Genesee Land Trust is marking a significant milestone.
The nonprofit, which preserves and protects natural lands and waterways in the eight-county region surrounding Rochester, recently passed the 10,000-acre mark with its latest acquisitions.
"They kind of represent different ways that we work throughout the region," said executive director Lorna Wright.
Two properties are on the west side of Monroe County and one is on the east.
That's the 62-acre Mud Creek Nature Preserve off the Auburn Trail in Farmington. The preserve has an existing trail system. It wasn't officially open to the public before late July, but Wright said it was evident that people were already walking it.
"So we have now made it so people can officially go and explore," she said.
Plans are also underway to create a new trail that will go past the creek and up a ridge. There will be fishing access, scenic outlooks, and a woodlands floor covered with Virginia Bluebells in the spring.
On the west side is Black Creek Wetlands in Chili, a 120-acre forested sanctuary for wildlife and plants and home to a Great Blue Heron rookery, beavers, and wetlands that are resilient to climate change.
Wright said passengers flying in and out of the Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport will be able to gaze down and know that the wetlands are protected. "Maybe you'll even see a heron's nest," she said.
The third most recent acquisition of land is a one-and-a-half-acre plot next to the existing Island Cottage Woods Preserve in Greece. That space is currently closed to the public while its trail system is being overhauled.
Wright has set an even more ambitious goal for the next decade. She wants to double the size of Land Trust's protected properties to 20,000 acres.
"Which sounds amazing, but I think there's a lot of excitement to keep our region a healthy, vibrant, natural space that we have," she said.
