FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE04-37
July
13, 2004
Contact:
Ian Michaels
(718) 595-6600
New
York City Acquires 187 Acres In East Fishkill
Commissioner Christopher O. Ward of the New York City Department
of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced today that as part
of its continuing watershed protection program the DEP has acquired
a 187-acre property on Leetown Road in the Town of East Fishkill,
Dutchess County. The acquisition, which was finalized in late-June,
will help to protect the drainage area of the West Branch Reservoir,
an important component of the City’s Catskill/Delaware water
supply system.
Since 1997, throughout its watershed east and west of the Hudson
River the City has secured over 59,000 acres in both land purchases
and conservation easements. This includes 918 acres in Dutchess
and 7,103 acres in Putnam County to protect the West Branch and
Boyd’s Corners Reservoirs, and an additional 1,521 acres
in Westchester County to protect the Kensico and Croton Reservoirs.
Much of this property has been opened for recreation for holders
of free DEP Public Access Permits.
“Land acquisition allows the City to forever protect valuable
watershed property from development and pollution,” said
Commissioner Ward. “The response from landowners to the Program
has been remarkable. To date, over 680 willing sellers throughout
the watershed have agreed to accept the City’s fair-market-value
purchase offers, either selling land outright or granting conservation
easements. We will continue to identify strategic properties through
this successful program through at least 2006.”
The 59,000 acres of land and easements acquired or under contract
throughout the watershed (in Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess, and
five counties west of the Hudson River) include about 8,000 acres
of farm easements that are being acquired by the Watershed Agricultural
Council. The City’s acquisitions in the Croton system (primarily
in Yorktown, in the New Croton Reservoir Basin), along with several
purchases by New York State for protection of the City’s
watershed, total about 1,350 acres.
The Land Acquisition Program acquires land or conservation easements
at fair market value from willing sellers only, and pays property
taxes in proportion to the property rights acquired. Landowners
are therefore paid upfront for development rights, and are relieved
of significant property tax burdens in perpetuity. Landowners can
generally continue to harvest timber from the land under management
plans approved by the DEP. Under this arrangement, the DEP effectively
pays good land stewards to continue to care for their land, protect
their views from development, and enjoy passive recreational opportunities.
For more information about selling land or easements, landowners
can contact the DEP’s Land Acquisition Program at (800) 575-LAND.
The City has opened over 43,000 acres of its watershed land to
public recreation, including over 27,000 acres of the land acquired
under the Land Acquisition Program. The DEP has issued over 67,000
public access permits and over 6,300 hunting tags to people wanting
to use City watershed property for recreation. There were also
almost 10,000 boat tags issued in 2003 for people to use boats
on City reservoirs.
Last year the DEP paid over $83 million in property taxes to
watershed communities.