63° and Mist
Robert Creenan, Niagara Gazette, Niagara Falls, N.Y.
Tue, June 3, 2025 at 11:59 PM EDT3 min read
With a lawsuit finally out of the way, the Town of Niagara Farmland Conservancy can move ahead with its preservation efforts.
The group prevailed last year in a lawsuit against the George Mannoe family for ownership of an undeveloped 26.3-acre parcel bordered by Colonial Drive and Miller and Garlow roads. The conservancy plans to turn the space into the Joseph Sutherland Nature Preserve.
A separate 38-acre site next to the Town of Niagara Veterans Memorial Park will become a Department of Environmental Conservation preserve for short-eared owls.
“Our goal is to preserve as much of the rural areas and keep them for future generations,” said President Joan Johnson. She along with Terry Lasher Winslow has been working since 2019 to keep former farmland in in the northern part of the town in its natural state.
The Sutherland Preserve will mainly be left for wildlife and pollinators, with areas set aside for community gardens, an orchard, a three-quarter mile trail and the restoration of forest surrounding the site.
The conservancy received $146,000 from the Niagara River Greenway Environmental Standing Committee for the preserve back in 2020, $100,000 for acquiring the land and the remainder for stewardship. Matching funds from the conservancy come from the donation value of the 38-acre parcel, worth around $237,000.
The Town of Niagara Farmland Conservancy filed the lawsuit to stop the sale of land to the George Mannoe family in September 2020. It claimed there was already a contract in place with the landowners, but the group was waiting for the awarding of funds from the greenway.
Johnson’s family owned the 38 acres next to Veterans Memorial Park and donated it to make this owl preserve happen. Despite short-eared owls being one of the most widespread owl species in the world, the state lists them as an endangered species.
“They are becoming threatened and need a certain type of environment,” Johnson said, with the land having a meadow habitat and plenty of trees for the owls. The state-funded project will also help mitigate the loss of green space that had been used for solar projects.
Stimson Studio based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, drew preliminary site plans for both areas.
If the conservative receives final state approvals, a team of DEC biologists will come out to remove invasive plants from the land and replace them with native plants.
There is no set date on when the new preserves will be ready for the public, as future wildlife preserve developments depend on when the conservancy receives more greenway funding. The DEC wants to start work on the owl preserve later this summer.
The conservancy is accepting donations to pay for landscape design and construction costs for the Sutherland Preserve and to obtain a funding match for a future greenway grant request. All donations are tax-deductible and can be made out by check or money order to the Town of Niagara Farmland Conservancy, 4725 Miller Road, Niagara Falls, New York 14034.
