Land Acquisition

At OSI, we know that the value of land conservation goes well beyond mere dollars and cents. Smart, strategic land conservation strengthens communities, provides recreational resources, protects habitats, and ensures access to drinking water resources.

Launched over kitchen-table discussions more than 40 years ago in New York’s Hudson River Valley, OSI has expanded its direct land conservation efforts and transaction expertise to projects generating significant conservation impact in Maine, New Jersey, South Carolina, and Virginia.

Today we’re also an important partner in supporting local, state and federal efforts to protect land at a large scale. Many of the lands we buy, we then steward to become parks and other community assets.

• A full 10 percent of the New York State parks system has been conserved in partnership with OSI’s Land Program
• We’ve acquired more than 21,000 acres of forest lands in the Catskills—places where OSI has been preserving open space for the last 40 years
• We’ve also increased the size of the Minnewaska State Park Preserve from 10,400 acres to over 23,000 acres, making it the third largest state park in New York

OSI’s work represents an effort to align the pieces of the landscape puzzle and prevent fragmentation, which disrupts key wildlife corridors, impairs water and air quality, and diminishes the beauty and accessibility of natural areas.