|
In 2007, OSI was able to quickly respond to a direct threat of farmland loss by acquiring the 54-acre historic Misner Farm. Without OSI’s direct acquisition, this property, which is adjacent to the Davenport Farm and claims more than 40 acres of productive farm fields, could have been sold for residential subdivision and development.
In 2008, OSI sold approximately 45 acres of the Misner Farm in Marbletown to Frank and Cyndi Brooks. This Ulster County farm is protected by a conservation easement, which permanently limits development on the property except for expanded agricultural use.
The Brooks own the nearby 167-acre Generation Farm. The fields border the Esopus Creek, which flows out of the Catskill Mountains and is a significant freshwater tributary of the Hudson River. supporting an abundance of trout fishing enjoyed by anglers.
Rondout Valley farms have provided a dramatic rural landscape for the past century. They lie directly between the significant swath of OSI protected lands of the Shawangunk Ridge and the 5,400 acre Lundy Estate, which OSI and TPL added to the Catskill Park Forest Preserve in 2000.
Throughout this remarkable region, OSI has protected lands of ecological, scenic, recreational and historic significance, including the Sam’s Point Preserve, the Lundy Estate, substantial portions of Minnewaska State Park Preserve, the Trapps Gateway, and thousands of acres of state forest on the Ridge. | 
