November 2010
Dear Friends:
We’re About to Launch Our 2010 Annual Appeal!
Please consider a gift to the OCLT to help us Continue to Protect our County’s Natural Areas, Wildlife Habitats and Working Farmlands!
Look for this year’s appeal letter in your postal box or e-mail inbox the week after Thanksgiving. This
year, your donations are needed more than ever!
Did you know:
The
protection of our wildlife habitats, beautiful landscapes and
working farms help keep Orange County green and beautiful and also
contribute to our health and
economy?
Orange
County’s farms contribute
real economic value to our
communities. Orange County’s
642 farms generate $73.7 million in gross sales.
Farmers spend these revenues on labor, capital improvements,
equipment and consumer goods – all in Orange County!
Milk
is NYS’s leading agricultural product- a $2 billion industry.
The value of vegetable production is about $500 million, and fruit
crop receipts- primarily apples and grapes- are valued at $250
million (from NYS Comptroller’s office,
March 2010 report).
Funding
to protect our farmland in NYS’s
Environmental Protection Fund has been reduced from $70 million to
just over $3 million next year. The OCLT has
been advocating strongly for the restoration of funds to the EPF, as
well as assurances that EPF funds in the future will not be allowed
to be swept into the General Fund, a practice that has taken a
quarter of EPF funds since 2003. (from NYS Assoc of Counties,
Farming Task Force, Sept 2010
____________________
Orange
County Land Trust and OC Soil and Water Conservation District Install
Rain Garden at Hunter Farm Preserve
Karin Roux, OCLT’s Director of
Conservation and Stewardship, and volunteers from the OCLT and OC
Soil and Water, planted shrubs and other native plants in October at
the site of the Land Trust’s new rain garden at Hunter Farm
Preserve. Designed by Kevin Sumner, District Manager for OC Soil and
Water Conservation District, the rain garden will enhance the water
quality of the ponds and streams at Hunter Farm. Rain gardens are
vegetated depressions that capture storm water runoff from impervious
surfaces such as roads and driveways. The plants filter pollutants
from the runoff and allow water to slowly go into the ground, instead
of over it, adding to the groundwater supply. The Land Trust helped
install two other rain gardens designed by Sumner, at Cornell
Cooperative Extension and SUNY Orange.
____________________
In
Other News…..
Many
thanks to Shawn Dell Joyce and the Wallkill River School of Art
artists on their successful live auction of
plein air paintings, many painted on lands conserved by the OCLT, to
benefit the land trust. Local art for local lands!
Our
community gardens reaped a great fall harvest for gardeners in our
three cities and beds have now been prepared for the winter.
Community Garden plots are still
available for next year’s gardening season in Middletown, Port
Jervis and Newburgh and can be reserved by calling us at 343-0840.
The OCLT thanks our partners in this urban community program uniting
healthy lifestyles and conservation- OC Dept of Health, Cornell
Cooperative Extension, OC Agriculture and Farmland Protection Board,
Land Trust Alliance and NYS DEC, and the cities of Port Jervis,
Middletown and Newburgh.
Please
join us at these upcoming events:
Friday,
December 10, 5:30-7:30 pm: Orange
County Land Trust Annual Holiday Reception at our office
at 10 Mulberry Street in downtown Middletown. Join us as we
celebrate the season and thank our
volunteers and owners of protected lands in Orange County!
RSVP to Nicole at 343-0840, x11 or e-mail her at nicole@oclt.org.
Save
the date:
Thursday,
June 2, 5:30 pm: Orange County Land
Trust Annual Benefit Reception and Silent Auction at
Falkirk Estate and Country Club, Central Valley.
Happy
Thanksgiving!
For
the Land,
Your
Friends at Orange County Land Trust