Annual Appeal 2025
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“When you plant a tree, you plant a legacy.”
- Pepper Provenzano
This spring, something amazing happened in Central New York. More than 80 volunteers braved the rainy weather to plant 1,500 young trees on a hillside above Skaneateles Lake. Red Oaks, Sugar Maples, Shagbark Hickories, and other native species are now stretching their roots into soil that, not long ago, was farmed land.
This land – the O’Neill Family Farm – is now a 144-acre Preserve. Protection was made possible thanks to two New York State grants set up to protect water quality and reforest open spaces. As those 1,500 young trees grow, they will safeguard the drinking water for 165,000 people across Central New York.
Restoring this land is just the beginning. By partnering with nonprofits like The Nature Conservancy, community groups, volunteers, and generous donors like you, we are launching a multi-generational reforestation effort. Over time, the O’Neill Family Farm Preserve will be a place where we come together to build community. Together, we will learn about ways to protect our region’s lakes and rivers, one tree at a time.
This year, I’m asking you to leave your mark in Central New York by doing a little (or a lot) to support the Land Trust’s mission.
Please consider a gift of $500 or more before the end of the year.
“It’s about more than trees – it’s about growing community.”
This year’s O’Neill Preserve tree planting is a story of partnerships. While the Land Trust was busy enlisiting volunteers, the local community came together to help with important things like food, water, and bathrooms. Residents from across Central New York and businesses from the Village of Skaneateles helped plan for the big day, bringing tools or donating their time.
You are an important part of our Central New York community. Your annual support makes partnerships like this possible. Through the O’Neill Preserve reforestation project, CNY Land Trust was able to take $320,000 in private gifts to leverage $855,000 in public funding. When we build out projects like this one, your gift multiplies your impact.
For every dollar you give, the Central New York Land Trust is bringing three times that funding to protect and restore the lands we all depend on.
You can help right now by making a gift of $500 today.
Reforesting the O’Neill Family Farm Preserve provides important ecological and public health benefits. Root systems help stabilize the slope to reduce runoff during big storms. Cutting out farming in sensitive areas keeps chemicals from getting into the lake, which improves water quality. Trees store carbon, and have become an important resource for New York State’s response to a changing climate. Over time, this community forest full of native trees will provide habitat for wildlife and bring back sensitive native plants and shrubs.
How do you tackle the reforestation of old farmland to protect public drinking water?
One tree at a time.
Just like reforesting the O’Neill Family Farm Preserve, we will reach our goals this year one gift at a time.
“He plants trees to benefit another generation.”
- John Quincy Adams
One day. Six hours. Over 80 volunteers working first in the humidity, and then the pouring rain on the Saturday of a holiday weekend.
“To be without trees would, in the most literal way, mean to be without our roots.”
- Richard Mabey
People getting to know each other and their neighbors – people helping each other by working together to plant each tree – neighbors, friends, and families coming together to help.
“He that plants trees, loves others besides himself.”
- Thomas Fuller
And now Phase One is done.
And the trees are growing!
Your year-end gift will help us keep that momentum going – expanding our reforestation work, protecting more natural areas, and connecting more people to the landscapes that make Central New York home.
I am writing to ask you to support the Central New York Land Trust's mission
again this year by making a gift of $500 today.
As we celebrate the completion of Phase One, we’re getting ready for Phase Two in spring 2026, when we’ll plant another 3,500 trees in the field. Building a forest of this size takes a village, so you could be one of 200 volunteers planting trees. This growing forest is a living symbol of hope – proof that when people come together, we can heal the land and protect the waters that give us life.
Since I joined the Land Trust back in May, I’ve felt a lot of hope. Standing on that hillside, it was easy to feel overwhelmed by the scale of the challenges we face. Climate change. Bigger storms. Flooding. Drought. And the increasing pace of development. I asked myself, “How can a few people planting small trees in the rain make a difference?” But then I looked around and saw each tree in the ground, each person doing their part, and I realized this is how change begins – not all at once, but one act of care at a time.
One tree at a time.
And, one gift at a time. Please lend your support to the continuation of our efforts. Please consider a gift of $500, right now, to support the work of the Central New York Land Trust going forward. If you can do more this year, I am grateful for your doing as much as possible.
If $500 is not right, please consider an amount that feels right for you.
We will get there together.
One tree at a time.
With Gratitude,
Patrick J. Lynch, JD, MPA
Executive Director
The Central New York Land Trust
P.S. – Every gift, large or small, helps us leverage vital public funding through programs like New York’s Environmental Protection Fund. Your donation truly multiplies its impact! Please give today and help us keep Central New York rooted in nature.
