Could forests and open space in Western New York rival the Adirondacks in the future?
One of the country’s most prominent advocates for land protection thinks there is potential to do just that in the Western New York Land Conservancy’s goal to create the Western New York Wildway.
The plan envisions a protected expanse of forest and other natural lands providing corridors for animals and plants needed to combat the loss of wildlife and biodiversity and dangers posed by climate change.
“The Western New York Wildway would be a way of protecting a really sizeable chunk of very important and beautiful and extremely biodiverse forest that is largely intact in the southern part of Western New York,” said Tony Hiss, a former staff writer for the New Yorker and author of “Rescuing the Planet: Protecting Half the Land to Heal the Earth,” published in 2021.
“In the same way that the remarkable project with the art museum will transform things, I think the Wildway is a chance to put Western New York on the map in terms of being known to the rest of the state in a way it’s never been thought of before,” said Hiss, referring to the Buffalo AKG Art Museum.
“You would suddenly have a destination forest comparable to the Adirondacks, and a boost to the New York State effort to protect 30% of natural land within the state, where we’re now at about 20%,” he said.
Hiss spoke last month to The Buffalo News about the critical need to save biodiversity after speaking on the subject at Canisius College in a fundraiser for the Land Conservancy.
President Biden issued an executive order soon after taking office that established a national goal of conserving at least 30% of U.S. lands and fresh water and 30% of U.S. ocean areas by 2030. The initiative is known as the 30×30 Vision to Conserve Nature.
Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation last December committing New York State to 30×30, the only other state besides California to do so.
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