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Explore Nature in Winter!

Cedar Waxwing at Eagle Mountain Winter is a great time to explore any of the Lake Champlain Land Trust Natural Areas! With Cattails on frozen Round Pond leaves off the trees, the views from Eagle Mountain Natural Area and Niquette Bay State Park are that much more spectacular. The trails are less crowded and the birds are easier to spot. Recent sightings include Chickadees, Downy Woodpeckers and Cedar Waxwings. The snow makes it simple to spot tracks and discover wildlife along the lake! Recent expeditions into the field have yielded turkey, vole, and raccoon tracks.

2009 Lake Champlain Land Trust Photo Album

In response to the readers who asked for more photographs, here is a photo album featuring some of the best photographs of our natural areas, wildlife and events in 2009. If you have your own photo you would like to share, send them to us and we will put them up!

Trout Lily at Niquette Bay State Park The Shearer Family at their adopted natural area, Round Pond State Park Frozen Shore of Lake Champlain

Winterberry at Mill River Indian Pipe at Split Rock Mountain Map Turtle sunning on Marble Island

Stellar volunteers at Landon Community Trail Mom and Son explore nature at our Annual Round Pond Hike Paul Ruoff and Craig Roscum explore Birch Island

Goodsell Girl Eagle Mountain from causeway Bald Mountain

Porter Natural Area Watercolor workshop with Katharine Montstream Frog at Porter Natural Area

Swamp White Oak at Mill River Falls Lake Champlain Sandplain Forest

Year in Review: 2009

2009 was a busy year at the Lake Champlain Land Trust. While the economy may have slowed down, we kept up our tremendous pace conserving two great new properties, building and improving trails, hosting educational hikes, and actively pursuing potential new projects for the future. To highlight a few of our successes in 2009, we share with you the photo journal below. We hope you will join us in conserving the lakeshore and natural areas of Lake Champlain for future generations by becoming a supporting member.

Saving the Lake Champlain Sandplain Forest

Sandplain fern The Lake Champlain Land Trust recently saved one of the most important natural areas in Vermont-a 78-acre forested block containing five significant natural communities located in Colchester, Vermont.

Two of the natural communities conserved in the Lake Champlain Sandplain Forest are the rarest in the State of Vermont.

The most notable, and one of the Vermont's most threatened natural communities, is the Pine-Oak-Heath Sandplain Forest. This outstanding section of Sandplain Forest covers approximately 25 acres. The preservation of this important property was made possible by the landowner, Dr. Phillip Howard, who generously donated a conservation easement on the land he has owned and stewarded so carefully over the last 40 years.

Mill River Falls Natural Area Improvements!

Mill River Ice If you haven't visited Mill River recently, now is a great time to go. Many improvements have been made to the natural area in the past year and a half, making it more accessible and user friendly.

In the fall of 2008 a small four car parking lot was constructed by the Town of Georgia to limit roadside parking and address associated safety concerns. The following spring, as Mill River was running strong with melt waters,the Lake Champlain Land Trust met Gary Sawyer from the Vermont Forests, Parks, and Recreation and Ken Minck of the Georgia Conservation Commission in the field to plan a new pedestrian trail that would take visitors directly to the falls from the parking lot. Since then a new trail has been cut and herd paths have been brushed in creating better access to the falls while minimizing disturbance on the forest and riverbanks.