Conservation requires a long view, into a future we cannot even begin to anticipate.
“When we do land conservation, we don’t always know how the map will unfold in the decades to come,” said Mike Horn, the Lake George Land Conservancy’s executive director. “To be able to finish something that people have talked about for a long time, to see the pieces of the puzzle coming together, to be finally able to make the connections – that is very powerful.”
Horn was discussing one of the Lake George Land Conservancy’s latest projects – a tripartite, $1.6 million project along Lake George’s northeastern shore that will protect 92 acres and link Flat Rock and Anthony’s Nose with the Conservancy’s Sucker Brook Preserve.
“It’s taken sixteen transactions over a span of 25 years to complete this puzzle, but once done, 1,700 acres of contiguous lands will have been protected,” said Horn.
According to the Lake George Land Conservancy (LGLC) “land connectivity” is critical not only to protect water quality but to preserve wildlife habitat as well.
The 1,700-acre preserve of interlocking wetlands, woods and mountains will be of a scale sufficient to ensure the uninterrupted flow of wildlife across state and municipal boundaries, and from one protected habitat to another, the LGLC stated.
According to the LGLC, the area has been designated by New York State as “an important wildlife corridor between the Adirondacks and Vermont and is especially important for species such as bear, bobcat, fisher and moose.”
The cliffs of the LGLC’s 189-acre Anthony’s Nose Preserve are home to nesting peregrine falcons, whose fledglings learn to fly and hunt by using the updrafts created along the sheer rock face.
Several studies by ecologists have identified the Sucker Brook Preserve as “an important site for bird conservation in New York State.” In 2009, for instance, the Conservancy hired Nathaniel Child, at the time a graduate student from the Center for Adirondack Biodiversity at Paul Smith’s College, to do preliminary studies at sites stretching from the Gull Bay Preserve to Anthony’s Nose. That research produced “A Preliminary Study of the Avifauna of Lake George,” co-authored by Child and David A. Patrick, director of the Center for Adirondack Biodiversity at Paul Smith’s. A total of 623 birds, representing 99 species, were identified in that section of Lake George.
The Sucker Brook Preserve (comprising the Last Great Shoreline, Gull Bay and the Sucker Brook Marsh) was itself created through the protection “of numerous individual parcels that were later connected,” said Paul Bell, president of the LGLC’s board.
In addition to protecting thousands of feet of shoreline, forested mountain slopes, stream corridors and wildlife habitat, the Sucker Brook-Anthony’s Nose connection project also “solidifies recreation opportunities,” said Horn.
“We don’t envision establishing new recreation trailheads, but we can see extending existing trailheads and trails,” said Horn. “Across a piece of land that we’re acquiring, we had a trail easement to views from Record Hill, which lies east of Anthony’s Nose,” said Horn.” The trail will now be on LGLC property and we will be in a better position to determine the best route to Record Hill.”
The Lake George Land Conservancy purchased Anthony’s Nose in 2000 after selling the 244-acre Flat Rock property to New York State in 1998.
Horn said the LGLC has no plans to sell Anthony’s Nose to the state.
According to Horn, the Sucker Brook-Anthony’s Nose connection project is made possible with the support of Glenburnie property owners, “who came together to act as a conservation buyer, securing property for permanent protection by the LGLC.”
At the Lake George Land Conservancy’s annual Land and Water Celebration, held August 2 at Silver Bay, the $1.6 million project was among those to benefit from the pledges and gifts of donors contributing to “Fund-A-Need.”
“Those who may wish to learn more and support this or other conservation projects may do so at LGLC.org,” the Conservancy stated.
