CAROLINE, N.Y. — The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Finger Lakes Land Trust (FLLT) on May 25 announced the acquisition of a conservation easement on 126 acres in the town of Caroline in Tompkins County and the Six Mile Creek Watershed. The DEC said it awarded FLLT more than $641,000 in […]
CAROLINE, N.Y. — The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Finger Lakes Land Trust (FLLT) on May 25 announced the acquisition of a conservation easement on 126 acres in the town of Caroline in Tompkins County and the Six Mile Creek Watershed.
The DEC said it awarded FLLT more than $641,000 in a Water Quality Improvement Project (WQIP) Program grant for this and other projects in the Six Mile Creek Watershed to help protect the city of Ithaca’s public drinking-water supply.
Known as the Lounsbery property, this parcel is located upstream of the city of Ithaca’s drinking-water supply and is situated entirely within the Six Mile Creek watershed, per a DEC news release. The acquisition adds to a previously acquired conservation easement of more than 13 acres in the town of Dryden that was also supported by this WQIP grant, the department added. The parcel has more than 6,200 feet of frontage on Six Mile Creek. To protect the creek, FLLT established a 24-acre environmental protection zone around the water that will contain a riparian buffer that will be restored with help from the Tompkins County Soil and Water Conservation District. The FLLT also received funding from the City of Ithaca and Tompkins County to provide long-term stewardship of the easement. The release didn’t specify how much funding.
The Lounsbery property covers about 48 acres of forested lands and more than nine acres of wetlands. “These naturally occurring features contribute to critical source water protection, helping to slow down runoff after storm events, filtering and absorbing pollutants, and reducing drinking water treatment costs,” the DEC said. Buffers also offer valuable wildlife habitat.
“This project will help ensure Ithaca’s drinking water supply while at the same time conserving an iconic family farm and scenic woodlands that provide a backdrop to the hamlet of Brooktondale,” Andrew Zepp, Finger Lakes Land Trust executive director, said in the release.
The FLLT says it has protected more than 26,000 acres of the region’s undeveloped lakeshore, rugged gorges, rolling forest, and scenic farmland. The FLLT owns and manages a network of more than 35 nature preserves that are open to the public and holds perpetual conservation easements on 157 properties that remain in private ownership.
