ALBANY COUNTY — On Feb. 17, Albany County announced the conservation of two large tracts of land — 197 acres in Guilderland adjacent to John Boyd Thacher State Park, and 133 acres in Bethlehem that is within walking distance of Delmar’s Four Corners.

“Today’s announcement is just a major step on an ongoing commitment to preserve the natural beauty, open space, and environmental resources that make Albany County such a great place to live in,” said Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy at a press conference on Tuesday morning, announcing the purchases.

Joanne Cunningham, who chairs the county legislature, spoke of the “trustful relationship” that allowed the conversation to occur “pretty quickly.”

Cunningham, who represents Bethlehem, noted signs residents had posted “along the rail trail and everywhere else in town, saying, ‘Do not develop this North Street property.’”

McCoy; Bethlehem Supervisor David VanLuven; and Mark King, who directs the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy, coalesced, she said.

“By some magic recipe, we all figured out: OK, town money, county money, and Mohawk-Hudson money and got it done,” said Cunningham.

King “was 10 miles ahead of us,” Cunningham said, explaining, “Mark said, ‘Well, there’s these other properties that are right near Thacher,’ so we kind of married this whole thing together and said, ‘Let’s do it all as one.’ So here we are today.”

She concluded, “You can go fast if you go alone. If you want to go far, you go together.”

Mark King spoke of protecting land as an investment. “And it’s not just in the acres,” he said, “but it’s in our identity, it’s in our community, and it’s in the legacy we leave behind.”

King said of the two newly preserved lands, “These properties strengthen a larger protected network of land. They preserve ecological help, they preserve a sense of community character, and they preserve something that’s really less tangible, but equally important: the sense that places should remain open, natural, and accessible to all.”

Among others, King thanked county legislators Bill Reinhardt and Jeff Perlee who “really got the Forest Preserve Fund going some years ago.”

Crounse land in Guilderland

King also commended the Scenic Hudson Land Trust, which he said made the Guilderland land purchase possible.

For that 197-acre property on the shoulder of the Helderberg escarpment, Scenic Hudson contributed $250,000 while the county’s land preserve fund contributed $150,000 for a total of $400,000.

The property, owned by Thomas and Virgina Woods, is under contract, King told The Enterprise and the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy will pick up the remaining costs of the closing.

King noted that 20 acres surrounding the historic Crounse homestead are not part of the conserved acreage nor are the two parcels across the Altamont-Voorheesville Road from the homestead.

The “ultimate goal,” King said, is to have the 197-acre parcel become part of Thacher Park although there are “no solid agreements yet … That will take some time,” he said.

“These properties are not just parcels on a map,” said King at Tuesday’s event. “They’re really living pieces of our history and our future.”

He noted the Helderberg property was once part of the Crounse — sometimes spelled Crouse — family lands and said, “It connects us directly to the earliest chapter of the region’s history. The Crounse family helped feed soldiers during the Revolutionary War and, over generations, helped shape the community as settlers, farmers, and civic leaders.

“Today, with this land protected, visitors will be able to stand on the escarpment and look across the same sweeping landscape and experience the same sense of place that people felt more than two centuries ago.”

King added, “It’s also a vital property for preserving bats. It’s a great bat habitat — bats need our help.”

He noted, too, that the purchase will help with “safeguarding water quality and preserving the scenic and rural character that makes this whole region so special.”

Jeff Perlee, who represents District 31 in the county legislature, which includes the conserved land, noted that it links Thacher Park with the Altamont-Voorheesville Road.

“This public purchase protects the Helderberg Escarpment and marks a major step towards the realization of the Helderberg Greenway initiative designed to protect historic Altamont from suburban style sprawl,” Perlee said in a statement.

Perlee, who chairs the Albany County AmRev 250 Commission, went on, “This wooded parcel and its adjoining agricultural parcels constitute the literal border between the Tories, who controlled the caves and heights above, and the Patriots whose farms along the Altamont-Voorheesville Road were so instrumental in feeding and sustaining the American armies.

“The setting today remains remarkably pristine; no modern development impairs a visitor’s ability to appreciate what it was like when this rural neighborhood was the center of an eight-year civil war, marked by kidnapping attempts, espionage, violence, struggle and sacrifice that gained our independence. It all happened right here and now we’ll be able to protect the setting and tell that story to future generations.”

Ravines Park in Bethlehem

Mark King described the 133-acre North Street property in Bethlehem as being “right in the heart of Delmar … it’s sort of a last corner in a very highly developed community,” he said.

He also said, “It represents a real opportunity for public recreation.”

The 133 acres in Bethlehem were purchased with $450,000 from the town itself, $210,000 from the county’s land preserve fund, and $75,000 from the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy for a total of $735,000.

Bethlehem’s supervisor, VanLuven, said, “There was a portion of town that had struck me from my wandering as being particularly beautiful.”

When he became supervisor eight years ago, he said, “I discovered that the town owned a small property there and I worked with our highway department and our public works department to start transitioning the use of that property from public works over to parkland.”

VanLuven went on, “And five years ago, I was able to create the Normans Kill Ravines Park. And when I did this, I had no idea, I never even dared to imagine that it would one day become the town’s largest park by quite a large margin … Normans Kill Ravines Park will now embrace 288 acres of beautiful forests, ridges, wetlands, ravines, and half a mile of Normans Kill shoreline.”

VanLuven noted that, while Bethlehem has “very active open-space initiative,” the town works only with “interested and willing landowners.”

The 133-acre property was purchased from North Street Group LLC.

VanLuven thanked Jason Gallo, who heads Bethlehem’s Parks and Recreation Department; town attorney Jim Potter; Bethlehem’s open space coordinator, Lauren Chiyoko Axford, and “our terrific town board.”

“We also need to acknowledge Bethlehem’s mountain-bike community, which is now organized under the Capital Trail Alliance. They have worked tirelessly over the years to put in an incredible network of trails,” said VanLuven, which are open to walkers, cyclists, and cross-country skiers.

VanLuven concluded, “This land is the 14th conservation success in the town of Bethlehem since I became town supervisor eight years ago and it brings our total land protection to more than 830 acres.”

McCoy had the last word. He said, “This is about more than the land. It’s about protecting the quality of life and character that defines all of the county and maximizes every dollar we spend from the county to get a better investment back into our future and protecting the future.”