Guest Editorial: Croton's Jane E. Lytle Memorial Arboretum is celebrating its 30th anniversary. Some thoughts on its past, present, and future.
A founding member and current president of the Arboretum relates its history and achievements, which traverse three decades of environmental activism.
by Karen Jescavage-Bernard
As president of the Croton Arboretum and Sanctuary, Inc and the Jane E. Lytle Memorial Arboretum, the Chronicle invited me to do a Guest Editorial. So I wanted to use the opportunity to ask its readers to celebrate the Arboretum’s 30th Anniversary with us. But first, some history.
Back in 1994, our PR person called the Arboretum a “hidden gem” and a “pocket park”. And it really was a 20-acre pocket hidden in more than 300 acres of overgrown woods. The golf course had not yet been built, or even approved. And the High Oaks subdivision had not been fully developed. Fast forwarding to 2024, those 20 acres are pretty much what’s left of much of those woods. But it’s still somewhat hidden: Visitors must continue past the sign at the end of Fox Road and stay on the gravel road across the golf course to the Arboretum’s entrance and parking.
As one of the few remaining founding members, it’s a good time for me to tell the Arboretum’s story. The original 20 acres were donated by local philanthropist Samuel Rubin to a volunteer environmental group called the Croton-Cortlandt Conservation Association (the CCA). As often happens with volunteer groups, members rapidly acquire knowledge and skills that enable them to serve on municipal boards or join professional organizations focused on their interests. As CCA members moved on and up, the association’s interest in the Rubin land dwindled and ownership passed to the village of Croton.
HOW I GOT THERE
In the 1980s, most of northern Westchester was threatened by a wave of real estate development. At the time, I was involved with CortlandtWATCH (We are the Cortlandt Homeowners) in its push for passing protective environmental laws and greater transparency and honesty in town government. One of WATCH’s strategies was incorporating as many of the town’s 30 small volunteer groups as possible under one umbrella. It was a grueling effort, but we succeeded in getting legislation passed that protects Cortlandt’s steep slopes, wetlands, forests, and drinking water. Also getting Cortlandt included in NY State’s Greenway Trail initiative.
A fellow WATCH member had been a CCA member. He suggested taking a break from WATCH work with something more relaxing: creating a nature preserve on the Rubin land. He introduced me to a fellow former CCA member, the late Dr. Dan Salzberg, who had moved on to become Croton’s Environmental Advisor. Together with two other local activists, Dan and I founded the Croton Arboretum and Sanctuary, Inc, filed for tax-exempt nonprofit status, and secured a renewable lease of the Rubin land from the Village.
On October 12, 1994, we got official non-profit organization status and with an energetic corps of volunteers started hacking hiking trails through an impenetrable tangle of wild vines, briars, brush and fallen trees. Our original mission was to promote protection and preservation of Croton’s remaining undeveloped land by making a nature preserve where visitors would enjoy the natural beauty and be inspired to legally protect more of it. Hard to believe now how naïve we were then: We often got lost with only the swamp in the heart of the preserve to guide us out of the jungle and back to civilization! We didn’t even try to make hiking paths but simply followed existing deer trails – even through mud and muck.
Our first $1000 matching fund paid for Hudsonia’s biological survey. A grant from the Open Space Institute helped defray the cost of required architectural drawings and a consultant who flagged the wetlands. In 1994, both the organization and the preserve were named The Croton Arboretum. But in 1995, the preserve was renamed The Jane E. Lytle Memorial Arboretum to honor a board member who died in a tragic accident. Red Rockett Designs donated the art and design work for the Jane E. Lytle Arboretum’s frog logo, stationery, and format for our first newsletter.
Our first major project was building a bridge across a stream. Architect Carl Grimm donated the design and volunteers built it. Next we started on an accessible trail for visitors with impaired mobility or eyesight. We built 100 feet at a time as we raised money. In 1998 Dr. Dan Salzberg spotted a clause in a NYS DEC grants program for economically underserved communities that enabled any community to apply for grants to help disabled people access recreation. Croton didn’t qualify as poor or disadvantaged, but another board member used his connection to former NYS senator Vincent Leibell to get one of these grants. Hard to believe it’s only a quarter mile long!
Dan Ferguson Sr. of Ferguson Carpentry gets credit for its subtle design as well as for his incredible patience sticking with us during the slog of building those 100 foot segments as we raised funds. Laemmel Construction built the bridge across the swamp. finished and dedicated in 2001. We determined then that the all the other trails would remain moderately challenging hiking trails and kept completely natural except for directional signs. So we kept more intensive uses like the Tree ID Trail and a big gazebo for school classes or just watching or photographing swamp wildlife right next to the boardwalk.
