CAROLINE, N.Y. (WHCU) – The Finger Lakes Land Trust (FLLT) adds more than 50 acres of property in the Town of Caroline.

Located on Ellis Hollow Road in the headwaters of Six Mile Creek, a public source of drinking water for the City of Ithaca, the property was donated by Ellen Harrison and will be permanently protected by a conservation easement. It includes 1,300 feet of frontage on the Thomas Road Wetlands. The acquisition creates an 18-acre environmental protection zone that safeguards the wetland and provides critical protection to the creek and Cayuga Lake further downstream.

“I travel a lot and when I get home, I realize there’s no place as nice as this,” said Harrison.

Photo courtesy of Chris Ray

Harrison purchased the property with her late husband Rick in 1999. They installed a pond and perennial and vegetable gardens to compliment the meadows and mixed-hardwood forest that defines the property.

The Harrison property is in close proximity to three private properties protected with conservation easements held by FLLT. It’s also in close proximity to Hammond Hill State Forest, and Ellis Hollow and Roy H. Park preserves.