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Albany-Hudson Electric Trail Opens to the Public!

AHET December 2020 Opening Update 1 On December 30, 2020, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the Albany-Hudson Electric Trail (AHET), a 36-mile bicycling and hiking route from the City of Rensselaer in Rensselaer County to the Town of Greenport in Columbia County, is complete and open to the public. The Hudson River Valley Greenway constructed the project, which is part of the statewide Empire State Trail. Most of the AHET Trail is an off-road “rail trail” built on an historic electric trolley corridor, now owned by National Grid which donated authorization to NYS to construct the trail. The remainder of the AHET route is designated along public roadways.

NYS has created a comprehensive Empire State Trail website which provides detailed AHET trail segment descriptions: https://empiretrail.ny.gov/. The website includes an online map allowing visitors to zoom in to see the precise trail route, including asphalt and stonedust trail sections, on-road connections, designated parking areas, and nearby attractions.

2020 Newsletter/2019 Annual Report

Message from the President

bob Crowley I’ve had the pleasure of serving as RLT President for almost a year and I must say, it has been quite an education in everything from Acquisition of land to running Zoom meetings. While that’s all been interesting, the most remarkable part of representing RLT is continuing to encounter a wider range of people committed to promoting conservation than I had ever imagined existed. Here are some examples of who I’m talking about: the Johnson family who graciously donated our Featherweald Nature Preserve; the Hudson Valley Greenway which RLT aided in developing the Albany Hudson Electric Trail; volunteers who devote every Wednesday to improving trails throughout the county; donors who entrust RLT with their thousands of dollars of financial support; community members who generously donate their weekends for everything from building bridges to painting houses to expanding parking lots; local government officials who see the value in RLT’s work; neighbors who (usually) enjoy and thank us for open spaces we maintain; donors who entrust RLT with fifty dollars of financial support; members of the former Schodack Area Land Trust who have joined forces with RLT and the list could go on and on…but I think you see my point.

Rensselaer Land Trust Acquires Palmer Road Preserve from Schodack Area Land Trust

The Rensselaer Land Trust is pleased to announce the acquisition of the Palmer Road Preserve in Schodack, New York from the Schodack Area Land Trust. The 57-acre property was transferred to Rensselaer Land Trust upon the voluntary dissolution of the Schodack Area Land Trust.

Located in a residential community near Miller Road in Schodack, the property features an extensive walking trail system that the Schodack Area Land Trust maintained over many years. The wooded parcel is one of the sources of the Mordener Kill and is home to a diverse collection of plants and animals.

The Palmer Road Preserve will add to RLT’s growing network of neighborhood nature preserves in Rensselaer County. RLT’s goal is to create a diverse collection of publicly accessible properties within a ten-minute drive of everyone in a municipality. These properties will complement existing parks and protected areas and provide places for local residents and visitors to enjoy nature and hopefully inspire them to protect it.

2020 Virtual Annual Meeting

Due to ongoing Covid-19 concerns, we are holding our 2020 Annual Meeting online through a special video presentation. The 2020 Annual Meeting presentation is available starting today on our YouTube Channel, RLT's website, and Facebook.

This presentation includes:

An overview of RLT's 2019-2020 activities and looking forward presented by Bob Crowley, RLT Board President and John Winter, RLT Executive Director.
The 2020 Volunteer of the Year Award presented to Michael Jensen.
Virtual Woods and Water Walk of YOUR nature preserves.

Thank you to our members for the overwhelming response to our 2021 online board election. We are honored to present the following slate of elected Board of Directors for two year terms: