The Duxbury Land Trust (DLT) acquired 57 acres of land in Duxbury with full and perpetual conservation easements on May 1, 2023.
The land is at the gateway to Camel’s Hump State Park, at the intersection of River Road and Camel’s Hump Road, 3 miles directly north of the Monroe Trail parking access to the summit of Camel's Hump. The land was acquired with a grant from the Vermont Housing Conservation Board (VHCB).
The VHCB, together with the Vermont River Conservancy, will hold the development rights, perpetual conservation easement restrictions, and public access easement to conserve the land in perpetuity.
The land is comprised of three contiguous parcels of mostly forested land of natural and historic significance at the gateway of the most used and well-known entrance to Camel’s Hump State Park. It includes the lower part of Ridley Brook and about a half-mile stretch along the Winooski River.
The former owner of the land is James L. Hanley, whose family has been owners since 1953. Hanley conveyed the land to Duxbury Land Trust to assure conservation of the land in its natural state, Dan Cardozo, land trust board vice chair reported.
The land is contiguous to the Camel’s Hump State Park and it is anticipated it will eventually be acquired by the state to become part of the park.
The Duxbury Land Trust is an all-volunteer organization founded in 1994. Its mission "is to preserve and protect the natural, cultural, and aesthetic resources that contribute to the rural character of the town for the benefit of current and future generations of its citizens and those of neighboring communities."
The Duxbury Land Trust achieves its mission through securing interest in targeted land parcels, forging partnerships with other land trusts and conservation organizations, and promoting education to encourage responsible stewardship of such lands or interests.
The land trust’s primary focus is on riparian areas along brooks and streams, and tracts of unfragmented forest lands. Conservation easements and ownership are the main tools the land trust used to conserve these areas.
“With this acquisition, the land trust has conserved some 550 acres of land in the town of Duxbury,” said Cardozo, who shepherded this project from the initial landowner inquiry through the funding and acquisition phase.
