January 13, 2010

Land Conservancy's preserved acreage: 21,402 and counting

A flurry of year-end projects has helped the Land Conservancy top the 21,400-acre mark in total preserved property.

To put this in perspective, our preserved acreage is now equal to that of the Cleveland Metroparks system and is 50 percent larger than the borough of Manhattan.

The Land Conservancy in 2009 protected 41 properties and 3,310 acres. The eight local land trusts that merged to form the Land Conservancy in 2006 had preserved about 8,000 acres. In the four years since then, we have preserved 13,402 acres -- a 167 percent increase on a 20-year total.

Land Conservancy President and CEO Rich Cochran said the Land Conservancy will soon be releasing details about several of the year-end land-preservation projects.

The Land Conservancy works to preserve the scenic beauty, rural character and natural resources of northern Ohio. The Land Conservancy's 14-county service area extends from the shores of Sandusky Bay to the Pennsylvania state line and from Lake Erie to the farms of Wayne and Stark counties.