What We Do

The Andy Warhol Visual Arts Preserve, Long Island © John Pinderhughes

Guided by the best available science, we take the conservation steps necessary to make a significant and lasting difference. Conservancy resources are directed to the lands and waters that hold extraordinary ecological significance and are most acutely in need of protection.

The latest science and our on-the-ground experience tells us that, in order to succeed over the long term, we must conserve large, complex ecological systems that are sufficient in size to absorb natural and human impact. As a result, we are focusing on New York’s ecological systems as well as individual species. The main difference between this landscape-scale conservation strategy and past approaches is one of scale.

Among the State’s 30 landscape conservation sites are the Tug Hill Plateau and Zoar Valley in Central & Western New York, the Catskills and Shawangunk Ridge in Eastern New York, the Adirondack Mountains and the Champlain Valley in the Adirondack Chapter, and the Peconic Estuary and Great South Bay in Long Island.

We like to think big and that’s why some of our conservation programs cut across State and national boundaries. For the same reason that the Cerulean warbler flies across international boundaries and oceans, our conservation efforts are guided by the knowledge that everything is connected. That’s why our chapters across New York are directly involved with conservation programs at home (in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Jersey), Canada, Central America, the Caribbean, Mexico and South America.

Shawangunks, Eastern New York © The Nature Conservancy

• We achieve lasting results by finding common ground with communities and partners—We employ a variety of techniques to protect biologically important land, including the purchase of lands at fair market value from willing sellers.
   
• Thoughtful stewardship—Volunteer and professional land stewards carefully manage each Conservancy preserve to maintain the unique ecology of the site, ensuring safe and educational public access whenever possible.
   
• We are guided by the best available science.

Through land purchases, science-based stewardship and educational outreach we are working to ensure that these Last Great Places in New York remain healthy natural areas, for the benefit of wildlife and the communities that depend on them.

Protecting the Empire State
New York State is rich in biodiversity. It has close to 200 different natural communities and there are more mammals in New York than in any other northeastern state. An astonishing 736 rare plants and 440 rare animal species live within our borders.

Yet habitat destruction and degradation, invasive species, pollution, over-consumption, and global climate change seriously threaten our natural heritage.

But there is hope.

New York has always been a leader in conservation. From the establishment of the Forever Wild Adirondack and Catskill Forest Preserves in 1892 to the great strides made in the past thirty years by the State and partner organizations in habitat protection, restoration, and pollution control, The Nature Conservancy in New York remains deeply committed in the State’s conservation tradition.

By taking action today in the face of the risks ahead we can help protect what we have for ourselves, our children and their future.