Description
The Florence Shelly Preserve boasts fields, woodlands, a stream and a glacial pond surrounded by a floating bog. The former owner of the property, Florence Shelly, spearheaded its protection by assembling a team of citizen naturalists and volunteer professors from SUNY Binghamton to take an inventory. They found a lot of biological diversity, including a rare red alga, and insectivorous sundew and pitcher plants.
Threats
Over browsing by deer pathogens such as hemlock wooly adelgid and emerald ash borer. Invasion by non-native invasive plants.
Milestones
The Shelley family donated the property to TNC in the early 1980s. TNC’s acquisition of nearby Plew's Swamp in the late 1990s completed the preserve.