STERLING FARMS PRESERVE
Patterson, Putnam County, NY
37 acres

Putnam County Land Trust Preserve

Directions:

Route 22 North to left turn on Route 164 (north of Route 65); drive .6 of a mile and turn right onto dirt Couch Road; travel .6 of a mile and park on the left side of the road near house #148 Couch Road.

Geology:

From the heights of the preserve, one can see the Great Swamp and Pine Island to the north, Cranberry Mountain to the east and Mendel's Pond and Cornwall Hill Road to the south.

History:

post Revolutionary War  --  one of the 100-acre farms carved out of the Philipse lands for returning Revolutionary War veterans.

early 1800s --  the farm belonged to the Couch family (the road name is Couch Road). Hezekiah Couch was the first Commissioner of Highways of the Town of Patterson.

1918  --  Edie Keasbey's grandparents, Charles Simon and Edith Sterling Simon, acquire the farm. The farm was known as Sterling Farm.  The owners raised dairy cattle  here.

until the late 1920s?  --  the hillside was dairy pasture.

1996 --Tom and Edie Keasbey donate the land to the Putnam County Land Trust.

(source: Putnam County Land Trust website: http://www.pclt.net/preserves.htm#twin_hill)

Habitats:
second growth oak forest.

Trails:

They have some numbers on trees indicating certain spots along the trail.

This is not a long trail but it is difficult at times. You climb immediately up the steps on the red trail heading north and keep going up and up through the mountain laurel and chestnut oak. At the top you turn/bear right (west) through a little valley by some interesting rock outcrops. You go northwest to point 2 and then downward shortly to get around a higher point and then descend so steeply that they have put ropes up to help you escape from toppling. At the bottom you come to #3, the original water supply for Keasbey House. You see a concrete square with water in it -- great place for breeding the heck of a lot of mosquitoes that congregated around me and my dog Snuffy. There is wetlands here by the concrete pool.

Climbing a short way to a bench, #4, Woodpecker Haven. Then descend once again. You run into more wetlands. What a mess of Japanese barberry -- at times making it unpleasant to pass along the path. It is way too invasive here. You walk to a little stream; walk over on a telephone size pole bridge (using the rope support system again for help). Here the multiflora rose is the second worst invasive next to the Japanese barberry. A short walk ahead brings you to Couch Road. Turn right and walk back to your car.

PLANT LIST:
Dr. Patrick L. Cooney
dates = when the plants were found in bloom

Trees:
Acer rubrum (red maple) 4/21/04
Acer saccharum (sugar maple)
Amelanchier arborea (shadbush)
Betula alleghaniensis (yellow birch)
Betula lenta (black birch)
Carya spp. (hickory)
Fraxinus americana (white ash)
Hamamelis virginiana (witch hazel)
Pinus strobus (white pine)
Populus grandidentata (big-toothed aspen)
Prunus serotina (black cherry)
Quercus alba (white oak)
Quercus prinus (chestnut oak)
Quercus rubra (red oak)
Quercus velutina (black oak)
Rhamnus cathartica (common buckthorn)
Salix alba (weeping willow) 4/21/04

Shrubs:
Berberis thunbergii (Japanese barberry) 4/21/04 soon; 5/18/01
Chimaphila maculata (striped wintergreen)
Cornus amomum (swamp dogwood)
Elaeagnus umbellata (autumn olive) 5/18/01
Forsythia sp. (golden bells) planted 4/21/04
Gaultheria procumbens (teaberry)
Gaylussacia baccata (black huckleberry) 5/1801/
Kalmia latifolia (mountain laurel)
Ligustrum sp. (privet)
Lindera benzoin (spicebush) 4/21/04
Lonicera morrowii (Morrow's honeysuckle) 5/18/01
Lonicera tatarica (Tartarian honeysuckle) 5/18/01
Mitchella repens (partridgeberry)
Rhododendron periclymenoides (pinxter flower) 5/18/01
Vaccinium corymbosum (highbush blueberry)
Vaccinium pallidum (hillside blueberry) 5/18/01
Vaccinium stamineum (deerberry) 5/18/091
Viburnum acerifolium (maple-leaf viburnum)
Viburnum dentatum (arrowwood viburnum)
Viburnum lentago (nannyberry viburnum) 5/18/.01
Viburnum plicatum (double file viburnum) 5/18/01

Vines:
Celastrus orbiculatus (Asiatic bittersweet)
Parthenocissus quinquefolia (Virginia creeper)
Rubus sp. (blackberry)
Vinca minor (periwinkle) 4/21/04

Herbs:
Actaea rubra (red baneberry) 5/18/01
Aegopodium podagraria (goutweed)?
Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard) 5/18/01
Allium tricoccum (wild leek)
Aralia nudicaulis (wild sarsaparilla)
Arctium sp. (burdock)
Arisaema triphyllum (jack in the pulpit)
Artemisia vulgare (common mugwort)
Aster divaricatus (white wood aster)
Caltha palustris (marsh marigold)
Cardamine (cuckoo flower) just finished 5/18/091
Chelidonium majus (celandine) 5/18/01
Chelone glabra (white turtlehead)
Chimaphila maculata (spotted wintergreen)
Cirsium arvense (Canada thistle)
Fragaria virginiana (wild strawberry)
Hemerocallis fulva (tawny day lily)
Impatiens capensis (jewelweed)
Iris versicolor (blue flag)
Lonicera dioica 5/18/01
Lysimachia quadrifolia (whorled loosestrife)
Maianthemum canadense (Canada mayflower) 5/18/01
Narcissus sp. (daffodil) 4/21/04
Polygonatum pubescens (hairy true Solomon's seal) 5/18/01
Potentilla simplex (common cinquefoil)
Prenanthes altissima (tall lettuce)
Sedum purpureum (garden sedum)
Smilacina racemosa (false Solomon's seal) 5/18/01
Symplocarpus foetidus (skunk cabbage)
Taraxacum officinale (common dandelion) 4/21/04 5/18/01
Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy)
Trientalis borealis (star flower) 5/18/01
Trifolium pratense (red clover)
Tussilago farfara (coltsfoot) 4/21/04
(rattlesnake root)

Rushes:
Juncus effusus (soft rush)

Sedges:
Carex laxiflora type (sedge) 5/18/01
Carex pensylvanica (Pennsylvania sedge) 4/21/04
Carex stricta (tussock sedge) 5/18/01

Grasses:
Anthoxanthum odoratum (sweet vernal grass) 5/18/01
Dactylis glomerata (orchard grass)
Poa pratensis (Kentucky bluegrass)

Ferns and Fern Allies:
Equisetum arvense (field horsetail)
Dennstaedtia punctilobula (hay-scented fern)
Dryopteris marginalis (marginal woodfern)
Onoclea sensibilis (sensitive fern)
Osmunda cinnamomea (cinnamon fern)
Osmunda claytoniana (interrupted fern)
Osmunda regalis (royal fern)
Polystichum acrostichoides (Christmas fern)
Pteridium aquilinum (bracken fern)

Others:
Sphagnum sp. (sphagnum moss)