I read with interest an article on June 18, 2020, in the Albany Times Union Newspaper titled: “Loudonville neighbors battle over a forest preserve in their midst” by Reporter Rick Karlin.

https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Loudonville-neighbors-battle-over-a-forest-15344152.php

Some reasons I found this article interesting include the fact that my name was mentioned in the article and much of the information presented is not exactly accurate or is misleading at best. For the record, I was not involved in the matter written about in the article and I did not even know that any of this was going on until I read the article.

The focus of the article revolves around an ongoing dispute with the present landowner of a piece of land that was sold with the deed restriction that stipulates that the property is designated “Forever Wild.” Evidently it is now the contention of several area landowners that the present owner of the “Forever Wild” parcel is taking actions on his property that are not in accordance with the “Forever Wild” deed restrictions.

The writer begins by stating that “The story began in 1998 when Marjorie Doyle Rockwell deeded about 30 acres to the Audubon Society of New York State, A/K/A Audubon International to create a nature preserve.” He also mentioned that Siena College had previously turned down the offer of the property that was made to them.

In fact, the story began in 1995 when Mrs. Rockwell died. At that time, her estate went through Probate, and among other things, her home and land in Loudonville, NY was being administered by Fleet Bank. Evidently, for many months a representative of Fleet Bank had been negotiating with Siena College to accept the offer of the Rockwell home and property.

In early 1998 I received a telephone call from Mr. Francis Coolidge of Fleet Bank concerning the Rockwell property. At the time I was the President and CEO of the Audubon Society of New York State, Inc., and our headquarters was located on a property that had been donated to our organization by Dr. and Mrs. Robert Rienow. That property was called Hollyhock Hollow Sanctuary. Along with the land, the Rienows had also left a sizeable fund to be used for the care and upkeep of Hollyhock Hollow Sanctuary, and that fund was managed at that time by Fleet Bank. That is how I knew Francis Coolidge. During that phone conversation, Francis told me that he was attempting to donate a home and property to Siena College, but the administrators of Siena would not clearly spell out what Siena might do with the property should they accept it. Francis asked if I could offer any suggestions as to how the estate might put some provisions in place that could help guide Siena in their future decisions. He told me that Mrs. Rockwell did not want the college to build dormitories and/or sports fields on the property. I had never heard of the property or of Mrs. Rockwell for that matter, but I agreed to meet Mr. Coolidge at the property to see if I might have some ideas for him to consider. At the time of my initial visit to home and property had already been vacant for around 3 years. At the conclusion of the site visit, I suggested that the estate could have restrictions on the property in the form of a “conservation easement” or some other restrictions that would govern the way any future landowner would be allowed to manage the property. The property was essentially grouped in 3 separate parcels of land. This strategy was taken by the estate, and eventually, Siena College turned down the offer of the property. I am not certain if that decision was based on the deed restrictions or not, but none-the-less they turned the property down.

Coincidentally, but unknown to Fleet Bank, the Audubon Society of New York State was already working with Siena College and partnering with one of the college professors to create an Environmental Studies Program. During the 1997-98 school year, we had worked with several Siena students on a research project on the Schuyler Meadows Golf Club, which adjoins the college campus. The golf club became our first “research site” and formed the basis for what I discuss later in this post. I had an office at Siena where I worked a few days each week. Among other things, we were working with a group of students conducting research on the Schuyler Meadows Golf Club. Along with the Environmental Studies program, we were in the process of creating a new entity called the Audubon-Siena Institute. Our plans were to work together to raise funding for the Environmental Studies program and ongoing and expanding research connected with wildlife, conservation, and environmental topics in general.

Several weeks after my visit to the Rockwell property I received another phone call from Francis Coolidge and he informed me that Siena had turned down the property and he wanted to know if the Audubon Society of New York State might be interested in it. This came as quite a shock to me. We took several more trips to the property and spent considerable time inspecting the home and land. Eventually, it was decided that the property and home would make an outstanding “home” for the Audubon-Siena Institute. After several Board meetings, the Board voted to accept the property, which became official on June 1, 1998, when we closed on the property and accepted 3 parcels of land including the home.

Therefore, it was in mid-1998 the Audubon Society of New York State started work on planning for the future of the Rockwell property with a general vision of creating a headquarters for the Audubon-Siena Institute including a “Forever Wild” parcel immediately behind the headquarters building. I am the person who drafted the wording written into the “Forever Wild” parcel. This was written at the request of Fleet Bank to control the future use of that parcel by Siena College.

Over the next several months I worked with several Audubon staff members to plan for the future of the Rockwell property. We visited most of the adjoining property owners, local elected officials in the Town, and even held a public meeting at the Colonie Town Hall to introduce ourselves and the concept of the Audubon-Siena Institute, and our work with Siena regarding the Environmental Studies program.

To put it mildly, I found the “neighbors” around the Rockwell property to be anything but neighborly. They seemed to be extremely focused on themselves, were suspect of most of the other neighbors, and did not seem to care at all about what we were contemplating doing with the Rockwell property or with Siena.

