Tom Burke Preserve
McLain Street, Bedford Hills, Westchester County, New York
7.5 acres

Directions:

US 684 to exit 4 (Route 172); turn left onto Route 172 (South Bedford Road); turn right onto West Patent Road; drive 1.5 miles and turn left onto McLain Street; there is a sign announcing the park on the left hand side of the road.  I parked at an informal  pull-off along the road not too far from the sign.   They want you to park on the shoulder on the north side of McLain Street.

History:

The field was known as Knapp’s Field.

2000 – passage of Bedford’s land referendum.

2002 (November) – Westchester Land Trust was able to purchase the field for $300,000 thanks to the financial support of over two-dozen area residents. The field was renamed after Thomas Burke who lived on McLain Street across from Knapp’s Field and died in the attack on the World Trade Center (September 11, 2001).

Habitats:

field that is moved every November; wet meadow

Trail:

The trail is a mowed path that starts at the preserve entrance next to the sign.  It circles the western part of the preserve.  The path is mowed in drier months from mid-summer on.

PLANT LIST:
Dr. Patrick L. Cooney
* = date plants found in bloom, 5/20/04

Rushes:
Juncus effusus (soft rush)

Sedges:
Carex ovales type (sedge)
Carex stipata (sedge)
Carex stricta (tussock sedge)
Eleocharis sp. (spikerush)
Scirpus cyperinus (woolly grass bulrush)
       
Grasses:
Anthoxanthum odoratum (sweet vernal grass)
Dactylis glomerata (orchard grass)
Holcus lanatus (velvet grass)
Panicum clandestinum (deer-tongue grass)
Poa annua (annual bluegrass)
      
Ferns and Fern Allies:
Equisetum arvense (field horsetail)
Athyrium filix-femina (lady fern)
Dryopteris sp. (wood fern)
Onoclea sensibilis (sensitive fern)
Osmunda cinnamomea (cinnamon fern)
Osmunda claytoniana (interrupted fern)
Osmunda regalis (royal fern)
Polystichum acrostichoides (Christmas fern)
Thelypteris noveboracensis (New York fern)
Thelypteris palustris (marsh fern)