Westchester Wilderness Walk/Zofnass Family Preserve

Westchester Wilderness Walk/ Zofnass Family Preserve encompasses rocky woods, hillside streams, lakes and wetlands, and – at 150 acres – is the largest of Westchester Land Trust’s preserves.

An eight-mile trail network traverses some of the most rugged terrain in a town noted for its crags and outcrops. Paul Zofnass, a Pound Ridge resident and a member of the Westchester Land Trust’s Board of Directors, first conceived the idea of creating a trail preserve here and worked for over 10 years to put the project together. Paul and his family donated land, persuaded their neighbors to donate land, and created the impressive trail system.

The combination of wetlands, upland forests, and edge habitats is particularly important for sustaining populations of reptiles and amphibians that use several habitat types throughout the year. The variety of habitats means that there is a large diversity of plants and wildlife that occur on the preserve. Observant hikers are likely to encounter wood frogs and spring peepers in spring, yellow-throated vireos and rose-breasted grosbeaks in summer and wild turkeys year-round.