Westchester Land Trust has secured the permanent protection of 15 acres of ecologically significant land on Pea Pond Road in Bedford. Donated by Janice and Robert Diamond, it’s one of the few higher-elevation properties there that is both undeveloped and unprotected. Named the Diamond Family Preserve, it will be owned and managed by WLT as a nature sanctuary.

“WLT will be forever grateful to the Diamond family for making this selfless gift of nature,” says WLT President Lori Ensinger. “They understood the importance of preserving this property and were wonderful partners in making it happen.”

The conservation project brings WLT’s total preserved lands to 8,800 acres across its service area of Westchester and eastern Putnam counties. According to WLT, the Diamond Family Preserve features a healthy mix of oak, tulip and maple forests, with many trees more than 100 years old. Because it has been fenced for much of its recent history, it’s been protected from deer browsing, allowing species like maple leaf viburnum, black cohosh, maidenhair ferns and new oaks to flourish.

 “This land has a stunning ecosystem, very few invasive species and an overall lack of deer browsing, which offer interesting opportunities to conduct ecological studies,” says Brendan Murphy, WLT’s director of stewardship.

Permanently conserving this property protects locally unique habitats and woodlands that sequester carbon and ensures that the land will never be lost to development. According to WLT, the property does not have a trail system and currently isn’t open to the public.

For more info, visit Westchester Land Trust.