CATS Grand Hike One Week Away

The GRAND HIKE is just one week from today. If you’d like to prepare for the hike, or if you sadly won’t be able to attend the hike, come to one or both of the hikes planned for THIS weekend. (Click here for more information and to sign up for these events!)

On Saturday morning, May 7, join naturalists John Davis and Sheri Amsel at 9:00 a.m. at the Coon Mountain trailhead on Halds Road in Westport and explore the early array of special wildflowers along the woodland trails and meadow edges. Then, as you walk with your friends on the Grand Hike next Saturday, you can impress them as you point out the various species of wildflowers along the route!

The final plans for the Grand Hike to the Essex Inn are in the works. Hike the whole 11 miles or stop/start at one of the Oases. Great news! The Russell Bailey Trio will play its brand of blues and boogie at the Block Party. Out-of-town hikers staying at the Essex Inn get a 25% discount.

Visit the Grand Hike Website for details and to register! If you’d like to help as a volunteer, please email us at info@champlainareatrails.com or call (518-962-2287).

Trail of the Week

The Brookfield Headwaters Trail is a lovely trail on Reynolds Road just 0.4 miles west of Brookfield Road. This easy 0.8 mile loop trail takes you through a forest and by a beaver pond where you may see a herring or loon or other water fowl. It’s the perfect hike for birdwatching, so we ask that you not bring your dog on this trail.

Conservation Easement Success Story #4: Laewitz CE

When driving south on Rt 22/9N from Westport toward Port Henry, just past the RR underpass, you make a big right turn and look past a two-story brick house to a spectacular view over Lake Champlain. That view is conserved by conservation easement. Here’s the story:

Karen Laewitz invited me for a visit when I worked for the Adirondack Nature Conservancy/Adirondack Land Trust. She served a fabulous apple pie and talked about living in the house for many years, loving the land, and about her husband who had died several years before. “You know, I feel he like he’s just taking a long walk and someday I’ll join him.” But the primary thing on her mind was conserving the land and view she loved and how she could do that financially. We came up with a creative solution—she sold about fifteen acres of forest and made a generous bargain sale of the conservation easement on the open land at a value that just paid her transaction costs. This “bargain sale donation” reduced the capital gains tax and enabled the proceeds from the land sale to provide her with the financial security she needed for the latter stages of her life. Thank you Karen—you’ve saved a view thousands of people appreciate every year.

[See the previous posts discussing conservation easements here.]

Chris Maron
CATS Executive Director

What is a Conservation Easement? (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
Old-Growth Forest Network Recognizes Dickenson’s Point (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
Local Examples of Conservation Easements (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
A Summary of the Conservation Easement Process (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)

About Champlain Area Trails (CATS)

Champlain Area Trails (CATS) is a non-profit organization, begun in 2009, which creates and maintains hiking and cross-country ski trails in the Champlain Valley that link communities, connect people with nature, and promote economic vitality. In its short history, CATS has developed 35 miles of trails that when added to existing trails, gets it half-way toward the long-envisioned goal of a 30-mile trail loop between Westport and Essex. CATS will extend its trails to neighboring towns and eventually connect them to trails in the Adirondack Mountains, Vermont, and Quebec. Learn more on the CATS website.