The years 2001 through 2004 saw a frenzy of activity. There were many “famous firsts”: the first of eight Eagle Scout projects at the Arboretum, first professionally guided nature walks and Tree I.D. hikes, first annual summer garden tour, and first matching fund. In addition to a dedicated bench, the Croton Lions club donated support for our map, brochure, and membership forms. But the most memorable achievement of those years was joining the coalition of local and county governments and civic organizations to oppose a proposed 460-mile gas pipeline that would have cut across properties in the north end of Croton, straight through the Village’s well field, and destroyed 25% of the Arboretum in its march through Teatown Lake Reservation to its terminus in Mt. Vernon. The coalition lost Round 1 because federal government agencies supported the Millennium Pipeline. But opponents ultimately won on appeal to the supreme court thanks to NYSDOS’ (Department of State) authority under the federal Coastal Zone Management Program. We didn’t even know victory was ours until the very day DOS publicly announced the decision in the press!
Over the next years, we installed specialty gardens featuring pollinators and medicinal plants that were inspired by speakers at fundraising events. And thanks are due to the generosity of professional concert pianists, artists, and famous photographers donating their talents. Also to the Ackerman family for a movie premier at their Scarsdale Fine Arts Theater. And grants from the US Forestry Service and NYSDEC’s Forestry Division that made remediation of badly flood-damaged wetlands possible.
In 2010, two acres belonging to the late Irwin Mann were added to the preserve and re-zoned PRE (Parks, Recreation and Education) to protect them from sale or commercial development. (Much later, an Eagle Scout candidate started work on a second Wildlife Food Forest here.)
Our 20th anniversary party at the Black Cow in 2014 raised $20,000 thanks to a $10,000 matching fund from Jane Lytle’s partner.
Covid’s arrival in early 2020 brought mixed blessings. On one hand, except for the Arboretum and Saw Mill River Audubon’s two sanctuaries, all of Croton’s parks, ballfields, and recreation and sports programs came to a dead halt. People desperate to get outdoors discovered the Arboretum, where the boardwalk trail was sometimes too packed with people to move! And Covid didn’t deter Colin Kooney’s 2020 Eagle Scout project in the therapy garden designed for visitors facing issues with traditional school classes and social interactions. Here, in lieu of signs, the focus is on plants with sensory impacts from various textures, colors, seasonal sounds, and a changing palette of smells. Trails loop behind the pollinator garden and interconnect to prevent visitors from getting lost in the woods.
But Covid also saw the end of the summer garden tours that had been our principal fundraiser. We haven’t abandoned these, but the task of recruiting new organizers to find, fund, organize and deliver these is monumental: Besides finding willing garden hosts, a small army of at least 30 volunteers has to be recruited, bakers cajoled into providing refreshments, and local businesses lobbied for funds to underwrite the production of descriptive brochures and self-guided maps with driving directions to the gardens.
In 2021, we installed a CO2 Forest in the middle of the island in the circular entry drive. Programs here teach participants how trees capture CO2 from the air, trap the carbon in their trunks, and keep it out of the atmosphere. The math explains how to translate stored carbon into carbon credits, which are worth major money to forest owners.
In 2022, thanks to a grant from One Tree Planted, volunteers planted the first Wildlife Food Forest. A second one is in the works on the former Mann property as our 8th Eagle Scout project. These will be an important feature in our new mission: tours and talks at the Croton Library that answer the question: “What Can I Do to Help Fight Climate Change?” We want to bridge the gap between what local citizens can do right here vs just supporting NYS’ and federal purchases of thousands of forested upstate acres with tax dollars. And, not everyone can buy an EV or install solar panels, but everybody can plant a tree or shrub that provides food and shelter for wildlife instead of one whose only value is ornamental flowers!
In 2024, volunteers installed a fenced planting of Beech saplings to counteract the loss of Beech forests to a fatal fungus that is decimating Beech trees across the USA and Canada. We also plan to launch a web site where interested people can email us. Right now, you can find us via YouTube and other social media.
Finally, 2024 also kicks off a fundraising campaign to build bridges over wet sections of the main perimeter trail. So much of the forest surrounding the Arboretum has been felled that run-off now makes long stretches of trail difficult-to-impassible all year, rather than just seasonally.
WHERE WE’RE GOING
In 2024 as in 1994, our organization remains the same: an NPO managed and operated by an all-volunteer board of directors elected by members. Officers are elected by the board, which also appoints Advisory Board members who volunteer their skills and professional talents for special projects. And as in 1994, we aren’t funded by village or town governments: We depend on the generosity and support of visitors, members, donors, business and corporate sponsors, employer matching funds, community groups, and grants from government and private foundations.
We hope Chronicle readers will be inspired to support this vital resource in many different ways, including joining our board of directors or volunteering their skills for special projects as well as for on-site work. So celebrate our 30th anniversary by donating, joining, or giving gift memberships. Annual membership costs $40 ($25 for seniors or students). Find out how “How To Help” at crotonarboretum.org, where you can give directly via PayPal, by credit card via Stripe, or by snail mail at Croton Arboretum/PO Box 631/Croton-on-Hudson NY 10520.
Karen Jescavage-Bernard is president of the Croton Arboretum and Sanctuary, Inc and the Jane E. Lytle Memorial Arboretum.
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Thank you so much for this article! Now I will revisit knowing and appreciating more if the history and work involved to create this lovely respite.