Greene Land Trust Wins $54,00 Grant to Support New Potic Creek Preserve

Greene Land Trust is pleased to announce that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has awarded it about $54,000 as part of the Land Trust Alliance Conservation Partnership Grants Program. This grant, one of 45 provided to Land Trusts across the State, will provide resources to GLT to cover some costs associated with the newly acquired Potic Creek Preserve. In 2025, Greene Land Trust was awarded a $1 million grant by the PCLB Foundation which enabled this important purchase; funds from this new grant will cover costs to make the 5 miles of trails ready for public use as well as legal and other expenses associated with this purchase.

The Potic Creek Preserve acquisition, in the Town of Athens, New York, "is the first of its kind purchase for Greene Land Trust," said Bob Knighton, President of the Greene Land Trust, "and we are grateful to the PCLB Foundation, Scenic Hudson, and neighboring landowners for financial support." Potic Creek Preserve has miles of trails that are open year-round for hiking, snowshoeing and enjoying the beautiful natural landscape.

The 221-acre Potic Creek Preserve includes the lower reaches of Potic Creek, one of the most significant tributary streams of the Catskill Creek watershed, that in turn flows into the Hudson River. Nearly all of the land contains such diverse habitats as a mature floodplain forest, a mature oak-hickory forest, and a hemlock forest full of healthy trees. Trails along the creek lead up a hill to the summit, looking out to the northern Catskill Mountain Escarpment. Justin Wexler, GLT Steward, added, “The Potic Creek Preserve is an important ecological habitat, and these DEC funds will enable GLT to complete necessary work associated with this important new acquisition.”

The Greene Land Trust is a volunteer-led organization dedicated to helping protect the many places that make Greene County a special place: scenic vistas that inspired the Hudson River school of painters, agricultural lands that are an important part of our heritage, mountains and valleys that have attracted visitors for generations, habitat for an abundance of wild things, and open spaces that offer recreation opportunities for us and future generations. For more information visit greenelandtrust.org.