FASNY Hires Teatown to Study Former Ridgeway Site

The French-American School New York has enlisted the help of Teatown Lake Reservation Inc. to help determine how to best transform 84 acres of the former Ridgeway Country Club into a more natural and undeveloped state. 

“The members of our Conservancy Task Force spent many months visiting and meeting with the leaders of virtually every environmental education organization, land conservancy, nature center and land trust in the region, including Westchester, adjacent Connecticut and the Lower Hudson Valley,” said Mischa Zabotin, FASNY’s chair of its board of trustees.

“From this very impressive array, Teatown stood out as offering a science-based program that could provide the kind of in-depth analytic knowledge we need to create this unique conservation opportunity.”

The Yorktown-based environmental education organization—which runs an 875-acre nature preserve and education center located in Yorktown, Cortlandt, and New Castle— has been contracted to by the school to conduct a comprehensive biodiversity study of the site over four seasons.

The study will help determine how to manage the proposed Greens to Green Conservancy, a public open space and educational site that FASNY promises to build after it constructs a nursery school through twelfth grade campus on the 129-acre site. 

The school would house about 1,200 students and 250 staff members, and would include the construction of a upper, middle and lower school totaling 230,863 sq ft. in addition to three playgrounds, four tennis courts, four soccer fields, a six lane track, basketball court, baseball diamond, softball diamonds and 428 parking spaces.

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The study, which start this month will be overseen by Teatown’s Director of Conservation Science Dr. Michael Rubbo, will include:

• an analysis of habitat and meadow restoration
• an evaluation of various strategies applicable to the site, including meadow, wetland, pond and forest restoration
• potential short and long-term agricultural uses for the site

“To be able to work on a creative plan for the restoration of a golf course back to a natural state comes along very rarely,” said Teatown’s Interim Executive Director Dianne Barron. “We applaud the French-American School of New York for its willingness not only to set aside nearly two thirds of the property it acquired as permanent publicly accessible open space, but for its commitment to exploring the unique educational opportunities that it affords.  We look forward to a successful collaborative relationship as Greens to Green evolves.”

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