Trespassing on posted property threatens the safety of the community and damages the resource the conservation easement is there to protect. For examples:
1. Hunting on the property without authorization and without notification to the landowner at the time of the hunt poses significant safety risks to invited hunters and the landowner and disrupts the wildlife balance of the protected area
2. Vehicular traffic in the wetland areas of the property. Wetlands are not only protected from destruction by the conservation easement, but by federal law (National Environmental Protection Act, Clean Water Act) and enforced by the NY DEC, US EPA, and the Army Corps of Engineers
3. Tapping Sugar Maple trees deprives the landowner of the financial benefit of high value saw logs. Sugar Maple is the most valuable hardwood tree in Western New York. When the landowner manages the property to optimize tree growth and forest health, the tree tapping trespass interferes with this objective significantly.
Protecting the values conserved by a recorded easement involves the help of the public to respect posted signs at the property boundaries.
Protected Conservation Values:
1. Scenic Beauty
2. Wildlife Habitat
3. Watershed Resource (Eighteen Mile Creek; Lake Erie East End/Niagara River Drainage Basin)
4. Water Quality (downstream fisheries)
5. Recreational opportunities for the landowner and invited guests
6. Conservation Activities and Education
7. Agricultural Productivity (Rural Working Landscape)
8. Sustainable Forest Management
9. Open Space
10. Historical Attributes
11. Carbon Storage
12. Landscape Corridor (connectivity to other protected land)
Since December 2007, Winkelman Farm Conservation Corporation, a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization, has been monitoring a conservation easement it holds on 115 acres of farm and forestland (since 2015, 170 acres). The WFCC easement protects the land from development but does not diminish any of the other rights held by the landowners.
Winkelman Farm is proud of its record of partnering with farmers in Western New York to support them in their efforts to conserve the values we all hold dear. We have to trust that the community who benefit from the scenic open space, will do their utmost to help us in our conservation efforts by respecting the rights of the landowners.
Thank you.
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