Newsletter | Central New York Land Trust

CNY LAND TRUST NEWS

Friday, April 10, 2026

Central New York Land Trust Hires Macy Carr

as Land Stewardship Manager

The Central New York Land Trust, a nonprofit with deep roots in the Central New York community, announces the hiring of Macy Carr as the organization’s new Land Stewardship Manager.

“We are thrilled to welcome Macy to the Land Trust community,” said Patrick Lynch, Executive Director. “With 57 nature preserves to take care of, including 18 that are free and open to the public, it’s important we have both staff and volunteers to protect these unique natural spaces. Macy brings a lot of experience and energy to the Land Trust, and we look forward to seeing what she can do to build up our stewardship program.”

Macy is an ecologist with a background in conservation, monitoring and plant biology. Her enthusiasm for the environment is rooted in her childhood jaunts in Ohio forests, streams, and berry patches. At the Land Trust, Macy will oversee a growing team of more than 175 volunteers who take care of trails and support the group’s efforts to save land for future generations.

“I am thrilled to be joining the Land Trust, and I am looking forward to growing with the organization at such an important time,” said Carr. “Stewardship, specifically advocating for land, plants and local communities is exactly the sort of work I dreamed of doing.”

Macy holds an M.S. in Ecology from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) and a B.S. in Environmental Biology from the University of South Florida. At ESF, she studied ash forests affected by the invasive Emerald Ash Borer, looking at the role these disturbed ash forests can play in creating food forests. Prior to moving to Central New York, Macy served as an ORISE Research Fellow for the US EPA Office of Water on their National Wetland Condition Assessment. In addition to teaching classes to college and graduate students, she worked as a nature educator for the Montessori School of Syracuse, and recently expanded her love of baking while working at Skaneateles Bakery.

“One thing I’m excited to bring to the Land Trust is my passion for environmental education, and finding ways to connect more people to the Land Trust’s preserves,” said Carr.

Wednesday, March 18, 2026

CNYLT Featured in NYup.com for Salamander Big Night 2026!

Read the article here.

Monday, March 16, 2026

Dr. Catherine Landis' Fall Flora Class (Fall 2025): Floristic Quality Assessments at Pleasant Valley Preserve

As students climbed out of their vans at CNY Land Trust’s Pleasant Valley Preserve to participate in another SUNY ESF class of Fall Flora, they prepared for a different kind of application of their botanical knowledge. Till now, the class, led by Dr. Catherine Landis, spent time in the field learning to recognize the wide array of plant species in Central New York. Today, joined by Dr. Don Faber-Langendoen, the focus was on a practical botanical application – namely the use of the Floristic Quality Assessment (FQA) method to assess the relative
ecological integrity of natural communities.

Ecologists and conservation biologists are often tasked with assessing the current condition of ecosystems, with the goal of determining whether the ecological processes and species composition at a site reflect historic, natural conditions that are most likely to favor the native species of the region. Plants often provide a valuable clue about current conditions, a barometer of sorts, because many are present year round. Plus, as compared to transient animals or hard to measure soil parameters, they are readily observed. But how do we interpret their presence and abundance at a site? This is where the FQA method comes in.

FQAs have been developed across the U.S. and Canada since the 1990s. The New York Natural Heritage Program, led by Dr. Richard Ring, developed the method for use in NY in 2016. At its core, the method is strikingly simple – every plant species known in the state has been assigned a “Coefficient of Conservatism,” or C-value, ranging from 0 to 10, with 0 assigned to nonnative plants and 10 to those most dependent on processes found in high
quality natural communities. But embedded in these numerical scores is the deep knowledge of a team of state botanists and ecologists whose diverse field experience allowed them to evaluate and score all 2133 native plant species found in the state. Armed with this knowledge, any field biologist can go into an existing natural community and assess its relative condition.

The instructors led the class to two northern hardwood forest stands, one a sugar bush, where the stand had been managed for sugar maples, the other an unmanaged northern hardwood forest. Transects were laid in each stand, and students put their botanical knowledge to use, by identifying and counting the number of stems for each woody species (late fall prevented them from including herbaceous plants). In its simplest form, the FQA index is calculated by taking the average C value across all species present in the transect. After calculating the index, the students found that the unmanaged stand scored higher because there was greater diversity of
native trees and shrubs and there were fewer nonnative trees in the understory. Historically, the land that is now part of the preserve had multiple purposes, including as a sugar bush, and its lower natural quality was offset by the added value of maple syrup. Now, as the Land Trust focuses on natural processes, the unmanaged stand can serve as a reference for restoring the former sugar bush. FQA is but one tool to guide restoration, but it highlights the value of botanical knowledge in guiding our understanding of preserve management.

For more on FQA in New York, see:

Ring, R. 2016. Developing Coefficients of Conservatism Values for New York’s Native Flora.
NYFA Quarterly Newsletter spring 2016: pp 8-9.

Wednesday, March 4, 2026

The Central New York Land Trust Announces it will March in its First Syracuse St. Patrick's Parade

Syracuse, NY. The Central New York Land Trust, a conservation nonprofit based in Fayetteville, is excited to announce it will march in its first Syracuse St. Patrick’s Parade on Saturday, March 14, 2026. The Land Trust’s Executive Director, Patrick Lynch, will be joined by Land Trust members from Syracuse and surrounding communities to celebrate this year’s parade theme, “As Giving as the Irish.”

“The Land Trust honors and appreciates the Irish heritage of so many communities here in Central New York”, says Lynch. “The parade’s theme this year aligns perfectly with our nonprofit’s work– to save green spaces across the Central New York Area. With more families and businesses like Micron moving into Greater Syracuse, it’s important we all do what we can to support local causes that lift up our communities and save important areas we care about.”

Devon Dunbar, Development Manager at the CNY Land Trust, also believes in the spirit of the St. Patrick’s Parade. “Over the last two years, we’ve heard from hundreds of members who would like to see the Land Trust be more visible in Syracuse,” says Dunbar. “We’re excited to march in the parade this year as part of our year-long commitment to our communities. To kick off Earth Week, we’re hosting our biggest native tree-planting of 3,500 trees in Skaneateles on Saturday, April 18th, to help mitigate erosion on our O’Neill property. We’re inviting the public to participate in the planting by signing up for free on United Way’s platform here: https://www.volunteercny.org/need/detail/?need_id=1169861”

“We’re also organizing our first Green Heart Gala in Downtown Syracuse in October. It’s a chance to listen to live music, work on your trivia, and have fun while supporting our mission to protect green areas in Central New York.”

For Lynch, the parade is also personal. “As an Irish-American from Boston whose grandparents were all first-generation Irish-Americans, I’ve always dreamed of marching in a St. Paddy’s Day Parade. My wife and I have gone to the Syracuse St. Patrick’s Parade every year since we moved here four years ago. I can’t think of a better place to be on a Saturday in March!”

The Central New York Land Trust is based at the Woodchuck Hill Field and Forest Preserve, one of 18 free nature preserves that are open to the public. Since its founding as Save the County in 1973, the Land Trust has protected more than 4,000 acres and 57 unique areas in Onondaga, Oswego, and Madison Counties.

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