Upstate New York’s Tug Hill region, also known as Tug Hill Plateau, is known for its timber industry, snowfall and traditional northern forest outdoor recreational opportunities. Nestled within Tug Hill is the town of Redfield — one of the many communities that depend on the area’s working forest landscape for economic support. In 2017, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC) and The Conservation Fund protected 3,132 acres of land identified as a priority in the state’s Open Space plan.

Protection of Kendall Forest ensures ongoing timber resource production, safeguards the 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 through our Working Forests program with generous support from the Richard King Mellon Foundation and subsequently worked with local contractors to improve vehicular access to the area. The NYS DEC recently took ownership of the property using a grant from the New York State Environmental Protection Fund — a statewide funding source for capital projects that protect the environment and enhance communities. The project also safeguards local hunting camp traditions through a conservation easement, held by Tug Hill Tomorrow Land Trust, on the adjacent Stavemill Hunting Club.

This conservation effort builds on TCF’s work with the Richard King Mellon Foundation and NYS DEC to preserve 2,900 acres along the Salmon River over the past few 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 habitat vital to a variety of migratory bird species 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 local communities, helping to safeguard traditions many residents hold dear and enhance the economic benefits that the local timber industry and the Salmon River fishing economy provide.

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 residents retain traditional access and jobs while protecting town budgets.

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