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The Nature Conservancy is a science-based organization, using the best available information to determine the places we work and the conservation strategies we employ. We are non-confrontational, seeking common goals among a variety of stakeholders, and collaborative, teaming up with local communities, private landowners, corporations, government agencies and others in mutually advantageous partnerships.
Our research and 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. We call these priority conservation landscapes (listed below).
With this increased focus on conserving large systems comes a marked increase in our reliance on state-of-the-art conservation techniques to guide our actions. To that end, our highly trained staff and 30-member Board of Trustees work together to protect and steward these “last great” forests and freshwater systems.
Working within and across these landscapes, we also work to curtail pervasive threats to New York's biodiversity, such as invasive species.
Priority Conservation Landscapes
Our chapter’s work stretches across eight priority conservation landscapes, each of which has exceptional natural features and unique conservation challenges.
- Lake Ontario, a "Great" Lake in every sense of the word, whose rich wetlands and vast shoreline reaches provide habitat for thousands of species of plants and animals. The Eastern Lake Ontario dunes and wetlands complex stands out as a freshwater dune barrier system that teems with flora and fauna
- Upper Allegheny Basin, an extensive forest and freshwater ecosystem that boasts pristine streams, Appalachian hardwood forests and vulnerable fish and mussel populations
- Tug Hill Plateau, an extensive mosaic of wetlands, rivers and streams, and lush forests that comprise the largest woodland tract in the state outside of the Adirondacks and Catskills
- Montezuma Wetlands Complex, a premier wetlands complex of global significance to migratory birds
- Alvar Limestone Barrens and grasslands, an outpost of prairie setting atop limestone bedrock in northern New York
- Western Finger Lakes, an ecosystem of forests, wetlands, and streams centered around four of the least disturbed Finger Lakes: Hemlock, Canadice, Honeoye, and Canandaigua Lakes.
- Zoar Valley, the “Letchworth of the Lake Erie Basin,” a steep-walled gorge system that features hemlock-hardwood forests, coldwater streams, fens, and towering cliffs of shale
- Rome Sand Plains, a montage of pine barrens, ancient sand dunes, and wetlands
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Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Carl Heilman II (Robert H. Treman State Park); Photo © Carl Heilman II (driftwood); Map ©TNC.
