Glenville Woods Park Preserve
Old White Plains Road, Elmsford, town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, NY
45 acres

Directions:

Saw Mill River Parkway north to the exit for Elmsford west. Drive west past mileage marker 1017 to a street sign saying Dunnings Drive/Watch Hill Drive across the road from the Tarrytown Corporation Center at 660 White Plains Road (Route 119) . Almost immediately turn left onto Old White Plains Road. Very shortly turn right into the entrance at the sign for the park. The entrance is located adjacent (on the east side) to the Wedged In Deli and Catering store (619 Old White Plains Road).

History:

On the west side of the Wedged In Deli and Catering store is an historical marker: "Colonial Home. Later a tavern, scene of legend of Westchester guide John Odell in the Revolution naming road Petticoat Lane. Formerly stage coach stop."

To get the land for Glenville Woods the politicians (among them Paul Feiner, Greenburg Town Supervisor) and the Open Space Institute had to make a deal with the developer. The Ginsburg Development Corporation got permission to build 86 units of housing and the town of Greenburgh acquired the property.

Jon Flores, president of the Glenville Community Association, was one of the original neighborhood activists who organized to save the property.

The Glenville Woods property was purchased by the Town of Greenburgh and the Open Space Institute for $2.5 million. The State provided $400,000, OSI and the Town of Greenburgh $833,333 each, Westchester County $400,000, and the remaining $34,000 through private donations raised by the Glenville Community Association.

The Glenville Woods property provides a wonderful connection to an existing county park. Just south of Glenville Woods is Taxter Ridge. At 200 acres, this is the largest undeveloped private parcel in the southern part of the county.  (Source: The Trust for Public Land. http://www.tpl.org/tier3_cd.cfm?content_item_id=7360&folder_id=630) 

It is part of a larger, 580 acre swath of unfragmented forest that begins where the Saw Mill River Parkway joins with Route 119 and goes north to the Tarrytown Lakes.

Habitats:

Year-round wetlands, ridge, ponds and beautiful rock outcroppings.

Trails:

As of our time of visit, there are no access paths in the park. We started to follow along the ground below the ridge on the western side, but it soon petered out. So we decided to climb on top of the ridge and proceed north. We walked up the ridge by the small waterfall consisting of four smaller falls. Stayed up on top of the ridge heading north and slightly northeast between housing on both sides of the ridge. The narrow area finally opens up to a larger area where you are not so close to the houses. Climbed up a higher part of the ridge and came to an area with a sign "Pet Walking Area" associated with the Water Hill private housing community. It was located near a water tower. Working my way up the hill past the water tower I found an old woods path. I followed it north and east and finally came out to the south bound lanes of Saw Mill River Parkway near mileage marker 2065. I could have gone farther on the woods road parallel with the Saw Mill River Parkway, but decided to turn back.

PLANT LIST:
Dr. Patrick L. Cooney
* = 8/03/03 = day plant found in bloom

Trees:
Acer palmatum (Japanese maple)
Acer rubrum (red maple)
Acer saccharum (sugar maple)
Ailanthus altissima (tree-of-heaven)
Betula lenta (black birch)
Carpinus caroliniana (musclewood)
Carya glabra (pignut hickory)
Carya tomentosa (mockernut hickory)
Cornus florida (flowering dogwood)
Euonymus alatus (winged euonymus)
Fagus grandifolia (American beech)
Fraxinus americana (white ash)
Juniperus virginiana (red cedar)
Liriodendron tulipifera (tulip tree)
Picea abies (Norway spruce)
Prunus serotina (black cherry)
Quercus alba (white oak)
Quercus prinus (chestnut oak)
Quercus rubra (red oak)
Quercus velutina (black oak)
Rhamnus cathartica (common buckthorn )
Sassafras albidum (sassafras)
Ulmus americana (American elm)

Shrubs:
Berberis thunbergii (Japanese barberry)
Chimaphila maculata (striped wintergreen)
Gaylussacia baccata (black huckleberry)
Kerria japonica (Japanese rose) *
Lindera benzoin (spicebush)
Lonicera morrowii (Morrow's honeysuckle)
Rosa multiflora (multiflora rose)
Rubus occidentalis (black raspberry)
Rubus phoenicolasius (wineberry)
Vaccinium pallidum (hillside blueberry)
Viburnum prunifolium (blackhaw viburnum)
Viburnum acerifolium (arrowwood viburnum) very hairy
Vinca minor (periwinkle)

