The Town of Webster bought the now 240 acres of the Whiting Road Nature Preserve through the Open Space Initiative. It required federal, state, and county grants and coordination of the Trust for Public Land to negotiate the purchase.

In the past, most of Whiting Road Nature Preserve was used for agriculture. The aerial photograph here was taken around 1930.

After the farmland was allowed to go fallow, the area filled with tangles of invasive plants. Some meadows still exist because the Town of Webster mows them, thus encouraging the species that live in this habitat.

The hillier western parts were never farmed, leaving mature woods.

The soil of this area is acidic, sandy, well-drained, and dry. This area originated as the beach ridge of
the Glacial Lake Iroquois after the last ice age 13,000 years ago. In places, ancient rivers deposited clay soils.