Protection of Kendall Forest ensures ongoing timber resource production, safeguards water quality of the environmentally sensitive and economically important Salmon River and allows for continued public access to recreational opportunities, such as hunting and snowmobiling.

Protecting Kendall

The Conservation Fund purchased the Kendall Forest in 2015 at the State’s and Town’s request through our Working Forest Fund with generous support from the Richard King Mellon Foundation and subsequently worked with local contractors to improve vehicular access. The NYS DEC recently took ownership of the property using a grant from the New York State Environmental Protection Fund—a state-wide funding source for capital projects that protect the environment and enhance communities. The project also ensures local hunting camp traditions with a conservation easement on the adjacent Stavemill Hunting Club, held by Tug Hill Tomorrow Land Trust. 

This conservation effort builds on The Conservation Fund’s work with the Richard King Mellon Foundation and NYS DEC to preserve 2,900 acres along the Salmon River over the past decades, creating a 14-mile greenway along one of New York’s most popular trout and salmon streams. Located within Audubon’s Tug Hill Important Bird Area, the forestland also supports vital habitat to a variety of migratory birds that thrive in quiet, interior forest settings.

Why This Project Matters

Protecting the abundant and often remote forests and waters of Central New York’s Tug Hill region is essential to the local communities for the traditions they hold dear, and the economic benefits they provide through the timber industry and the fishing economy provided by the Salmon River.

The protection of Kendall Forest will help stem the tide of rural land division in the region, which typically costs towns more money in services than they receive in property taxes. State ownership of working forests is supported by towns because it helps retain traditional access and jobs while protecting town budgets.

In addition, The Conservation Fund and Tug Hill Tomorrow Land Trust secured local hunting camp traditions with a conservation easement on the adjacent Stavemill Hunting Club property.

Video: The Conservation Fund: Protecting Nature, Jobs and Traditions in the Northern Forest

“We’re pleased to continue our partnership with NYS DEC and towns like Redfield to protect forestland of community- and state-wide importance; we are grateful to the ongoing support from the Richard King Mellon Foundation and the Environmental Protection Fund; and we are committed to finding conservation solutions that enhance community vitality.”

                   —Tom Duffus, vice president and Northeast representative for The Conservation Fund