Intervention in land tussle sought by state

Attorney general takes sides in lawsuit over preserve near Siena

Attorney General Letitia James’ office is trying to intervene in a legal battle over a little-known forest preserve in Loudonville that plaintiffs say has been wrongfully used for ATV traffic and other activities that run counter to the “forever wild” status its former owner intended.

At issue is the Rockwell Preserve on Spring Street, land the late Marjorie Doyle Rockwell, an heir to a plastics fortune, deeded to Troy-based Audubon International in 1998 with the intention of creating a nature preserve.

Facing a cash crunch, how

ever, Audubon International sold the land, including a 26-acre parcel that was bought by Thomas Despart in 2013. The land is next to Siena College.

Since then, a granddaughter of Rockwell who lives in Connecticut has gone to court claiming that Despart has broken the “forever wild” covenant that came with the sale by building ATV trails, cutting trees and brush and making other changes, including adding a bridge over a stream. She’s filed a lawsuit against Despart and another one against Audubon International. Both are ongoing.

Nathan Courtney, a lawyer with the attorney general’s charities bureau, has asked permission of the state Supreme Court to intervene in Rockwell’s suit against Audubon International.

He is asking for a declaratory judgment that would nullify the 2013 deed transferring the land to Despart.

“The Attorney General also seeks to restore the Rockwell Endowment and to hold Audubon International, its Directors and Officers and Despart … accountable for their failure to abide by the Restrictive Covenants,” according to court papers filed this month in state Supreme Court in Albany County.

Audubon International President Christine Kane referred questions to the group’s lawyer, Christopher Mcdonald, who declined comment.

Courtney’s filing contends that “Audubon International misappropriated the Rockwell Endowment by using the funds for its general purposes. Audubon International never fulfilled its promise to the Executors to use the Rockwell Preserve ‘as a research, education and management area for urban wildlife conservation and water resource protection,’” according to court documents.

Along with deeding land to Audubon International, Rockwell also left money for maintenance of the property.

There has been confusion over the Audubon name dating to 1987. That’s when Ronald Dodson, who was the state coordinator for the National Audubon Society’s New York chapter, was laid off amid a cash crunch.

He went on to create Audubon International, which handled the bequest of Rockwell’s land.

The National Audubon Society tried unsuccessfully in the 1990s to get Audubon International to stop using the Audubon name. John James Audubon was a prominent 19thcentury ornithologist and painter of birds.

The National Audubon group focuses on protecting bird habitat, not handling land bequests.

Audubon International, among other pursuits, certifies participating golf courses for ecologically friendly designs, according to its website.