Otsego Land Trust: A year-round commitment to nature

The “Otsego Outdoors Winter Octet Challenge” continues into March and includes trails through Otsego Land Trust locations the group’s volunteers work to keep open throughout the year.

Otsego Land Trust is a private, not-for-profit organization that works to preserve the distinctive rural character of the region by protecting working forests and farms, natural ecosystems, and scenic landscapes that define the county. Community volunteers, including the dozen members of the Trust’s board of directors, maintain the trails and gardens on its public access properties, plan community events, and promote educational programs. Volunteers also help with special projects as needed, including environmental research, clean-up, and monitoring.

The Trust provides free public access to 13 distinctive natural areas in the Otsego region. “Blueway” sites offer opportunities for hiking, paddling, snowshoeing, birdwatching, or simply enjoying the changing seasons. Brookwood Point Preserve just north of Cooperstown offers direct public access to the shoreline of Otsego Lake. Deowongo Island in Richfield is accessible only by non-motorized watercraft. The Parslow Road Preserve includes wetland trails along Oaks Creek, while the Lordsland Preserve in Roseboom has miles of trails through upland forests.

Public access lands are open to all residents and visitors free of charge during daylight hours, and the land conservation efforts help protect the rural landscape that attracts people to the Otsego Region. During the pandemic of the last two years, more and more people have come to appreciate the value of outdoor recreation and nature exploration.

Otsego Land Trust works with private landowners and local communities to ensure that valuable farmland, forests, and waterways are protected in perpetuity. Through Conservation Easements that run with the land, property owners can limit or prevent environmental degradation and overdevelopment on the region’s rural vistas and landscapes. Otsego Land Trust current holds easements on over one hundred properties in Otsego and adjacent counties, accounting for more than 11,000 acres.

Otsego Land Trust relies primarily on generous support from private donors, partners, and benefactors. Public funding represents less than 10 percent of the organization’s operating revenue. The Trust maintains productive partnerships with private landowners and communities throughout the region, including Otsego 2000, Otsego County Conservation Association, and the Otsego County Soil and Water Conservation Service. Regional partners include the Butternut Valley Alliance, the SUNY Biological Field Station, Cornell Cooperative Extension, and the Upper Susquehanna Coalition.

Otsego Land Trust is the only local organization that conserves and sustains the Otsego Region’s farms, forests, and waterways in perpetuity for the benefit of residents and visitors. The group’s goal: healthy farms, healthy forests, and healthy waters throughout the area. With so much of the region’s rural landscape at risk, Otsego Land Trust hopes to encourage thoughtful land management and sustainable economic development through community education and local engagement.

For more information about Otsego Land Trust, visit www.otsegolandtrust.org or contact Executive Director Gregory Farmer at 607-547-2366 or by e-mail at gregory@otsegolandtrust.org.

[This week’s ‘Noteworthy’ column on the Otsego Land Trust comes to us from the Community Foundation of Otsego County (www.cfotsego.org) Its mission: Lead and inspire community-wide efforts that significantly improve the quality of life and the prosperity of the Otsego County area. Connecting people who care with causes that matter, the Foundation leverages collective knowledge, creativity, and resources for a greater impact than any one person or group can make alone.]