Westchester Land Trust

WLT permanently preserves regionally and locally prioritized land in urban, suburban, and rural communities throughout its service territory of Westchester County and eastern Putnam County. Its land preservation efforts serve the public benefit by protecting drinking water, air quality, natural wildlife habitats, trails for passive recreation, agricultural lands, and urban green spaces, as well as contributing to natural carbon sequestration efforts that combat climate change. - continued on Schedule O -Since its founding in 1988 WLT has preserved more than 9,000 acres of open space, and 20 miles of hiking trails in 23 communities. WLT has protected properties ranging from 1/4 acre to over 600 acres. In 2022, WLT preserved an additional 179 acres across 3 projects. In 2022, community members enjoyed more than 45,000 visits to WLT's preserves which are free and open to the public year-round. WLT partners with the State of New York, Westchester and Putnam County, private landowners, and local governments to acquire and preserve land.WLT is committed to community education about the protection of natural resources, wildlife habitats and sustainable agriculture. WLT collaborates with dozens of national, regional, and local organizations to advance its mission. WLT works in urban communities through food justice programming and conservation projects. WLT's mobile education exhibit appeared at 15 events in 2022. WLT's headquarters, Sugar Hill Farm, is the site of a half-acre organic garden, where vegetables are grown by volunteers for distribution to local food pantries. In its 11 years of operation, Sugar Hill Farm has produced more than 82,000 servings of fresh produce for local families in need. In 2022, volunteers donated nearly 1,200 hours of time to WLT's food pantry farm, nature preserves, and operations and nearly half of all volunteers were under the age of 18. WLT staff provide technical assistance to farmland owners and farmers seeking land and use a previously urban conservation feasibility study to guide its new work in urban communities.WLT accomplishes this through habitat restoration projects at WLT preserves, education programs about land stewardship and community resiliency, and guided volunteer events at its preserves. WLT's protected lands are home to more than 1,300 species of native plants and animals. Land stewardship is an important component of WLT's mission. WLT regularly conducts land management and habitat restoration projects on publically accessible lands that it owns or holds conservation easements on. In 2022, WLT hired 30 youth conservationists to tackle forest health restoration projects on its preserves. WLT also employed 2 paid college conservation apprentices who learned all aspects of land trust work.