The Western New York Land Conservancy named Marisa Riggi, who has spearheaded the Western New York Wildway project, as new executive director.
The Western New York Land Conservancy reached its fundraising goal and late last month purchased Floating Fen, a forested area with a wetland in Chautauqua County.
The 223-acre boglike expanse boasts a rich array of wildlife and plants. It is located next to College Lodge Forest, a 225-acre preserve also recently purchased by the Land Conservancy outside the Village of Brocton.
Both swaths add to the Western New York Wildway, a long-term project of the Land Conservancy to connect corridors of protected lands for wildlife and plants.
“The WNY Wildway will allow plants and animals to migrate across the land as they once did, allow those that have disappeared from our region to return home and for wildlife to move to new homes as the climate changes,” Land Conservancy officials said in a statement.
The Land Conservancy plans in the next year to create a walking trail at Floating Fen and open the property year-round as a publicly accessible nature preserve.
The organization also announced it has acquired the 97-acre Becker…
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