Vines:
Ampelopsis brevipedunculata (porcelain berry)
Amphicarpaea bracteata (hog peanut)
Celastrus orbiculatus (Asiatic bittersweet)
Parthenocissus quinquefolia (Virginia creeper)
Smilax rotundifolia (round-leaved greenbrier)
Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy)
Vincetoxicum nigrum (black swallowwort)
Vitis labrusca (fox grape)
Vitis sp. (grape)
Wisteria sp. (wisteria)

Herbs:
Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard)
Ambrosia artemisiifolia (common ragweed)
Antennaria sp. (pussytoes)
Artemisia vulgaris (mugwort)
Asclepias syriaca (common milkweed)
Aster divaricatus (white wood aster)
Boehmeria cylindrica (false nettle)
Cardamine sp. (mustard)
Cichorium intybus (chicory) *
Circaea lutetiana (enchanter's nightshade)
Cirsium arvense (Canada thistle) *
Cirsium vulgare (bull thistle) *
Commelina communis (Asiatic dayflower) *
Conyza canadensis (horseweed)
Daucus carota (Queen Anne's lace) *
Duchesnea indica (Indian strawberry)
Erigeron annua (common daisy fleabane) *
Eupatorium rugosum (white snakeroot) *
Geum canadense (white avens) *
Hackelia virginiana (Virginia stickseed) *
Hieracium paniculatum (panicled hawkweed)
Impatiens sp. (Jewelweed)
Lapsana communis (nipplewort) *
Lemna sp. (duckweed)
Lepidium virginicum (poor man's pepper)
Lespedeza procumbens (trailing bushclover)
Lotus corniculatus (birdfoot trefoil) *
Lycopus virginicus (Virginia bugleweed)
Medicago lupulina (black medick) *
Monotropa uniflora (Indian pipe)
Oxalis sp. (yellow wood sorrel) *
Paronychia canadensis (forked chickweed) *
Phytolacca americana (pokeweed) *
Plantago lanceolata (English plantain)
Plantago major (common plantain)
Polygala verticillata (whorled milkwort) *
Polygonatum pubescens (hairy true Solomon's seal)
Polygonum cespitosum (cespitose smartweed) *
Polygonum sp. (dooryard knotweed type) *
Polygonum virginianum (jumpseed)
Potentilla simplex (common cinquefoil)
Prunella vulgaris (self-heal) *
Satureja vulgaris (wild basil) *
Smilax herbacea (carrion flower) ?
Solidago caesia (blue stem goldenrod)
Solidago spp. (goldenrods)
Symplocarpus foetidus (skunk cabbage)
Taraxacum officinale (common dandelion) *
Trifolium repens (white sweet clover) *
Trifolium arvense (rabbit's foot clover) *
Trifolium pratense (red clover) *
Tsuga canadensis (eastern hemlock)
Verbascum blattaria (moth mullein)
Verbascum thapsus (common mullein) *
Verbena urticifolia (white vervain) *

Rushes:
path rush

Sedges:
Carex laxiflora type (loose-flowered sedge type)
Carex pensylvanica (Pennsylvania sedge)
Cyperus esculentus or strigosus (nut or yellow flat sedge)
Cyperus lupulina (slender flatsedge)

Grasses:
Anthoxanthum odoratum (sweet vernal grass)
Brachyelytrum erectum (long-awned wood grass)
Dactylis glomerata (orchard grass)
Microstegium vimineum (Japanese stilt grass)
Panicum clandestinum (deer-tongue grass)
Panicum sp. (Panic grass)
Phalaris arundinacea (canary reed grass)
Setaria faberi (nodding foxtail grass)

Ferns:
Equisetum arvense (field horsetail)
Dennstaedtia punctilobula (hay-scented fern)
Onoclea sensibilis (sensitive fern)
Osmunda cinnamomea (cinnamon fern)
Polystichum acrostichoides (Christmas fern)
Pteridium aquilinum (bracken fern)
Thelypteris noveboracensis (New York fern)