Conservation groups purchase 87 acres in Greenville for $40,000

GOSHEN — The Orange County Legislature has unanimously approved the sale of an 87-acre parcel in the Town of Greenville that had been up for tax sale to several conservation groups: Open Space Institute, New York New Jersey Trail Conference, Orange County Land Trust and The Nature Conservancy.

Located near Huckleberry Ridge State Park and along the southern portion of the Shawangunk Ridge, the Greenville property will be preserved as open space, accessible to the public for recreation.

It comprises relatively undisturbed forest that will become part of a 25-mile, 10,000-acre greenway the conservation groups are working to create over the next ten years. This green corridor of open space and interconnecting trails, when complete, will stretch from Minnewaska State Park in New Paltz to High Point State Park in New Jersey and connect to the Appalachian Trail.

2010 law makes purchase possible

The Greenville property appeared on the 2011 Orange County Tax Sale auction roll for nonpayment of property taxes but did not receive any bid offers. It was then pulled from the auction roll by Orange County Executive Ed Diana, in keeping with legislation enacted in 2010 at the request of Orange County Land Trust.

Under this legislation, properties with high conservation, recreational or scenic value that appear on the county auction list can be pulled by the county executive and offered for sale, with legislative approval, to local, regional and/or national conservation organizations.

The conservation groups will acquire the Greenville property for $40,000, a price higher than taxes owed the county, with Open Space Conservancy, the land acquisition affiliate of Open Space Institute, taking title.

“This is an innovative and inexpensive way for conservation groups to partner with the county to continue to protect valuable lands here in Orange County when funding for land protection is scarce,” Jim Delaune, executive director of the Orange County Land Trust, said in the press release announcing the acquisition.

From the Catskills to the Delaware Water Gap

Ed Goodell, executive director of NY-NJ Trail Conference, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating and protecting public trails, said the planned greenway along the Shawangunk Ridge, when complete “will link to the two largest tracts of protected lands in the region, the 330,000-acre Catskill Park and the 140,000-acre Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.

NY NJ Trail Conference was instrumental in creating the now 1,500-acre Huckleberry Ridge State Forest, also in the Town of Greenville, transferring 389 acres to the State of New York last June. The organization worked closely with the Trust for Public Land and the New York Department of Environmental Conservation on the first 527 acres nearly ten years ago, then purchased and transferred an additional 980 acres to the State.

According to Goodell, the ultimate goal of the four conservation groups is for the 87 acres that comprise the Greenville property to also become part of Huckleberry Ridge State Forest and available for public use.