HUDSON, N.Y. — A preservation group has secured a conservation easement that protects 72 acres adjacent to the Olana State Historic Site on a hilltop overlooking the Hudson River in Columbia County.
The latest land deal, announced Tuesday, brings the protected land around the site to more than 1,400 acres of forest and farm fields. Scenic Hudson has been working to protect the views from Olana, home of renowned 19th-century landscape painter Frederic Church.
Church and other Hudson River School artists immortalized those scenic vistas on canvas.
Olana is one of the Hudson Valley's most impressive tourist destinations, generating nearly $8 million in tourism income to surrounding communities each year.
The conserved land has vistas of the Catskill Mountains across the Hudson.
January 25, 2012 08:50 AM EST | Associated Press