Willsboro to gain new park on Lake Champlain

Town will add a park for swimming, hiking and skiing, due to deal facilitated by Adirondack Land Trust

By Mike Lynch

The town of Willsboro and the Adirondack Land Trust (ALT) are partnering on a land deal that would lead to a park on Lake Champlain and protect the community’s main source of drinking water. 

The land trust bought 68 acres on the western side of Willsboro Point for $840,000 from Lilly Farm LLC on Nov. 14 at the request of the town. The trust is now working to sell the property to the town. 

Willsboro plans to use part of a $1.2 million grant from the Lake Champlain Basin Program to buy the property at cost. The leftover money will go toward additional expenses and the planning phase for a park. 

“An important part of our conservation work is to try to make communities more livable, and this certainly was a perfect opportunity to do that,” said ALT Executive Director Mike Carr.

The parcel contains 950 feet of shoreline on Lake Champlain’s Willsboro Bay, where the town gets its drinking water. The deal will prevent this area from getting developed and provide recreation access for the public. 

The town hopes to develop walking and cross-country skiing trails and a swimming area. 

“As parkland, this property will be of great value to the quality of life in our town. We will use grant funding to purchase all 68 acres. Opportunities like this — particularly lakefront access — are few and far between,” said Willsboro Town Supervisor Shaun Gillilland.

The Willsboro Point property has been used as a hay farm, and the grasslands are home to a variety of birds.  American kestrel, indigo bunting, great crested flycatcher and long-eared owl are among 136 bird species observed in the immediate area, according to ALT.

Gillilland said the town would continue to mow the field so that  birds continue using the property.

The supervisor said the deal came together with ALT at his request. Gillilland had previously worked with the land trust on a deal that put a conservation easement on 294 acres along the Boquet River on his family’s farm, known by its historical name of Ben Wever Farm. 

This will be Willsboro’s second property on Lake Champlain. It owns Noblewood Park, an ecologically important landscape at the mouth of the Boquet River. Noblewood has a swimming area, but it’s not easily accessible. 

“People have been asking us for years about additional waterfront access for the public,” Gillilland said.

He  said the property would be the second public site on Willsboro Point. The town also owns Adsit Cabin, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. The cabin was built by Samuel Adsit, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, in the late 1700s. 

Top photo: The parcel features 950 feet of natural shoreline on Lake Champlain’s Willsboro Bay, open fields and shrubland. This image looks northwestward from above the fields. Photo by Eric Adsit, courtesy of Adirondack Land Trust