The Open Space Institute (OSI) has announced the acquisition of one of the last unprotected parcels in an area of southeastern Orange County. OSI’s acquisition of nearly 90 acres in the Town of Tuxedo will improve connectivity between surrounding protected lands, safeguard critical drinking water resources, and protect land for wildlife habitat. 

Zoned for industrial use, the property is part of what was once known as the Tuxedo Farms or Tuxedo Reserve Northern Tract. The 89-acre parcel was slated to be the site of 200,000 square feet of warehouse and office space. OSI acquired the land for $1.8 million and plans to ultimately transfer the parcel to the Palisades Interstate Park Commission (PIPC) as an addition to Sterling Forest State Park.

“After a long-term effort to develop the area into warehouse space, OSI is proud to have intervened to permanently protect the ecological and recreational connectivity of this landscape,” said Matt Decker, a Northeast Land Project Manager at the Open Space Institute. “Now the land will forever provide natural benefits to millions of New York and New Jersey residents and numerous wildlife species.”

Commissioner Pro Tempore of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Randy Simons said, “We value our alliance with and reliance on OSI to help save at-risk lands likes this one in Tuxedo. This effort to preserve natural resources continues our commitment for the wildlife who call it home and public to further enjoy.”  

OSI’s conservation of the property strengthens a vital corridor of undeveloped land between Sterling Forest and Harriman State Parks, preventing habitat fragmentation between these two significant protected areas. Connected landscapes provide high quality habitat that allow wildlife to move freely throughout the area.

“PIPC, NYS Parks, and OSI have worked for two decades to protect more than 21,000 acres that are now Sterling Forest State Park,” said Joshua Laird, Executive Director of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission. “OSI’s acquisition of the Tuxedo Farms parcel represents another important addition that will provide new public access, limit potential development in the heart of the park, and continue to protect critical watershed lands and wildlife habitat. We are grateful for the leadership of our partners at OSI and New York State Parks that has resulted in the permanent protection of this important resource.”

OSI’s Tuxedo Reserve Northern Tract acquisition contains several acres of wetlands, including a portion of the Warwick Brook and land surrounding the headwaters of the Ramapo River. These wetlands and surrounding forest naturally clean and purify water before it enters local waterbodies and aquifers. The Ramapo River and underlying aquifer system is a primary source of drinking water for more than two million people in New York and New Jersey.

The property has above-average climate resilience and landscape diversity, with the potential to support a range of plants and animals as the climate changes. Additionally, the New York Natural Heritage Program has identified several rare, threatened, or endangered animal species living within close proximity to the property.   

The project builds on OSI’s decades-long commitment to Orange County and to Sterling Forest, a park it helped create in the mid-1990s in the face of encroaching development. The conservation of Sterling Forest was among OSI’s biggest project to date and marked the largest addition to the New York State Park system in a century. Today, OSI’s conservation work in the region has conserved more than 27,000 acres. OSI has expanded parks, built and improved recreational trails, protected drinking water, and safeguarded climate-resilient lands for people and wildlife.

About the Open Space Institute

The Open Space Institute is a national leader in land conservation and efforts to make parks and other protected land more welcoming for all. Since 1974, OSI has partnered in the protection of more than 2.5 million at-risk and environmentally sensitive acres in the eastern U.S. and Canada. OSI’s land protection promotes clean air and water, improves access to recreation, provides wildlife habitat, strengthens communities, and combats climate change, while curbing its devastating effects.