We Did It! The Balsam Tract: Friends of Dyken Pond Protect 37 acres.
If you have already responded to our fundraising campaign, we thank you so much! If not, it’s not too late to help the Friends conserve this important addition to the Dyken Pond Center’s natural treasures.
In March 2020, the Friends closed on the Balsam Tract, a 37-acre parcel located along the entrance road to the Center. Balsam Tract Map. The Friends of Dyken Pond have committed to use $15,000 out of their reserve funds and will continue to fundraise this year to raise the remaining funds to cover purchase and legal costs.
So far, we have raised $12,000 of our target.
The Balsam Tract contains forest with large trees, a wetland, and an unnamed tributary to the Poesten Kill. With this acquisition, the Balsam Tract is protected from development, and the special sense of “wildness” as one drives into the Dyken Pond Center will not be diminished. The land will be added to the extensive network of natural lands that are open to visitors to the Dyken Pond Environmental Education Center. The Balsam Tract is adjacent to land already owned by the Friends that includes portions of the Long and Koch Trails – acquiring this new parcel allows the extension of these trails and offers more locations to conduct environmental learning activities for children and adults. Protecting the Balsam Tract preserves for perpetuity its significant wetlands, wildlife habitat, and intact forest; enhances the environmental education programs of the Dyken Pond Center; and provides more opportunities for people to connect with nature and the outdoors.
You can make a difference to conserve the Balsam Tract! Every donation is important! Of any amount! Please contribute by donating from our website, or send your contributions to: The Friends of the Dyken Pond Center, 475 Dyken Pond Road, Cropseyville, NY 12052.
Click here to donate from the website.
Conserved lands support the Friends’ mission by providing a landscape for people to become immersed in wildness and to connect with nature. This exposure to the outdoors, and the accompanying physical activity, is ever more important today when people spend more time indoors and being sedentary. Public use of the Friends’ conserved lands, through organized programs or through visiting on one’s own, encourages environmental stewardship, builds community, instills support for conservation, and, most simply and importantly, allows people to feel the sense of wonder and awe from being surrounded by nature. The land provides endless opportunities for students, local residents and visitors to feel that connection with the natural world.
