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Westchester Land Trust Earns Soil, Water Conservation Achievement Award

YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, N.Y. -- Westchester County will recognize the Westchester Land Trust’s work at the Hunter Brook Preserve in Yorktown with a Soil and Water Conservation Achievement Award at an awards ceremony Dec. 11 at the Westchester County Center.

Brendan Murphy, Watershed Forester at the Watershed Agricultural Council, helps Honora Whelan and her mother, Kara Whelan, WLT’s Director of Conservation Programs, plant a tree at the Hunter Brook Preserve on May 18.

Brendan Murphy, Watershed Forester at the Watershed Agricultural Council, helps Honora Whelan and her mother, Kara Whelan, WLT’s Director of Conservation Programs, plant a tree at the Hunter Brook Preserve on May 18.

Photo Credit: Contributed
Westchester Land Trust staff, assisted by Ernst & Young corporate volunteers install a boardwalk at the Hunter Brook Preserve on Oct. 3, 2011.

Westchester Land Trust staff, assisted by Ernst & Young corporate volunteers install a boardwalk at the Hunter Brook Preserve on Oct. 3, 2011.

Photo Credit: Contributed

The county presents these awards annually for activities and projects that best promote the conservation, management and restoration of soil and water resources in Westchester County. The 45-acre Hunter Brook Preserve in Yorktown -- located on Beekman Court off Hunter Brook Road -- straddles Hunter Brook, an important tributary of the Croton Reservoir.

The area is under increasing development pressure and the preserve protects the stream habitat and the quality of the water that flows into the Croton Reservoir. Natural habitats on the preserve include the stream and riparian corridor, wetlands, scrub/shrub and upland forest. There is a trail system on either side of the brook providing visitors with miles of trails and beautiful views of the stream. Recognizing that the bank along Hunter Brook is being eroded by fast-moving storm water runoff -- an unwanted consequence of developing land in the area -- WLT began a Habitat Enhancement Initiative at the preserve in 2011 to help protect the floodplain from further erosion, protect against future storm and flood damage and improve the brook’s overall water quality as it feeds into the Croton Reservoir. Since that time, WLT has led five separate planting projects, installing 214 trees and plants along a 3-acre riparian corridor. 

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