Protecting Our Wetlands

Wetlands and their specialized native plants function as filters for the lake water and our drinking water They provide flood storage, shoreline erosion control, habitat for critical species, biological removal of pollutants and a variety of ecological services.

Over the years, a number of owners of unbuildable RBL wetland lots have offered to donate them to the Town, which has declined to accept them. Neglected unbuildable wetland lots can become magnets for invasive plants, trash, yard waste, unwanted building materials and even toxic materials.

Over the medium term, The Fund for RBL wants to raise funds to acquire unbuildable wetland and other ecologically valuable land with the intention of restoring and rewilding such properties. And in the long term, we can create conservation easements for such properties, assuring that they remain undeveloped.

Our goal is to actively rehabilitate such properties, as well as properties already owned by the RBL District by removing invasive plants and replanting with diverse, ecologically productive native flora. We can also help interested landowners create conservation easements for their land, and help them identify and remove invasive plants from their properties.

To help us accomplish our goals, we plan to work closely with organizations that already have experience in this area, such as the Hudson Highlands Land Trust and the Open Space Institute.