The Johanson property borders Butternut Pond.

Our March/April issue, which should be mailed in a few weeks, includes a profile of Joe Martens, the president of the Open Space Institute. In the Adirondacks, Joe is best known as the guy who engineered the institute’s purchase of the ten-thousand-acre Tahawus Tract in 2003, but he also has been involved smaller projects in the Park.

A map of the preserve.

Recently, a landowner donated to OSI a conservation easement on 1,400 acres near Poke-o-Moonshine Mountain.  As a result, the land is protected forever from development.

The owner, Eric Johanson, starting acquiring the land decades ago when he was just nineteen years old.

“I did not struggle to put this preserve together to develop it,” Johanson said, “but to practice conservation, to hunt and fish, and to leave it intact for future generations as a model of sustainable forestry.”

Unlike the Tahawus Tract acquisition, small projects don’t generate big headlines, but they should be celebrated as well.

Click here to read more about the Johanson deal.