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Rensselaer Land Trust Receives $7000 from the Conservation Partnership Program to Support Expansion of Mud Lake Preserve

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Rensselaer Land Trust has received a $7000 grant through the New York State Conservation Partnership Program to support the expansion of the Mud Lake Preserve in Sand Lake. The Conservation Partnership Program (a partnership between the Land Trust Alliance and NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, with funding from the Environmental Protection Fund) announced $1.8 million in grants awarded to land trusts across the state.

The Rensselaer Land Trust was one of 58 nonprofit land trusts in New York to receive a grant award this year from this program.

Funding will support the transaction costs associated with the purchase of a parcel last year that expands the Mud Pond Preserve in Sand Lake - home to one of the few remaining kettle bog wetland complexes in Rensselaer County. The purchase itself of the new parcel was funded through a generous private contribution that will be honored at an event in September. The Preserve will be renamed in honor of the donor's family. Stay tuned!

We thank the State Legislature and Governor Cuomo for their support of increased funding for the Conservation Partnership Program and the Environmental Protection Fund.

Rensselaer Land Trust Awarded Two Hudson River Estuary Grants Totaling $85,000

Rensselaer Land Trust is the recipient of two stewardship planning grants through the Hudson River Estuary Program of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation totaling $85,000. The grants are funded from the New York State Environmental Protection Fund.

A $50,000 grant will promote better protection of water quality in western Rensselaer County by identifying locations of non-point sources of pollution that may threaten human health. The grant will fund water sampling by citizen scientists and lab testing for enterococcus, a bacterial indicator of fecal contamination. Additional testing will be done at certain locations to determine the presence of hormones, pharmaceuticals, detergents, personal care products, flame retardants and other compounds that can impact fish and human health. Water samples will be collected from Hudson River tributaries in Troy, Rensselaer, North Greenbush, East Greenbush, Schodack, Castleton, and Sand Lake. Rensselaer Land Trust is partnering with the Hudson River Estuary Program, River Haggie Outdoors, Watershed Assessment Associates, LLC, and U.S. Geological Survey, with Riverkeeper providing technical advice.

The second grant for $35,000 will augment other funding for a Rensselaer County Conservation Plan, which will include an inventory and map of the natural resources and significant open spaces and landscape features of Rensselaer County, such as water resources, wildlife habitat, scenic areas, lands valued by communities, and lands offering resilience to climate change. This project will then assess which lands contribute most to these resources and features, and produce a Conservation Plan that will help Rensselaer Land Trust and others to focus their conservation projects where they will have the most impact. Rensselaer Land Trust is partnering on this project with the Hudson River Estuary Program, Hudson River Valley Greenway, Rensselaer Plateau Alliance, Agricultural Stewardship Association, Louis & Hortense Rubin Community Fellowship Program, Open Space Institute, and Ecological Intuition & Medicine.

Executive Director Steps Down

Christine small Christine Young, Executive Director of the Rensselaer Land Trust since 2009, announced her resignation as of March 23, 2017, Christine expressed her desire to pursue personal goals and plans, and will devote more time to her law practice. She may continue to advise the Rensselaer Land Trust and to provide legal services as needed.

Since Christine became involved, the Land Trust has experienced unprecedented growth. Membership, grants, and other income have all more than doubled. She has been instrumental in increasing our portfolio of protected properties from 484 acres to 1263 acres. Additional land protection projects that Christine has initiated are underway and will continue.