The Open Space Institute bought 138 acres of Sullivan County land in the town of Mamakating, adjacent to a parcel it acquired in 2018, closing a 225-acre gap in the corridor of protected land along the Shawangunk Ridge within the Bashakill Wildlife Management Area.

OSI paid Jeanne and Stephen Skye $305,000 for the land, part of its decades-long effort to increase public access to nature, safeguard water quality within the Bashakill WMA and protect at-risk wildlife habitats. The institute intends to transfer the properties to the Department of Environmental Conservation as an addition to the Bashakill WMA.

The Skye property includes portions of the Delaware River and Hudson River watersheds, including the Basher Kill. The purchase supports coordinated efforts to protect watersheds that provide clean drinking water for the cities of Philadelphia, Trenton and other downstream municipalities. Trails on the property provide more recreational access to forested land atop the Shawangunk Ridge.

The Skye property has above-average climate resilience and landscape diversity, meaning it has the potential to support a range of plants and animals as the climate changes. In addition, the New York Natural Heritage Program has identified several rare, threatened or endangered animal species within close proximity to the Skye property, including the bald eagle and least bittern, one of the smallest members of the heron family.

“There have been a myriad of development attempts in and around the Bashakill in the 50 years since its protection, including up on the ridge,” said Jackie Broder of the Basha Kill Area Association, founded in 1972 to protect the Basha Kill wetlands from degradation and to preserve the area’s natural beauty.

“It is because of citizens and organizations like the OSI, DEC, and others that the area is still the pristine oasis it is today. We are so grateful to Stephen and Jeanne Skye for pursuing this most ethical route and preserving this land for future generations.”

Conservation of the Skye property furthers OSI’s long-term effort to create and expand the Bashakill WMA. In the 1970s, OSI conserved the initial 3,107 acres of the Bashakill WMA. In subsequent projects, OSI has increased the size of protected lands within it to more than 4,100 acres.

The Skye property is next to more than 50,000 acres of protected land extending the 50-mile length of the Shawangunk Ridge Greenway through Ulster, Sullivan, and Orange counties, 36,000 acres of which has been protected by OSI since the 1970s. OSI’s protection of the Skye property safeguards the north-to-south connectivity of the Shawangunk Ridge landscape.

The acquisition advances a larger regional effort, led by OSI and other conservation organizations, to protect a band of protected land from Rosendale, New York, south to the New Jersey border.

With both the Shawangunk Ridge Trail, including the Long Path, and the O&W Rail Trail, including the D&H Canal, running through the Bashakill WMA, OSI’s acquisition of the Skye property also complements its Growing Greenways: West of Hudson Greenway Trails Vision Plan. Once completed, the plan will create an interconnected trail network spanning more than 250 miles and connecting more than 20 communities throughout Ulster, Sullivan, and Orange counties.

Lands along the Shawangunk Ridge and adjacent to the Bashakill WMA, like the Skye property, have been listed as priority acquisitions in several regional planning efforts, including the 2019 Town of Mamakating Comprehensive Plan, the Sullivan County Open Space Plan, and the New York State Open Space Plan.

“The Town Board and I enjoyed working with the Open Space Institute and are very happy with the agreement we came to,” said Mamakating Supervisor Michael Robbins. “We look forward to continuing to work with OSI in the future.”