Forest Echo Bird Sanctuary

Dallas  • 17 Acres • Open to Public

The 17-acre property, located off West Center Hill road in Dallas Borough features a 0.6 mile loop trail through a bustling forest. Songbirds, woodpeckers, birds of prey, and more call these trees home. Small mammals like chipmunks and squirrels are plentiful, and you might even catch sight of the herd of whitetail deer who populate the Sanctuary.

The Trust would like to thank Wyoming Seminary and the Dallas Borough community members for helping to make this conservation project reality.

History:

In 1907, Rachel and Dr. Sarah Wyckoff of Kingston purchased 177 acres as bird sanctuary and summer retreat. The Wyckoffs stewarded this idyllic piece of the Back Mountain until Rachel’s death in 1946. Rachel bequeathed her family property to the Wyoming Seminary Preparatory School with instructions to “Maintain the 17 acres of wooded lands around her cottage known as Forest Echo as a sanctuary for birds and to that end to preserve and maintain the said lands.”  Wyoming Seminary upheld the wishes of the Wyckoff family but realized that a greater level of protection was needed if the property was to be maintained as a sanctuary in perpetuity. In 1993, Land Trust Board members recognized the Wyoming Seminary Forest Echo Bird Sanctuary as a priority property for protection, and in 2010 stepped in to help this land flourish.