MIDDLETOWN, N.Y.—The Orange County Land Trust hosted the showing of a short documentary on the biodiversity of the Hudson Valley, highlighting what’s special about the nature around us and efforts taken to preserve it.
The film, “The Nature of Nature: Biodiversity in the Hudson Valley,” was produced by Laura Heady of the Hudson River Estuary Program and was directed by Laura deNey of Flicker Filmworks. The Nov. 4 event was held at the Paramount Theater in Middletown.
The film was recognized with an award in the Environmental Science—Long Form Content category for the 69th Annual New York Emmy Awards on Oct. 10. The documentary can be found on YouTube under the same name.
The land trust has helped protect more than 8,000 acres of land since 1993 through agreements with landowners, property donations, and buying land.
Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus highlighted the passing of an open space preservation fund in the town of Chester, a step to preserve wild land from development.
“People ask me, ‘Why does it matter that Chester has an open space preservation fund?’ It’s because now they’re going to have a seat at the table with the Orange County Land Trust, the Open Space Institute, the DEC Orange County as we preserve and acquire more pieces of property, which are really in a lot of danger right now throughout the region from heavy development,” he said.
The town of Chester passed a resolution establishing a 0.75 percent real estate transfer tax to fund the conservation of scenic, agricultural, and natural resources. The town of Warwick has a similar tax.
Middletown Mayor Joseph DeStefano talked about the work to expand the Middletown watershed, which now has 1,250 acres open to the public through 8.5 miles of trails.
The mayor said that he’s excited to participate in land conservation because it improves the lives of residents and provides things for people to do.
“[It’s the] open space concept that makes livable communities, livable downtowns, livable counties,” he said.
One project DeStefano is working on is the opening of a 37-acre county-owned property adjacent to the city. Already, seven acres have been integrated into the Middletown park system, and the city is looking to cooperate with the land trust to acquire the rest.
The mayor said that the city has not worked with the land trust before and that this is an opportunity to sit down and discuss cooperation.
DeStefano said, “My point is that there’s opportunities for organizations like yourself to do things with urban centers like ourselves.”
Former Warwick Town Supervisor Michael Sweeton described the success his town had with a transfer tax-funded land conservation. The tax took effect in the town in 2007, and it was the first municipality outside of Long Island to enact this type of tax. The 0.75 percent tax is applied to property purchases in the town, and it has funded the conservation of 5,500 acres.
Sweeton said, “Since we enacted it in 2007, the town of Warwick has preserved … working farms with conservation easements, actually acquiring critical parcels for environmental protection, and it has actually made Warwick a more desirable place to come to.”
The documentary focused on the 23 significant biodiversity areas identified in the Hudson Valley by Cornell University and the Department of Environmental Conservation. These included the Shawangunk Grasslands, where the American woodcock and short-eared owl roost, the Dutchess County wetlands that support many river otters, and the Rosendale Limestone Cave Complex, which houses many bat species.
