The Adirondack Land Trust and a private landowner have partnered to protect an intact forest and a unique strain of brook trout on 2,122 acres in the town of Long Lake.
The Little Charley Pond tract contains Snell, Bear and Little Charley ponds and five miles of undeveloped shoreline. A new owner, Charley Pond Preserve, has donated to the Adirondack Land Trust a perpetual conservation easement to keep the forest whole and safeguard a rare fish community. » Continue Reading.
The Adirondack Land Trust has announced the purchase of Four Peaks, a 600-acre tract in the towns of Jay and Wilmington adjacent to Wilmington Wild Forest’s Beaver Brook Tract (the Hardy Road trails), which is popular for mountain biking.
In Wilmington, mountain biking is powering a revival of small businesses catering to cyclists. In 2017, Wilmington was named one of “America’s 20 Best Mountain Bike Towns” by National Geographic. The community hosts a variety of trail systems built primarily by Barkeater Trails Alliance (BETA) in partnership with the Adirondack Mountain Club and Student Conservation Association. BETA is a volunteer-driven organization that maintains over 100 miles of ski and bike trails across six Adirondack towns. » Continue Reading.
A family’s donation of land to the Adirondack Land Trust will protect part of a beloved vista of Pitchoff, Cascade and Porter Mountains in the town of Keene.
Howard and Darcy Fuguet, whose families have owned land in Keene since the early 1900s, donated 4.6 acres near the intersection of Routes 9N and 73, including 1,000 feet on the East Branch of the Ausable River. The Adirondack Land Trust will protect the land until its expected eventual transferred to New York State’s Adirondack Forest Preserve. » Continue Reading.
David Brunner and Joe Martens have joined the board of directors of the Adirondack Land Trust.
David Brunner, of Au Sable Forks, owns and operates Asgaard Farm & Dairy with his wife, Rhonda Butler. Asgaard was the home of artist Rockwell Kent from the 1920s until his death in 1971. Brunner and Butler acquired the farm in 1988. After working to restore the land and buildings, they put the former dairy farm back into production in 2003. Today Asgaard is known for award-winning goat cheeses and pastured meats, including beef, pork and poultry. Brunner worked previously in finance with BNP Paribas. » Continue Reading.
The Adirondack Land Trust (ALT) has been awarded two New York State Conservation Partnership Program grants: $30,000 to increase its impact as a conservation organization, and $10,000 to begin care and management of Glenview Preserve in the town of Harrietstown.
The funding was announced as part of the Land Trust Alliance and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s 2017 round of NYS Conservation Partnership Program (NYSCPP) grants. Funded by the Environmental Protection Fund (EPF), 58 awards of $1.8 million will leverage an additional $1.5 million in private and local support for projects across the state that protect farmland, wildlife habitat, and water quality, and conserve open spaces that are important for community health, tourism and regional economies. » Continue Reading.
The Nature Conservancy is making a grant to the Adirondack Land Trust (ALT) to provide $498,000 in funding to increase ALT’s capacity and scope of operations.
For over 25 years, The Nature Conservancy and ALT have worked closely together on land conservation projects in the Adirondacks, with the Conservancy providing staffing services to ALT. This grant represents a new phase in their partnership while helping to expand and diversify conservation capacity in the Adirondacks. The funding will strengthen ALT’s work as it establishes a new office and builds staff capacity. » Continue Reading.
The Adirondack Land Trust has announced that it closed on the purchase of Glenview Farm, a 238-acre property in Harrietstown, Franklin County.
The property is known for its views of Whiteface Mountain, the McKenzie Range and High Peaks Wilderness. It borders a ¼-mile stretch of State Route 86 between Saranac Lake and Paul Smiths just beyond Donnelly’s farm and extends to Twobridge Brook and Bloomingdale Bog, considered the third largest boreal peatland in New York.
A draft Harrietstown plan and the Adirondack Park Agency have designated this as a view worth protecting. » Continue Reading.
After 16 years on the job, Mike Carr says the time is right for him to step down as the executive director of the Adirondack chapter of the Nature Conservancy and to work full time for its affiliate, the Adirondack Land Trust.
Carr was instrumental in negotiating the deal to acquire 161,000 acres of Finch, Pruyn timberland for $110 million in 2007. Over the ensuing years, it sold 65,000 acres to the state. Most of the rest were protected with conservation easements.
The state purchased the last Finch, Pruyn parcel – the 20,758-acre Boreas Ponds Tract – in April. Over the next few years, the Nature Conservancy will oversee the removal of hunting camps on the Finch lands, but its work on the blockbuster deal is largely done.
“It feels like the right time,” Carr said when asked why he chose to change jobs now.
Michael Carr has been named the full-time executive director of the Adirondack Land Trust and is stepping down as the director of the Adirondack Chapter of The Nature Conservancy.
Carr has played a leadership role in land conservation during his 26-year career with the Conservancy, which began with serving as director of the Lake George Land Conservancy, a local land trust the Conservancy helped to establish and has since fledged.
