Lifton Family Preserve
North Salem, Westchester County, New York
18 acres

Directions:

From I-684 take exit 7 (mileage marker 22.3) and head east on Route 116 and then an immediate right turn heading south on Route 22.  Drive about 1.5 miles and the preserve will be on your right.  One place to park is nearby Valeria Circle.

History:

2002  -- the Lifton family donated the land to the Westchester Land Trust.

Habitats:

hardwood forest, a Norway spruce stand, old field/scrub habitat and a young black cherry/black locust forest.

Trails:

 No trail system as yet.

11/29/2004.   We parked the car on Valeria Circle, the northern part.  My brother-in-law Cefe and I walked up to near Morris Road  to the sign for the Lifton Family Preserve.  We walked up the slope and pushed our way through a Norway spruce grove to climb up between two houses.  It is a narrow gap and we had to be careful not to vary too far right or left.  There is an informal path here that we picked up and followed roughly over to the ridge.  From here we could hear noisy I-684 and a portion of the Croton Reservoir on the far side of the expressway.  We walked part way back and then turned left to walk parallel with the ridge cliffside.  We made a loop trail and then retraced our path back to Route 22 and our car. Dr. Patrick L. Cooney. 

PLANT LIST:
Dr. Patrick L. Cooney, 11/29/2004

Trees:
Acer rubrum (red maple)
Acer saccharum (sugar maple)
Betula lenta (black birch)
Fraxinus sp. (ash)
Picea abies (Norway spruce)
Pinus strobus (white pine)
Populus grandidentata (big tooth aspen)
Prunus serotina (black cherry)
Quercus alba (white oak)
Quercus palustris (pin oak)
Quercus rubra (red oak)
Quercus velutina (black oak)
Robinia pseudoacacia (black locust)
Sassafras albidum (sassafras)

Shrubs:
Berberis thunbergii (Japanese barberry)
Euonymus alatus (winged euonymus)
Ligustrum sp. (privet)
Lindera benzoin (spicebush)
Lonicera morrowii (Morrow's honeysuckle)
Rosa multiflora (multiflora rose)
Rubus occidentalis (black raspberry)
Rubus phoenicolasius (wineberry)
Rubus sp. (dewberry)
Vaccinium corymbosum (highbush blueberry)
Vinca minor (periwinkle)

Herbs:
Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard)
Chelidonium majus (celandine)
Potentilla simplex (common cinquefoil)
Solidago spp. (goldenrod)
Veronica officinalis (common speedwell)

Sedges:
Carex laxiflora type (loose-flowered sedge type)

Grasses:
Panicum clandestinum (deer-tongue grass)
Schizachyrium scoparium (little blue stem grass)
Setaria faberi (nodding foxtail grass)

Ferns:
Asplenium platyneuron (ebony spleenwort)
Polystichum acrostichoides (Christmas fern)