Shaker Swamp Conservancy Granted Tax Exempt Status

The Shaker Swamp Conservancy, a nonprofit community based organization in New Lebanon, has recently been granted tax-exempt status by the IRS. Now a 501c3 entity, the Conservancy can seek tax-deductible donations to continue work on research into Shaker Swamp history and ecology and its potential for recreation and tourism. The mission of the Shaker Swamp Conservancy is “to preserve the Shaker Swamp as a unique and defining asset of the Lebanon Valley, to promote understanding of this natural resource and its human heritage and to create related opportunities for public access, education and recreation.”
Beginning in 2007, a team of local historians, archaeologists and botanists did initial research into the role the 400 acre Swamp has played in Native American life, in Shaker life and in Tilden’s rise as the first pharmaceutical company in America. After two years of investigative work, filmmaker Ted Timreck and a local team funded by private donations produced “Medicinal Wetlands,” which tells the story of the transmission of knowledge of medicinal herbs and foods from the natives to the Shakers and then to commercialization in the Tilden factories.
The unique quality of the Swamp is directly tied to its sources from the Warm Mineral Springs in Lebanon Springs and from the flow of water from surrounding mountain drainages through calcareous formations and is linked to the cyclical action of beavers. The Swamp filters and cleans waters that flow into the enormous aquifers underlying New Lebanon and that provide one of the sources for the Wyomanock and Kinderhook.
In 2010 the Shaker Swamp Conservancy was awarded a grant from the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation (BTCF) through the Fund for Columbia County. The Columbia Land Conservancy served as the fiscal agent for the grant and they, along with the Farmscape Ecology Program, the Shaker Museum and Library, the Lebanon Valley Historical Society, the Lebanon Valley Business Association and Darrow School, have been working in partnership with the SSC. The Swamp is privately owned, and willing, supportive and cooperative landowners have made this ongoing research possible. The Shaker Swamp Conservancy Board, headed by Fiona Lally, is committed to working with landowners, conservation groups and a local team of volunteers to continue to research Swamp history and ecology.
Several public showings in Columbia County of “Medicinal Wetlands” have generated enthusiastic support for the project and the creation of a “Friends of the Shaker Swamp” group.