His efforts helped protect over half a million acres in the Adirondack Park, including the recently completed 161,000-acre Finch, Pruyn acquisition, which resulted in the largest addition of lands in over 100 years to the park’s publicly owned and constitutionally protected Forever Wild Forest Preserve.
The Adirondack Land Trust has announced that the F. M. Kirby Foundation has made a $2 million commitment to help fund perpetual care of working farms and forests under conservation easements. The foundation established the Fred M. and Walker D. Kirby Land Stewardship Endowment to provide and inspire greater support for stewardship in land conservation.
“Purchase of land, or protection by voluntary agreement with a private landowner, is just the beginning of conservation work,” president of the F. M. Kirby Foundation S. Dillard Kirby said in announcing the grant to the press. » Continue Reading.
The Adirondack Chapter of The Nature Conservancy and the Adirondack Land Trust will be holding their annual meeting on Saturday, August 9, at View in Old Forge, New York. Everyone is welcome to attend.
The Regional Inlet Invasive Plant Program will be recognized for its local efforts to protect Adirondack lands and waters from Japanese knotweed, an invasive plant that chokes rivers and streams, harms native plant and wildlife habitat, impairs recreational access, and damages infrastructure. » Continue Reading.
The Adirondack Land Trust (ALT), in cooperation with partner organizations, the Adirondack Chapter of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program (APIPP), is hosting an open house at Coon Mountain Preserve, in Westport, this Saturday, July 21, 2012, from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. All are welcome to attend.
Acquired by the Adirondack Land Trust and opened for public use in 1992, Coon Mountain is an iconic hiking destination in the Champlain Valley. It offers panoramic views of Lake Champlain, the Adirondacks, and the Green Mountains of Vermont. The open house presents an opportunity to meet conservation professionals and learn about a broad range of conservation issues and programs—from land stewardship to invasive species control. » Continue Reading.
The Adirondack Land Trust has announced that it sold to a private buyer a 340-acre parcel for $1.3 million in the towns of Webb and Long Lake. As part of the transaction, the property, which borders the 50,000-acre Pigeon Lake Wilderness, is now protected by a conservation easement, a legally-binding, permanent land preservation agreement.
Known as the “Mays Pond tract” and offered for sale on the open market through real estate broker LandVest, the property includes a rustic cabin and will continue to be used as a private wilderness retreat, as it has for more than 70 years. » Continue Reading.
The towns of Newcomb, Long Lake, and Indian Lake are all developing plans to purchase parts of the Nature Conservancy’s Finch Pruyn lands according to the just-released annual report of the conservation organization’s Adirondack Chapter & Adirondack Land Trust.
Newcomb plans to purchase about 970 acres of the Finch Pruyn lands within its hamlet to expand the High Peaks Golf Course and provide housing for student teachers. Long Lake is planning the purchase of about 50 acres for a municipal well and Indian Lake is looking at the purchase of approximately 75 acres near its downtown for “community purposes,” according to the Conservancy’s annual report. » Continue Reading.
Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature, has been rallying support from around the world to call for a fair global climate treaty. Wildlife biologist Al Hicks trying to prevent the extinction of bats in the Northeast. McKibben (left) will be the keynote speaker at the annual meeting of the Adirondack Chapter of The Nature Conservancy and the Adirondack Land Trust on Saturday, August 15, at the Newcomb Central School in Newcomb, NY. Hicks’s lecture, The End of Bats in the Northeast?, is one of three field trip/educational opportunities being offered before the meeting formally kicks off at 1:00. The event is free and open to the public. Participants are asked to register in advance.
McKibben is founder of 350.org, which according to the website, “is an international campaign dedicated to building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis–the solutions that justice demand.” Their stated mission is to”inspire the world to rise to the challenge of the climate crisis–to create a new sense of urgency and of possibility for our planet.” The number 350 refers to parts per million, and represents the level scientists have identified as the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere.
The meeting will also feature a conservation update from Michael Carr, delivering the latest news on historic land protection projects involving the former Finch, Pruyn & Company lands and the Follensby Pond tract—175,600 acres in all. Attendees will find out how sustainable forestry fits into part of the conservation plan.
At 11:00 a.m. in the Newcomb Central School Auditorium, state wildlife biologist Al Hicks will give an up-to-the-minute account of “white-nose syndrome,” a mysterious affliction causing bat populations in the Adirondacks and at least nine northeastern states to plummet. Hundreds of thousands of bats, including animals from well-established colonies in the Adirondacks, have already died. Hicks has been on the frontlines of this environmental crisis since the outbreak was first discovered in 2007.
Participants should plan to arrive around noon for the annual meeting, or before 11:00 a.m. to attend the special lecture. Bring a bag lunch or call ahead to reserve an $8 lunch from Newcomb Central School students raising money for their trip abroad.
To register for this event, reserve a bag lunch, or obtain more information, contact Erin Walkow at (518) 576 – 2082 x133 or ewalkow@tnc.org.
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