Located an hour from Buffalo, in Chautauqua County (town of Stockton), is the 311-acre Bear Lake Preserve, considered a critical part of the WNY Wildway.
The Wildway is a series of interlinked natural thruways that allow animals, birds, insects, etc., to have the unfettered ability to travel from place to place, while accessing food and shelter. Once complete, the WNY Wildway will be an extensive series of protected lands that connect the vast forests of northern Pennsylvania to the Great Lakes. It will also critically link up with the Eastern Wildway, creating an even broader protected area for nature to run its course.
The Land Conservancy is currently in the midst of attempting to procure Bear Lake Preserve, which, according to the Conservancy, is part of a complex of high-quality wetlands and forested lands that are connected to the now-permanently protected College Lodge Forest and Floating Fen – both owned and managed by the Land Conservancy.
Adding to all of these successes, the Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy – a lead WNY Wildway partner based in Lakewood – recently closed on the 133-acre Looney property adjacent to the Floating Fen Preserve…