The Open Space Institute's

TWO VALLEYS CAMPAIGN

The Shawangunk Ridge drops down on both sides into two pastoral valleys-Wallkill Valley to the southeast and Rondout Valley to the northwest-both dotted with picturesque farms. These rural historic valleys are part of America's most productive, yet most endangered, farmland. The scenic farms are an integral part of the history and beauty that attract visitors to the region, but their value goes well beyond their charm-they create a wealth of products, from fruit and vegetables to milk and wine that contribute generously to the local and regional economy.

OSI's work along the Shawangunk Ridge since 1984 has resulted in the protection of more than 24,000 acres of land. The Ridge, a spine of gleaming white rock and pitch pine barrens, crevasses and ice caves, wetlands and wild lands, is all just a half-day' s drive from 20 million Americans.

Throughout this remarkable region, OSI has protected lands of ecological, scenic, recreational, and historic significance, including 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. Despite these conservation successes, the farmland and open fields of the Wallkill and Rondout Valleys visible from the ridge remain vulnerable to increasing development threats.

The tens of thousands of productive farmland acres in the Rondout and Wallkill Valleys afford OSI the opportunity to make a significant impact on a landscape-wide level, from valley to ridge to valley again. OSI has already laid the groundwork for specific transactions in its Two Valleys Program that make this a ripe opportunity to act.

Already, OSI has invested more than $40 million to protect the Shawangunk Ridge. Over the last five years, OSI has invested more than $2 million in the Rondout and Wallkill Valleys to protect eleven farms encompassing more than 1,600 acres. Because of rising land prices, encroaching development, economic hardships facing local farmers, and the absence of state farmland protection funds in the region, a successful Two Valleys Program must use every tool available going forward.

OSI is currently working on nine more farmland projects in the two valleys that will protect 3,200 acres at a cost of more than $7.3 million. The bulk of the work is in the area including the Towns of Marbletown, Wawarsing, Rochester, New Paltz and Gardiner. To complement our conservation efforts, OSI will continue to work with local, state and federal agencies to create partnerships while educating landowners and the general public to set smart future policy.

The situation is familiar to anyone who lives in the Hudson Valley; increasing growth threatening features like farmland and open space, the very things that give the region its unique character. But a recent bill soon to be up for vote in Albany has the potential to establish an ongoing sustainable way to fund local preservation efforts. It's called the Community Preservation Act, and it mandates the creation of a real estate transfer tax on houses above an area's median price range. The tax would be a moderate one, up to 2%, and money collected would go to a Community Preservation fund to be used for things like purchasing farmland development rights and renovating historic buildings.

Community Preservation Funds already exist in New York State, but up until now, they've been created on a municipality by municipality basis, entailing a timeconsuming political process that the current bill would circumvent in Westchester and Putnam.

CFPs have successfully been in place since the late nineties in five Long Island townships, and this bill has gained the support of numerous Hudson Valley town officials, environmental groups, farmland preservation organizations, and historic preservation advocates.

Andy Bicking is the Legislative Advocate for Scenic Hudson, and the following is an excerpt from an article he published recently in the Journal News.

"CPFs are one of the most effective ways of ensuring that fields sprout corn instead of subdivisions, and that monuments to a community's past aren't demolished to make way for McMansions. A 2006 study by the American Farmland Trust concluded that residential land requires up to $1.19 in municipal services - police protection, snowplowing, etc. - for every dollar collected in new taxes. In other words, residents foot the bill for each split level in that subdivision replacing Old MacDonald's Farm.

Conversely, farmland requires just 37 cents in services for each tax dollar contributed. Why so little? Cows don't go to school or call the fire department. Just as important, farmers contribute substantially to the local economy through the taxes they pay, employees they hire and money paid to local businesses for agricultural essentials. What's more, tourists who frequent apple farms and other pick-your-own operations often wind up spending money in nearby stores and restaurants."

The tax is local-rule friendly; it would have to be approved through local referendum, and wouldn't affect first-time and  low income home buyers. The five Long Island towns that have already installed the tax have seen property values increase, not drop, an indication, perhaps, of the increasing value placed on open space. So far, twenty Hudson Valley towns and municipalities have passed resolutions to support a Community Preservation Act. Red Hook and Warwick havealready created community preservation funds, and three more towns are currently seeking authorizing legislation sso they can establish their own as well.

The Ulster County legislature just voted to add Ulster County to the regional bill, giving Rondout Valley residents a personal interest in the legislative progress of The Hudson Valley Community Preservation Act. It will soon be presented to the rules committee, and after that, will be voted on by the Assembly.