PHILIPSTOWN ­ Gov. George Pataki yesterday announced the addition of almost 2,000 acres to the state's holdings of preserved land in Putnam County.

Standing under a hot, late-September sun in a corner of Clarence Fahnestock Memorial State Park, Pataki's proclamations hopscotched across the county ­ from adding 261 acres to the park's southern edge to taking title to a 1,390-acre conservation easement near the park's center to buying 291 acres of meadow, forest and wetlands in the Great Swamp in Patterson.

In two years, the state will begin paying local taxes on most of those lands, as well as the other 21,097 acres of public land it owns in Putnam, according to legislation Pataki signed into law yesterday. That will replace payments the state made every year in lieu of taxes ­ money dependent on the state's budget process ­ and end the dilemma of removing land from the tax rolls once it was protected from becoming a subdivision or shopping mall.

Pataki's pronouncements impressed the porchful of officials and environmental advocates gathered at the park's Hubbard Lodge off Route 9 in Philipstown. Purple coneflowers and black-eyed Susans refusing to relinquish their hold on summer adorned a nearby butterfly garden.

"I was delighted with the acquisitions," said Judy Terlizzi, a Lake Carmel resident and president of the Putnam County Land Trust: Save Open Spaces Inc. "I think the state paying taxes will help us to protect even more land because that's always been a concern of people I've talked to."

Dismissing accolades comparing him to Theodore Roosevelt, who was known for his conservation efforts, Pataki said the addition to Fahnestock brings the park to more than 13,300 acres ­ a doubling of its size since 1995. The governor spoke enthusiastically of hiking throughout the park as a youth and an adult, including the recent discovery of a tree clawed by a black bear.

"What is amazing is we're so close to New York City," said Pataki, who grew up in Peekskill and now lives in Garrison. "We have to preserve the open space that is unique."

The state paid $1.5 million for 261 acres on the northwest shore of Oscawana Lake, near where Sunken Mine Road exits the park's south side. The wooded land has 2,000 feet of lake frontage. The Trust for Public Land and the Open Space Institute assisted with the deal. In addition, the institute gave the state a conservation easement limiting development on the Westchester-Putnam Council's Clear Lake Reservation Boy Scout camp. The land group gave the council $2.1 million for the easement in 1994, removing the threat of the property being sold for development.

In Patterson, the state will pay $1.8 million to The Nature Conservancy for a swath of land running from Cornwall Hill Road down to the Croton River.
Once part of a dairy farm, the property had attracted the interest of builders before the conservancy purchased it earlier this year.

The Patterson land will be part of the state's contribution to a preservation program aimed at protecting the Great Swamp, one of New York's largest freshwater wetlands. The swamp, which Pataki termed "an incredible and unique asset," is the headwaters of part of New York City's drinking water supply and a haven for wildlife. The parcel includes the confluence of the Muddy Brook and the Croton River.

"Any development there would be feeding right into the swamp," said Jim Utter, chairman of Friends of the Great Swamp. "It's very significant, not just the size but the location."

Pataki, who touts his environmental credentials, was relaxed as he bantered with officials from behind the podium in his hometown. The governor's house is about five miles south of the lodge.

He illustrated how land preservation in Putnam has staved off houses and strip malls by recalling guests' reactions on after-dark helicopter rides between Albany and New York City. Pataki said he tells the other passengers to look down as Putnam passes below in the night.

"They go, 'We don't see anything,' " Pataki said. "I say, 'That's the entire point.' "