Genesee Valley Wildlife Management Area

In the late 1990s Gary Russell, who had inherited a 771-acre plot of land along the Genesee River in Allegany County, reached out to the Nature Conservancy about putting it into a forever-wild trust. He and his brothers had floated along its waters, his mother had planted a Christmas tree farm, and his father hunted on the land. "The river was always changing," he recalled; "It was a really interesting place."

Between 2001-2007 he made a series of gifts that ceded management of the land to the NY Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). What has been designated as the Genesee Valley Wildlife Management Area pursues a goal of biodiversity. Interestingly, Russell's career took him to the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, where his research focuses upon computer modelling of Earth's atmosphere. "Even though I work on climate change," he said, "I feel that climate change is not the most serious threat to human beings on planet." Instead, he suggested that the loss of habitat and biodiversity was even more serious.

The map shown here suggests a variety of differing habitats in even this smaller area of land. At the time of Russell's bequest, the regional DEC manager acknowledged that "It's not anything that's going to draw people like Letchworth or some other pieces of state land"--and this may be one of its best ecological features.

Source Consulted: Steve Orr, "Gift Opens 771 Acres on Genesee," Rochester Democrat & Chronicle 1 Sept. 2009: 1+

Ecker, Greg C.
Kindt, Justin R.
Brown, Nicolas C.
Rende, Emilio E.

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Map and photo from published report