Our planning continued, however, and eventually, with input from several general contractors and discussions with Town officials, it was determined what we would have to do to transform the home into an accessible headquarters for the Institute. Among other things, it would be necessary to install an elevator. The complete remodeling effort would require several hundred thousand dollars. At this point, I contacted Fleet Bank to determine if we could sell what we called the “Turner Lane Parcel” to generate funds to complete the remodeling. They had no problem with that and therefore we put the Turner Lane parcel on the market.

During the time period of marketing the Turner Lane parcel, I received a phone call from the former Schuyler Meadows Golf Club superintendent who told me that he had received a phone call from one of the golf club members named Joe Gerrity. Mr. Gerrity had asked the Superintendent if he was familiar with the Audubon organization that had recently acquired the Rockwell property because he (Mr. Gerrity) thought he might have a problem. When asked what the problem was Mr. Gerrity stated that he was afraid that one corner of his tennis court might be built on the former Rockwell property. The superintendent assured Mr. Gerrity that if that turned out to be true that he was certain that Audubon would work out something amicable and satisfactory.

We eventually did sell the Turner Lane Parcel. On the day of the closing, the buyers stopped to walk around on the property while on their way to the closing. While there, Mr. Gerrity came out and asked them what they were doing on his property. The buyers said, “No, we just bought this property and are on our way to the closing.” Long story short…Mr. Gerrity filed an adverse possession claim on the Turner Lane Parcel and put a stop to the closing. Eventually, that issue was resolved when we agreed to pay Mr. Gerrity $25,000 so that he would just go away.

We had another “neighbor” who decided that he was going to build a brick wall along the front of his home, and in order for it to look the way he wanted it to look he decided to build one end of the wall onto our property and therefore block off access to an easement that exists along that side of the property. This led to a series of meetings and lawyers getting involved.

There was another “neighbor” who had a hobby of doing blacksmith work. He decided that a great place to set up his blacksmith shop was in an old and dilapidated garage building that was owned by Audubon and located on Rockwell property. Of course, we had discussions with this person and let him know that he was on property without permission and that we were concerned about liability issues and the fact that his blacksmithing hobby might actually end up burning down the garage and who knows what else.

These 3 examples are just a sampling of our experiences working on the Rockwell property. However, the icing on the cake occurred one morning when I was in a meeting with the Colonie Town Supervisor, again talking about our plans and our project with Siena College. At one point I was asked, “Are you certain that you have a partnership with Siena?” I said that I was and that I had an office on campus where I worked. At this point, she handed me a fax that she had just received that very same morning from the then Siena College President that stated that Siena College had no relations with the Audubon Society of New York State and that he didn’t know anything about the proposed Audubon-Siena Institute. I found this to be unbelievable as I had just met with the College President the day before to give him an update on the progress being made. Immediately after my meeting with the Town Supervisor, I met with the Professor that I had been working with regarding the Environmental Studies program and the Audubon-Siena Institute. This memo from the Siena College President started a process of winding down my involvement with Siena, shelving any idea of the Audubon-Siena Institute, and the eventual decision to sell the Rockwell home and the parcel of land around the home. We sold the home and surrounding land on March 2, 2001. We retained ownership of the “Forever Wild” parcel as an Urban Wildlife Sanctuary.

The purpose of this “Forever Wild” parcel was to provide for permanent open space in an otherwise urbanizing area. It was also to provide a great place for future Environmental Studies program students from Siena (should there be any interest) to conduct relevant research and conservation projects near the College. The “Forever Wild” restriction attached to the parcel in question is still part of the deed. Personally, I do not think the Audubon Society of New York State, Inc. has done anything legally wrong in selling the parcel. However, it is still supposed to be managed for the “research, education and management for urban wildlife conservation and water resource protection.” However, from a “mission” point of view, I believe the Audubon Society should have transferred ownership to an entity that had the main focus of managing the property with the “Forever Wild” restriction.

Finally and speaking of the “Audubon Society” I also find it interesting that for some reason the writer thought it was relevant to throw into the article a reference to some “confusion” concerning the distinction between the Audubon Society of New York State, Inc. (A/K/A Audubon International) and the National Audubon Society. First, there are over 500 different Audubon Society organizations in the United States. Each is independently and separately incorporated and each is free to establish its own programs. Second, the writer mentions that I created Audubon International in 1987 and then refers to the Audubon Society of New York State as an “affiliate” of Audubon International. This is not correct. The Audubon Society of New York State was originally created in 1897 as the second Audubon Society in the United States. I re-incorporated and re-established that organization in 1987. Once we found ourselves working with landowners across the country and not just in the State of New York, the Board of Directors authorized creating Audubon International as a “Brand” for the Audubon Society of New York State to work under on a national and international basis. Finally, the spokesperson for the National Audubon Society states that National Audubon is not a “Land Trust.” The National Audubon Society owns and manages 104 sanctuary properties. So, while National Audubon might not be officially incorporated as a “Land Trust” they do own, and they have sold properties throughout the history of the organization. This does not even mention the millions of dollars that National Audubon has been paid for oil and gas production on at least one of their sanctuary properties.