Dutchess Land Conservancy Inc.

Filing Period

Jan 1, 2011 to Dec 31, 2011

Signed

Aug 2, 2012

Return Version

2011v1.2

Gross Receipts

$2,670,124

Mission

Major Activities

Activity 2

Stewardship: the organization has now protected 34,874 acres stewarding 349 easements. The organization aerial monitors all properties annually and ground monitors its easements on a three to four year rotational basis. In 2011, the organization aerial monitored all conservation easements and completed 100 on a rotational ground monitoring schedule through staff and land stewards. The organization worked on over 24 stewardship matters from prior approval requests and land management questions to resolving easement issues. Each year the organization works to update old baseline documentation files. Staff completed updates to 3 older baseline documentation reports. Staff strives to keep up to date on internet services such as microsoft's mapslive.com which provides a very useful additional source of aerial photography. The organization's stewardship responsibilities continue to increase each year as more and more easements are accepted. The organization continues to improve the tracking of easement protected property sales, communication with land owners and maintaining a "watch list" of easement protected land on the market to check for new ownership. Throughout the year staff files critical easement related documents in the organization's archival storage unit in an off-site facility to ensure the long-term safety of the organization's most valuable documents. Volunteers: in order to help with stewardship and monitoring easements, the organization's land stewards volunteer team worked together with staff to successfully complete ground monitoring.

Activity 3

Education: educating people about conservation tools is an integral part of the organization's mission. The organization's staff regularly talk with municipalities, school groups, service and business associations, and private landowners about the importance of land preservation, sound planning, quality growth that protects important resources, and ways to keep farmers on the land. Local officials have been eagerly attending the organization's annual town board breakfasts which serves to bring towns and the organization together on cooperative issues and ideas. In 2011, the organization's 8th annual town board breakfast was attended by 30 town representatives. Teaming up with ducks unlimited and the millbrook school, the organization is working on a long-term project to manage purple loosestrife in the millbrook marsh by releasing beetles that feed exclusively on the loosestrife. The organization is monitoring the effects of these beetles on the plant diversity within the marsh twice a year. The organization also hosts educational programs for local citizens and the organization's members such as a habitat walk, geology walk, soil workshop and other programs to educate people about land stewardship and the organization's mission. The organization's habitat walk was attended by 9 people. The geology walk was attended by 35 people and the soils workshop was attended by 25 people, and the north american amphibian monitoring program training had 15 people in attendance. The organization participated in environmental awareness day at ibm in wappingers, watershed awareness week, earth day fair at dover high school with over 275 students attendings. The organization participated in the fine home show in the village of millbrook, and the trade fair at orvis sandanona. The organization's staff spoke at 19 different venues including town meetings and press events, presented at county legislature meetings, at a press conference in albany, on wamc radio, at lta national conference in milwalkee, met with 33 other conservation organizations to strategize on collaborative projects, attended numerous seminars and classes to increase knowledge, participated on 22 committees (state, regional, and local) and attended various gatherings to educate people about land conservation. The organization's president also served as chair for the land trust alliance of new york advisory board.

Filer

EIN

14-1667526