easement is a legal document attached to a property’s deed and stays with the deed no matter who owns it in the future.

The easement has language that helps keep the land as is, especially restricting future activities that may have a negative effect on forests, wetlands, farms, scenic vistas, and open spaces. Otsego Land Trust works with the owners to monitor the easements annually and to enforce them if necessary.

We’ve been busy getting to work on real conservation projects, and our new staff members are out in the community making local conservation possible…

We’re embarking on a huge connective corridor project - it’s our region’s best chance to stay climate-resilient, scenic, and healthy! The time is now before development pressures become too strong. Protecting land secures basic human needs like air and water. Let’s be intentional about our future.

“I hike hundreds of miles in Otsego County to raise money for causes like outdoor recreation. I include Otsego Land Trust properties that are open to the public - Lordsland Conservancy, Fetterley Forest, Parslow Road Preserve, Greenough Preserve, Compton Bridge Preserve, and Brookwood Point Conservation Area. Each of these properties is unique in its geography - from lakeside historic gardens to beautiful bird habitats and trout streams. Otsego Land Trust’s public properties connect people to special natural spaces.”

Otsego Land Trust is participating in Mohawk Valley Gives, a 1-day region-wide fundraiser. Here are the details:

On Wednesday, September 20, 2023, the Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties will host its second year of “Mohawk Valley Gives,” a 24-hour community-wide giving day to benefit nonprofit organizations serving the Mohawk Valley region.

During last year’s giving day, the community came together and raised more than $630,000 in 24 hours from 1,700+ unique donors and over 2,750+ individual donations. More than 90 prizes were awarded to participating nonprofits with the generous support of Mohawk Valley Gives sponsors, as well as members of the Community Foundation Board of Trustees.

Community Impact Report 2022-2023