ONOVILLE — Those planning to save a unique 200-acre forest in the town of South Valley are reaching out to the community for help.
The Western New York Land Conservancy and the Friends of the Allegany Wildlands have announced a $310,000 matching gift to save the Allegany Wildlands, an unglaciated section of the Allegheny Plateau across the Allegheny Reservoir from Allegany State Park.
The Land Conservancy needs donations from members of the community to match the gift by the end of 2021. Every dollar donated will be matched.
“Saving forests like the Allegany Wildlands is incredibly rewarding work,” said Nancy Smith, executive director of the Land Conservancy. “But it truly takes a community coming together to make this work successful.”
The total fundraising goal to preserve the Allegany Wildlands is $879,000, which must be secured by Dec. 31. Once that goal is met, the Land Conservancy will purchase the property and keep it open as a publicly accessible nature preserve.
The Allegany Wildlands is home to a diversity of plants and animals. As recently as 150 years ago, the forest teemed with massive American chestnuts, which had dominated Eastern forests for millions of years, but were wiped out by a blight.
Amazingly, six American chestnut trees that are more than 40 feet tall still survive at the Allegany Wildlands, some of which are producing seeds. Large oaks, a threatened lily called a White Clintonia and rare orchids also grow here.
Black bear and bobcat roam the ridges and ravines of the land. Bald eagles soar overhead, songbirds nest in the trees and river otters search for fish in the nearby reservoir.
If the Landy Conservancy community cannot meet its fundraising goal, the land could be logged and developed.
So far, the Gallogly Family Foundation has given $200,000 towards the matching gift.
“The Land Conservancy has proven time again to be excellent champions of our region’s most environmentally significant forests,” said Kasey LeDuke of the foundation and a Land Conservancy member. “Over the years, they have demonstrated how the work of a dedicated community can benefit an entire region. We are extraordinarily pleased to be able to assist the Land Conservancy in their efforts to save this incredible forest.”
The matching gift includes $100,000 from the Lenna Foundation.
“The rolling, thickly forested hills that carpet this area are some of the most beautiful in our region,” said Randy Ordines, president of the Lenna Foundation. “By protecting the Allegany Wildlands, the Land Conservancy community is helping to form a corridor of connectivity from northern Pennsylvania to the Finger Lakes — joining with other protected forests up and down the east coast. We are proud to assist the Land Conservancy in these efforts.”
A third, anonymous donor contributed an additional $10,000.
“We are immensely grateful for these gifts,” Smith said. “They are a strong show of support for the work we’re doing to protect the Allegany Wildlands, and to build a future Western New York where lush green forests remain intact.”
In the early 1800s, the property was purchased by the Sluga family from the Holland Land Company. Though the Sluga family has decided to sell the land, for the next chapter of the forest’s story they want it protected.
Protecting the Allegany Wildlands will also kick off an ambitious idea — creating the Western New York Wildway. The Wildway will be a connected corridor of protected lands that stretches from the vast forests of northern Pennsylvania to the Great Lakes, through to the Finger Lakes, the Adirondacks and beyond. It will form part of the Eastern Wildway, which runs from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.
The Wildway will allow plants and animals to migrate across the land as they once did, allow those that have disappeared from our region to return home and allow those in need to move around to new homes as climate changes.
The Allegany Wildlands is already connected to 7,000 acres of protected state land, nestled between Allegany State Park and South Valley State Forest, and it is a significant link in a future Western New York Wildway.
The Land Conservancy is seeking donations of all sizes in order to save the Allegany Wildlands. For larger donations, naming opportunities include:
• One donor of $200,000 can name the preserve (Reserved)
• One donor of $100,000 can have the trail named in their honor (Reserved)
• Donors of $25,000 or more can have a bench named in their honor.
• Donors of $10,000 or more will have their name listed on a plaque placed at the preserve.
• Donors of $2,000 or more will be recognized in the Land Conservancy newsletter.
To help save the Allegany Wildlands, donations can be made online at wnylc.org or a check made payable to “Western New York Land Conservancy” can be sent to PO Box 471, East Aurora, NY 14052.
For questions or more information, call (716) 687-1225 or email info@wnylc.org.
