Seth Tobias Preserve
Bedford, Westchester County, New York
36 acres

Directions:

From I-684 take exit 4.  Go east approximately 4.3 miles on Route 172 to green mileage marker 10 66 (bottom number) before house #375.  Preserve is located mid-way between Hickory Lane and Upland Road.  Although the preserve is on both the north and south sides of Route 172, the area that is suitable for hiking is on the south side.  There is no parking at the present time at the Tobias Preserve nor are there trail markers.

Geology:

The wetland is nestled in a bowl-shaped depression surrounded by cliffs. It drains into a stream that is the headwaters of the Beaver Dam River, eventually leading into the Muscoot Reservoir.

History:

The property and a nearby farmhouse were the weekend home of the Tobias family.

1997  --  Mrs. Judy Tobias Davis and her sons, Andrew and Stephen Tobias, donated the land to the Land Trust in memory of their late husband and father, Seth Tobias,  to honor his wish not to see the property developed.

Mrs. Davis lives in Manhattan and continues to visit the preserve when she is in the Bedford area.

Habitats:

large wetland, woods (with lots of sugar maples), slight hillside, steep ridge with rock outcroppings

Trails:

The Preserve has no marked trails, but the woodland is open and affords easy meandering through the woods. 

11/29/04.  We parked on the other side of the road near the sign for the preserve.  Head uphill to a big rock outcrop.  Head around it.  Still climbing I reach the highest rock crop.  The ground descends from here to a low large flat area with a stream and stone walls. On the right there is a large green lawn.  Walked down to the stream and walked along it finding some wetland species such as tulip tree.  Returned to the car.  There is a small, narrow wetland on the other side of the stone wall on this side of the road.  Right now it is fairly dry.  In the wet season the waters run through a culvert to the other side of the road. Dr. Patrick L. Cooney. 

PLANT LIST:
Dr. Patrick L. Cooney, 11/29/04

Trees:
Acer platanoides (Norway maple)
Acer saccharum (sugar maple)
Betula lenta (black birch)
Carpinus caroliniana (musclewood)
Carya ovata (shagbark hickory)
Carya sp. (hickory)
Cornus florida (flowering dogwood)
Fagus grandifolia (American beech)
Fraxinus americana (white ash)
Juniperus virginiana (red cedar)
Liriodendron tulipifera (tulip tree)
Ostrya virginiana (American hop hornbeam)
Picea abies (Norway spruce)
Quercus alba (white oak)
Quercus rubra (red oak)
Quercus velutina (black oak)

Shrubs:
Berberis thunbergii (Japanese barberry)
Chimaphila maculata (striped wintergreen)
Euonymus alatus (winged euonymus)
Lindera benzoin (spicebush)
Mitchella repens (partridgeberry)
Pachysandra terminalis (pachysandra)
Rubus phoenicolasius (wineberry) lots of it
Vaccinium corymbosum (highbush blueberry)
Vaccinium sp. (a low bush blueberry)
Viburnum prunifolium (blackhaw viburnum)

Vines:
Celastrus orbiculatus (Asiatic bittersweet)
Lonicera japonica (Japanese honeysuckle)
Smilax sp. (greenbrier)
Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy)
Vitis sp. (grape)

Herbs:
Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard)
Allium vineale (field garlic)
Aster spp. (aster)
Chelidonium majus (celandine)
Galium sp. (bedstraw)
Monotropa uniflora (Indian pipe)
Rumex obtusifolius (broad dock)

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

Grasses:
Poa annua (annual bluegrass)
Setaria faberi (nodding foxtail grass)

Ferns:
Athyrium filix-femina (lady fern)
Polystichum acrostichoides (Christmas fern)

rock tripe lichen