The Adirondack Land Trust’s Coon Mountain Preserve is where many children reach their first summit and where many people enjoy time in nature. A one-mile hike provides views over Champlain Valley farmlands, woodlands, Lake Champlain, the Adirondack High Peaks and the Green Mountains of Vermont.
New York State and the Land Trust Alliance announced this week that the Conservation Partnership Program awarded the Adirondack Land Trust a grant of $23,535 to improve trails at Coon Mountain. The grant was made possible by a private matching grant of $6,000 from the Fields Pond Foundation, $1,000 from the Ellen Lea Paine Memorial Nature Fund, and $4,490 in donations from 21 generous individuals.
The Adirondack Land Trust was also awarded a Conservation Partnership Program grant of $30,000 to increase its technical capacity to protect and care for lands such as Coon Mountain. The technology grant was matched by a $10,000 private grant from the Jane N. Mooty Foundation.
These grants were two of more than $2.2 million in Conservation Partnership Program grants awarded to 47 not-for-profit land trusts across New York. A total of 70 grants funded through New York’s Environmental Protection Fund will leverage an additional $2.2 million in private and local funding to support projects that protect water quality and farmland, boost public access for outdoor recreation, and conserve important open space areas that will benefit community health, tourism and economic development. The program is administered by the Land Trust Alliance in coordination with the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation.
The Adirondack Land Trust (ALT) established Coon Mountain Preserve in 1991 through a land swap with a timberland owner. With the help of donations from Champlain Valley friends and neighbors, ALT purchased land over the years to expand the preserve to 378 acres.
The funding will allow Wilderness Property Management (WPM), of North Creek, to begin a second year of work on a seven-phase trail-improvement project on April 29. WPM is rerouting, redesigning and reinforcing sensitive sections of trail to prepare them for potentially increased use.
The land trust also plans to work with local woodworkers, mapmakers, naturalists and graphic designers to improve a trailhead kiosk and brochures.
For directions and more information on Coon Mountain, please visit adirondacklandtrust.org “Get Outside”.
Founded in 1984, the Adirondack Land Trust works to protect farms and forests, undeveloped shoreline, scenic vistas, and lands and waters contributingto the quality of life of our communities as well as the wildness and rural character of the Adirondacks. The land trust has protected 24,194 acres to date. To learn more, please contact , (518) 576-2400.
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Photograph: Zack Rabeler, a crew member with Wilderness Property Management, reroutes a trail at the Adirondack Land Trust’s Coon Mountain Preserve. ©Nancie Battaglia