The Nyquist-Harcourt Wildlife Sanctuary

is now owned by the Wallkill Valley Land Trust

The Nyquist-Harcourt Wildlife Sanctuary, formerly owned by the Nyquist Foundation, is now part of the Wallkill Valley Land Trust (WVLT). In May 2023 the Nyquist Foundation transferred ownership to the Trust. WVLT had long held the conservation easement for the Sanctuary and helped us from time to time with expertise, advice and labor, so it was the logical choice for the successor of stewardship.

It was with mixed feelings that we gave up our precious Sanctuary, but we knew it was for the best. With the passing of our Foundation co-founder and former chair, Tom Nyquist who cared for the Sanctuary personally and daily almost single handedly, the labor of managing the myriad tasks involved in running the Sanctuary were too much for the remaining and new board members who live in the area part time at most.

We greatly enjoyed our nearly ten years of Sanctuary ownership and management. In that time we took it from a little known wilderness with two rustic trails to a well-loved local park with many trails, benches, informational signs, online maps, tree labels, and bird and other wildlife lists. It was a labor of love.

We thank the many people who helped us with our chores, both paid and unpaid: the trail mowers and maintainers, removers of downed trees across paths, eagle scouts who re-graded the approach, builders of bridges and benches, replacers of boards, makers of signs, scrubbers of graffiti, collectors of trash, and those who helped us compile animal lists and identify trees to label.

We thank the community for also loving and enjoying the sanctuary: those we observed watching and counting birds, walking their dogs, playing with their children, dressing in period costume and having tea parties, making little films, or just sitting on benches listening to nature. We enjoyed the whimsical touches of those who left painted rocks or CDs of music for others, a little gnome house built of sticks.

We even came to appreciate some of the articles that floated in on the floods (and often later floated out), and which people moved from place to place as suited their fancy: plastic chairs, a child’s tiny teeter totter, a picnic table.

So an era ends, and another begins. First there was a tract of land shepherded by local Munsee Lenape. Then there was a Huguenot farm and pastures. Historic Huguenot Street created a nature preserve in which community members built two paths and a bridge. And finally we ushered the Sanctuary on to its present form.

The WVLT has the expertise and means to bring the Sanctuary to its next level: to remove invasive plants, to use best practices to re-do bridges, culverts, and boardwalks, to bring together larger groups of volunteers, to research the natural and human history, to conduct nature and birding walks, to prevent overuse.

We thank the WVLT for its willingness to take on the burden of the Sanctuary as well as its joys. They have individually and collectively been great friends to our Foundation, to the Sanctuary, to my father, Tom Nyquist, and to most of us board members individually. We have great trust in their excellent future management of the sanctuary.

For all current information regarding the sanctuary, please visit the WVLT website: WallkillValleyLT.org.

Thank you!

Lynn Nyquist, Chair, Nyquist Foundation