SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y., October 16, 2026 – For more than a century, the Lubaczewski family has worked their land in Fulton County, growing corn, oats and hay and raising dairy cattle on its pastures. Generations have tended the fields, maintained the fences and built structures with timber harvested from the family’s own woodlands.

“Farm living is living proud,” said landowner Ed Lubaczewski. “It has been sad to see so many of the area’s farms converted to housing developments and large-scale solar fields. I want to honor my family’s heritage by protecting the land for farming for generations to come. Farming is a lifestyle with rewards in knowing that you have given back to the land.”

After learning about the conservation of a nearby farm in Charlton, Lubaczewski contacted multiple land trusts in 2023 to explore options for protecting his property. Saratoga PLAN heard his family’s goals and worked with him over the next three years to secure funding through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Conservation Easement Program.

The resulting conservation easement permanently protects 253 acres from future development, helping ensure the land can continue to support agriculture for generations to come.

“We are grateful for Ed’s commitment to protecting his working land, the type of land that plays a critical role in protecting our region’s quality of life,” said Saratoga PLAN Executive Director Jamie Brown. “This property sits at the intersection of two important resources: productive agricultural soils that extend from Fulton County through much of southwestern Saratoga County and a crucial migration corridor connecting the Adirondacks to the Catskills. These resources don’t follow town or county lines and neither should conservation.”

The rich soils of Fulton County and western Saratoga County have historically supported a concentration of farms that share resources and contribute to the same agricultural economy. Protecting farmland across this landscape helps sustain not only individual family farms but also the interconnected network of working lands that support agriculture across county lines.

The Lubaczewski farm also lies within the Catskills-to-Adirondacks Linkage, a 272,000-acre corridor identified by the Staying Connected Initiative, a cross-border collaboration working to maintain and restore connections between natural habitats across the Northern Appalachian and Acadian region of the United States and Canada.

Protecting land within this corridor helps maintain the connections wildlife need to move across the landscape. Wildlife depend on this connectivity to find food, shelter and mates, establish territories and move as environmental conditions change. New development like roads and other infrastructure can fragment habitats, making it more difficult for animals to move across the landscape. The degree to which a landscape facilitates or impedes wildlife movement is what defines the relative connectivity of that landscape.

The Lubaczewski farm is located within one of three important pinch points along the linkage, where maintaining connections between habitats is particularly significant. Its combination of agricultural fields, woodlands, tributaries to the Mohawk River and riparian corridors provides habitat for amphibians, reptiles, fish, birds, insects and mammals.

Protecting land in these strategic locations helps sustain the natural connections that extend far beyond any single property. Saratoga PLAN’s work with Lubaczewski demonstrates how protecting a single farm can contribute to a broader effort to conserve the natural connections that support wildlife, communities and the region’s future.

Landowners interested in learning more about conservation easements can visit saratogaplan.org or email info@saratogaplan.org for more information.

About Saratoga PLAN

Saratoga PLAN stewards and protects farms, forests, and waters of the Saratoga region and the southern Adirondack foothills – now and forever.

Saratoga PLAN (Preserving Land and Nature) has helped conserve over 14,000 acres of land in Saratoga County. PLAN helps landowners conserve farmland, woodlands, and natural habitats, and connects people to nature through an extensive trail network, including 13 public nature preserves open for hiking, biking, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and nature study. Saratoga PLAN helps communities create plans that balance growth with conservation to sustain the Saratoga Region as a great place to live, work, visit, play and farm. PLAN facilitates community-based conservation by partnering with municipalities to help them accomplish their community’s conservation goals.

For more information, call 518-587-5554, or visit www.saratogaplan.org.