Identified as a “climate flow area,” meaning the land is used by a
high volume of plants and animals as a way to move across the landscape,
the property is particularly important for climate-related migration.
With the permanent protection of this property, OSI is ensuring that
plant and animal species are able to freely move and migrate from the
banks of the Hudson River all the way into the southern Adirondack Park
and Lake George Wild Forest on protected land.
This property, and the properties it connects to, are home to a
diversity of wildlife. The Moreau Lake Connector property is located
within an area designated as a “significant natural community” by New
York State, meaning that the wildlife communities in this area are rare
or are high-quality natural communities.
Categorized as a “Hemlock-northern hardwood forest,” the property is a
mixed tree species forest that consists primarily of eastern hemlock
and other hardwood species such as maples, birch, beech, or ash.
The Moreau Lake Connector property is one of eight significant properties, including the Spier Falls addition which doubled the size of Moreau Lake State
Park, Big Bend, Ellsworth and Kenison (together known as Greentree
Lake), Hudson Pointe, Faith Bible Church, and West Mountain, together
totaling more than 7,000 acres, that OSI has protected in the area in
support of creating a connected, green corridor in the Palmertown Range.
The property is anticipated to be added to Ralph Road State Forest,
along with OSI’s 1,260-acre West Mountain property. Once the transfers
are complete, OSI will have helped the Department of Environmental
Conservation (DEC) more than triple the size of Ralph Road State Forest.
OSI and the Palmertown Range
In 2018, OSI, in partnership with Saratoga PLAN and local partners,
created the Southern Palmertown Conservation and Recreation Strategy, a
conservation and recreation road map for the sector of the Adirondack
Foothills that runs from the Hudson River at the northern edge of
Saratoga County, to the City of Saratoga Springs in the south.
The centerpiece of the Palmertown Strategy will be the development of
a landscape scale, 50-mile-long multi-use trail system called the Sarah
B. Foulke Friendship Trails System. A year-long master planning process
for an inclusive trail network was completed this summer.
About OSI
The Open Space Institute protects scenic, natural, and historic
landscapes to provide public enjoyment, conserve habitat and working
lands, and sustain communities. Founded in 1974 to protect significant
landscapes in New York State, OSI has been a partner in the protection
of nearly 2.3 million acres in North America.