The Legislature, without dissent (Legislator Deborah Dawson was excused), appropriated $15,000 from the Capital Reserve Fund for Natural, Scenic, and Recreation Resource Protection to provide partial support for the Owego Headwaters Protection Project, undertaken by the Finger Lakes Land Trust. The project will assist the Land Trust in purchasing 20 acres within Tompkins County of a larger parcel on Flat Iron Road in the Town of Caroline, buffering Owego Creek, adjacent to the Land Trust’s Goetchius Wetland Preserve.
The resolution notes that the project meets the project eligibility requirements of the Capital Reserve Fund, including priority criteria of protecting land adjacent to permanently protected open space; protects land within the 330-foot buffer of a perennial stream; and protects corridor of habitat that can provide for connectivity between protected areas. It calls support from the Capital Reserve Fund “an important but modest component” of the total funding needed for acquisition of the parcel.