Jim & Sara Kersting of Springwater, Livingston County, NY.

Why did you choose to conserve your land?  What motivated you?

We have long appreciated and enjoyed the unique environment and natural beauty of the Finger Lakes region.  Being fortunate enough to acquire a parcel of this natural beauty to live on and learn from, we wanted to protect it so future generations can continue to benefit as we have.

How did you conserve your land?

We worked with the Land Trust to place a conservation easement on our property.

What makes your land so special to you?

It borders on the undeveloped Canadice-Hemlock watershed lands, pristine waters and beautiful viewscapes.  Our land is a mixture of habitats, open fields and successional forests, with diverse wildlife and plant life.  And our land is marked not only by its natural history, but its history of  human use, a farm since the 1850s, still evidenced by old barn foundations and rock walls still winding through the woods.