We often measure conservation in acres, but an equally valid measure may be in cups of coffee. Getting to know landowners and how much they love their land is how it all begins.
Between sips, kitchen table conversations typically start with questions like this: What do you value most about your land? How do you like to use it? What natural attributes are meaningful to you and why? What’s your vision for the future?
After about the third cup, we begin to have a good idea of a landowner’s interests. Next, our team will map the parcel to look at it through various lenses. Is it adjacent to protected land? Does it contain unique habitats that merit permanent protection? What types of soils are found there? How do land uses on this parcel impact other lands and waterways?
We would then bring the pieces together to draft a conservation easement w interests and the land trust’s broader conservation objectives. Over another refine them together.
Once an easement is in place, then it’s coffee in perpetuity to ensure our mut are grateful for these conversations as they are the foundation of the partnerships we have with conservation
landowners like you.
Chris Jage, Conservation Program Director
PhotobyPatrickBly
News Briefs and Contact Information
A Shared Legacy
Your land is among the 56 conservation easement tracts visited annually by Adirondack Land Trust stewardship staff. All told, these lands add up to 16,714 acres and are spread across nine counties in the Adirondack region. Some represent working forests managed for sustainable timber harvest; some working farms supporting hay, grain, produce, milk or meat production; others, wild lands where rivers, streams, forests, wetlands grow and adapt at nature’s pace.
Each visit ensures that our mutual conservation objectives are being met. Together, your private land conservation commitment, in combination with public land conservation, such as the New York State Forest Preserve, keeps the broader Adirondack landscape connected and resilient to threats like climate change, invasive species, and habitat loss. Thank you for being a part of this powerful land conservation legacy for current and future generations.
Riparian Buffers
With thanks to you, the private landowners with whom we partner to conserve land, the Adirondack Land Trust has protected 131 miles of natural shoreline on rivers, streams, lakes, and ponds. Natural shoreline is another way of saying riparian buffer – a transitional area between land and water that provides a range of benefits. Conserving riparian buffers allows them to:
Absorb and slow water from heavy rains to reduce flood risk
Filter runoff to prevent sediments and pollution from entering waterways
Keep water cool for species like brook trout
Provide habitat and pathways for wildlife
Store carbon to mitigate climate change
How to Contact Us
Land trust staff are available year-round to answer easement-related questions.
We’ve sifted through landowner management and planning resources to assemble the following list of resources based on questions and interests we hear from our conservation easement landowner partners
Bobcat image from a 134-acre conservation easement property in Essex County. If you are interested in borrowing a camera from the Adirondack Land Trust, contact: becca.halter@adirondacklandtrust.org
Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program (APIPP)
Offers best management practices, webinars, and other resources to help landowners address invasive species like the hemlock wooly adelgid and jumping worm adkinvasives com
AdkAction Pollinator-Friendly
Native Plant Sale
Sells carefully sourced native plants to improve wildlife and pollinator habitat while simultaneously beautifying your property. adkaction.org/project/adirondack-pollinator-project
Provides financial assistance to participating farmers who modify their mowing schedules so that grassland nesting birds can successfully raise their young. bobolinkproject.com Bobolink Project
Cornell Cooperative Extensions
Every county has an extension office with helpful resources. In Clinton and Essex, they offer a range of technical assistance for farmland owners. Essex County: (518) 962-4810. Clinton County: (518) 561-7450.
Farmland Succession Planning
ARE YOU TAKING THE CREDIT?
You might be eligible for a refundable state income tax credit for having a conservation easement on your land
To learn more, scan this QR code, search online “NYS Conservation Easement Tax Credit,” or call Chris Jage (518) 817-7660.
Educational video series about succession planning that puts conservation options into a broader context Scan the QR code to see the videos
Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS)
Administers federal Farm Bill funding through cost-share programs to complete soil and water conservation projects on farms and working forests. (518) 561-4616.
New York Forest Owners Association (NYFOA)
A membership organization that encourages informed management of privately owned woodlands in New York State and serves the interests of woodland owners. nyfoa.org.
Soil
and Water Conservation Districts
Consult and help implement conservation practices on forest and agricultural lands, including writing AEM Farm Plans Essex County: (518) 962-8225. Clinton County: (518) 561-4616 ext. 3 .
Conserving Agricultural Fields and Fish Habitat | Champlain
Every day at Ben Wever Farm in Willsboro, Shaun Gillilland moves his herd of 60 Black Angus cattle from one grazing area to another The rotation keeps the cows fed while allowing grasses to regenerate and retain soil
When Shaun and his wife, Linda, purchased the farm in 2006, it was their turn to name it. The easiest way for them to orient people to the farm they had taken over was to refer to the previous owner, Ben Wever, whom they respected as a farmer and a friend. The more they used the reference, the more it made sense to call it the Ben Wever Farm - a name that quickly earned the approval of neighbors.
The farmstand where they sell USDA-inspected beef, lamb, and chicken is set back 350 feet from Mountain View Drive. Expansive fields beyond provide habitat for such grassland birds as eastern meadowlark and stretch toward a skyline framing Camel’s Hump in Vermont. Their daughter, Chauntel, and son-in-law, Pierre-Luc Gélineau, live down the street and are a big part of this multigenerational farm operation
In September 2023, the Adirondack Land Trust and the Gillilland family announced the permanent conservation of 294 acres at Ben Wever Farm, including two miles of natural forest along the Boquet River and associated tributaries *
The Bouquet River meets Lake Champlain in Willsboro Landlocked Atlantic salmon, a species on a long pathway to recovery since local extinction in the 1800s, rely on both water bodies to meet their life cycle needs As town supervisor, Shaun supported the removal of the Saw Mill Dam in 2015 to restore upstream spawning habitat.
Now, as private landowners, through a conservation easement, the Gillillands are contributing to a much larger conservation story that integrates forest and freshwater habitat protection with local food production and a strong sense of place.
In February 2025, Ben Wever Farm received the Hugh Hammond Bennett Conservation Production Award. This prestigious award is given to one recipient each year by the National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD), the nonprofit advocacy organization that represents the 3,000 conservation districts nationwide
NACD recognized Shaun and Linda for their community engagement as chair of the Essex County Board of Supervisors and executive director of the Cornell Cooperation Extension of Clinton County, respectively, as well as their “holistic and forward-thinking approach to farming ”
*The Nature Conservancy (TNC) provided funding to the Adirondack Land Trust to purchase the conservation easement protecting Ben Wever Farm, in part through a grant TNC received through the Great Lakes Fishery Commission to the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission in partnership with the Lake Champlain Basin Program.
