North Shore Land Alliance dedicates trail at New Humes Preserve to board chairman

Posted

The North Shore Land Alliance dedicated the Overlook Trail at the Humes Preserve on July 10 to Board Chairman Hoyle C. Jones. This accolade was bestowed for his leadership in creating the Humes Preserve, a 28- acre property in Mill Neck that the Land Alliance will open to the public later this summer.

Jones is no stranger to the outdoors. He grew up on a 2,000-acre ranch on the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana. During his summer breaks at Washington and Lee University, he worked as a wrangler on a large ranch and earned himself the nickname “Bronco.” After a 38-year career at Citibank, Jones retired in Mill Neck in a home adjacent to the Humes Preserve that also happens to be the house where his wife, Botsy Jones, grew up. He joined the board of the North Shore Land Alliance in 2006 and was named Chairman in 2018.

“Over the course of the Land Alliance's 17-year journey, Hoyle's generosity and commitment to the Land Alliance's conservation work has been extraordinary,” Lisa Ott, the Land Alliance President and CEO, said. “He is a true conservationist who has demonstrated his love for nature time and time again in so many meaningful ways. From saving land to ensuring the health and safety of the plants and animals that share these spaces with us, Hoyle is a real champion.”

The Land Alliance purchased the Humes Estate in the summer of 2015 for conservation purposes. In addition to making a substantial contribution towards the purchase of the property, Jones leveraged his personal relationships to encourage other donors to contribute to the acquisition.

“I thought it was important to protect the Humes property for the community,” Jones said. “With its location between Shu Swamp Preserve, Upper and Lower Francis ponds and adjoining 15-acre Nassau County property, the estate helps create an important open space corridor on the North Shore of Long Island totaling nearly 150 contiguous acres of nature preserve to be enjoyed by the community. My wife has known the property her entire life and grew up playing there as a little girl, which is another reason it is so special to us.”

Land Alliance members hopes the Humes Preserve will become an integral part of the North Shore community — a place where people can sit on a meadow bench and watch birds, hike woodland trails, a place where people can connect with the wonders of nature while appreciating the richness of the past.

The North Shore Land Alliance, Inc. is a nonprofit land trust founded in 2003 that works to protect and preserve, in perpetuity, the green spaces, farmlands, wetlands, groundwater and historical sites of Long Island’s North Shore for the enhancement of quality of life and benefit of future generations. To date the Land Alliance has preserved over 1,200 acres of open space.

For more information about the North Shore Land Alliance and how to make a donation towards the opening of the Humes Preserve, please visit www.northshorelandalliance.org or contact Lisa Ott at lisa@northshorelandalliance.org.

For those interested in attending the Humes Family Fun event at the Humes Preserve on Wednesday, Aug. 19, Thursday, Aug. 20 or Friday, Aug. 21, please visit https://bit.ly/3eYyGwo or contact Liz Swenson at liz@northshorelandalliance.org.