The Essex Community Fund at Adirondack Foundation announced the “Lawson and Clint Allen Scholarship and Educational Program Fund” is now accepting applications for graduating high school seniors within Essex and Willsboro. Eligable applications will be enrolled in public, private, or home schools with plans to attend post-secondary education at a 2 or 4 year college, or through trade certification.
The Adirondack Chapter of The Nature Conservancy has opened a half-mile trail connecting Willsboro’s Main Street with the Boquet River Nature Preserve’s existing trail network.
The trail provides convenient access to the Conservancy’s 120-acre preserve, and gives a further boost to the village’s ongoing downtown revitalization. » Continue Reading.
Solomon Northup Day has been set for Saturday, July 20, 2019 at the Willsboro School, 29 School Lane, Willsboro, from 4 to 5:30 pm.
Solomon Northup was a free black man living in Saratoga Springs, New York, who was lured from home in 1841, abducted and sold into slavery in the South. After years as a slave, he was rescued and authored the book Twelve Years a Slave. The book was the basis for the Oscar-winning film, 12 Years a Slave. » Continue Reading.
The Cornell University Willsboro Research Farm Open House has been set for Wednesday, July 10 from 1:30 to 4 pm.
Young specialty fruit trials funded by the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP) will be among the many crop plots available for touring during the open house. The tour of the farm facilities and research fields is free and open to the public. It will leave the main office at 48 Sayward Lane, Willsboro, at 2 pm. » Continue Reading.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has announced that needed repairs on two boat launches on Lake Champlain – the Peru Dock Boat Launch and the Willsboro Bay Boat Launch – are set to be undertaken during the month of October.
DEC is replacing a culvert under the exit lane of the Peru Dock Boat Launch which is causing problems for boat motors and trailers exiting the boat launch and addressing other water drainage issues at the site. The repairs will begin October 9 and are expected to be completed on October 17. » Continue Reading.
A maker space is set to open in Willsboro on June 3rd at 1 pm. The MakeBoro Center for Arts + Innovation will be located in the former IGA grocery building in Downtown Willsboro. The new maker space is surrounded by land recently acquired by The Nature Conservancy’s Boquet River Nature Preserve.
Often described as “a community center with tools,” a maker space is a place where people can gather to share ideas and resources to create, invent and learn. » Continue Reading.
A ski or snowshoe trek has been set for Saturday, February 17th on the Sophie’s Lair Trail in Willsboro.
Skiers and snowshoers should meet at 9:15 am at the Florence Hathaway trailhead on Essex Road in Willsboro (look for the tennis courts).
The Florence Hathaway Trail, about a half-mile long, leads to the Sophie’s Lair Trail. Overall, the ski/snowshoe adventure will run about 3 hours. » Continue Reading.
A Blue Moon Hike, the first outing of 2018 organized by Champlain Area Trails (CATS), is set for Saturday, January 27, at 5:30 pm on the McAuliffe Road Trail in Willsboro.
Hikers are invited to come with skis or snowshoes— or hiking boots, if there’s not enough snow (which seems likely) — for an easy, family-friendly 3-mile round-trip tour through an old forest above and along the Boquet River. Hikers should meet at the northern trailhead, at the junction of Sunset and McAuliffe Road just west of the Boquet River. » Continue Reading.
The Grand Opening of the Sophie’s Lair and Florence Hathaway Trails in Willsboro, the newest additions to the Champlain Area Trails (CATS) network of trails in Florence Hathaway Park, has been postponed until January 2018. The event was originally scheduled for Sunday, October 29, but changed due to weather.
The Florence Hathaway Trail is a one-mile loop trail and leads to Sophie’s Lair Trail which provides for easy hikes of up to five miles on a variety of paths through a lovely forest with stone walls and beautiful old oak, hickory and pine trees. There are small creeks, seasonally wet areas, and gentle hills. Come winter, the trails will be available for cross-country skiing. » Continue Reading.
The Nature Conservancy’s Adirondack Chapter is making upgrades to its Boquet River Nature Preserve trail network in the town of Willsboro. This summer, professional trail builders have been constructing a 1.5-mile loop trail in the uplands portion of the 110-acre preserve. When completed, this multi-use trail is expected to be the longest accessible forest trail in the region designed and built to meet the Federal Trail Accessibility Guidelines under the Architectural Barriers Act.
The new trail will have a minimal slope and a crushed stone surface that can accommodate walkers, runners, bikers, strollers, and wheelchairs. » Continue Reading.
The Adirondack Park Agency (APA) is accepting public comments on Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan conformance for proposed activities to the Lake Champlain Islands Management Complex Unit Management Plan (LCIMC-UMP). Public comment should address if the proposed activities conform to the guidelines and criteria of the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan (APSLMP). The APA will accept public comment until January 6, 2017.
The islands that comprise the LCIMC encompass approximately 1,133 acres of Forest Preserve lands on six of the seven state-owned islands in Lake Champlain – Valcour, Schuyler, Cole, Garden, Sheepshead, and Signal Buoy.
There are also approximately 28 acres of land that make up the three boat launch sites included in the LCIMC which are administered by the Department of Environmental Conservation’s Bureau of Fisheries: Peru Dock, Port Douglas and Willsboro Bay. » Continue Reading.
The cold Hardy Grape Variety Research nursery in Northern New York is getting a make-over.
With new funding from the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program that helped establish the nursery at the Cornell Willsboro Research Farm in Willsboro in 2005, old vines have been removed, the soil is being refreshed, and new varieties of grapes have been selected for planting in 2017.
The evaluation of new varieties has been named a priority by growers associated by the wine grape industry across New York state. » Continue Reading.
Five Adirondack communities have received $7.4 million in grants on top of $13.16 million in loans to complete clean water programs to treat their wastewater and provide pure drinking water to their residents from the state’s Water Infrastructure Improvement Act (WIIA).
Counting the $2.5 million in funding for Willsboro and Saranac Lake in last year’s budget, the WIIA has brought nearly $10 million to Adirondack communities since it was created in 2015. » Continue Reading.
As colorful nicknames go, Bloody Bill is tough to beat. It belongs to a number of bad guys, and one very good guy – Bloody Bill Higby, born in Willsboro 202 years ago.
After attending local schools and working on the family farm, he found employment in the iron and lumber business. Higby then enrolled in the Essex County Academy at Westport and went on to graduate from the University of Vermont. After studying law, he began practicing in Elizabethtown in 1847. Three years later, nearing the age of 40, he felt the call of the West amid dreams of striking it rich in California’s gold mines. » Continue Reading.
On the heels of the passage of Proposal 5 last November to sell 200 acres of Forest Preserve to NYCO Minerals, Inc., state agencies and NYCO are now going for broke in new permit applications for a massive expansion of NYCO’s two mines in the Town of Lewis. At the December 2013 meeting of the Adirondack Park Agency (APA) there was unanimous cheering among the APA Board and senior leadership over passage of Proposal 5. In those same weeks, NYCO began its applications to expand its two mines in Lewis.
NYCO is seeking major expansions of both mines. With its political fortunes at an all-time high, the time is right to permanently change the scale of its mining activities in the Champlain Valley. » Continue Reading.
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