The Adirondack Land Trust has conserved the last unprotected shoreline on Thirteenth Lake, a headwater of the Upper Hudson River and the largest water body surrounded by the Siamese Ponds Wilderness.
The lake is located in the Adirondack Park in Johnsburg, Warren County.
On Monday, December 28th, the land trust completed purchase of 17 acres, helping to secure the wild character of Thirteenth Lake’s 4.5-mile shoreline. The tract is bordered on one side by New York State Forest Preserve and the other by the Garnet Hill Property Owners Association, which protects its lakeshore property with restrictive use covenants.
The Adirondack Land Trust is expected to work with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to add the tract to the 114,010-acre Siamese Ponds Wilderness, at which time it will become public and protected by the Forever Wild clause of the state constitution.
The purchase fulfills the conservation goals of the previous landowners, Elise and Woody Widlund, and was made possible by donations to the land trust’s Wild Adirondacks Fund, including more than 40 individual contributions from Johnsburg residents and homeowners.
The Siamese Ponds Wilderness extends 24 miles north and south, 18 miles east and west, and was created as Adirondack Forest Preserve land between 1877 and 1910, according to DEC. Thirteenth Lake has 13 primitive campsites, and a public beach and canoe launch that are accessible to people who use wheelchairs.
Founded in 1984, the Adirondack Land Trust works to protect farms and forests, undeveloped shoreline, scenic vistas, and lands and waters contributing to community quality of life as well as the wildness and rural character of the Adirondacks. The land trust has protected 26,650 acres to date.
For more information, email info@adirondacklandtrust.org, call (518) 576-2400, or visit the Adirondack Land Trust website.
Illustrations, form above: Thirteenth Lake by Susie Runyon/Adirondack Land Trust; and Thirteenth Lake map courtesy Adirondack Land Trust GIS.
Ah, the entire shoreline now. What an accomplishment. Thanks to all those who’ve had a hand in it over the years. I think my first trips there were before kindergarten. Drowned a lot of worms, although there were so many sunnies that worms usually got gobbled before they had time, I suppose, too drown. My older bro caught a huge sunfish there once. Hung it in a tree overnight to protect it. And a raccoon ate it. No double some sort of higher justice . . .
As Ed writes, great thanks to the Land Trust for its whole Park approach to conservation, building on legacies of the past, and to the original owners of this piece of 13th Lake shoreline, the Widlunds, for their generosity to the public, to wilderness and to their human communities and hamlets in Johnsburg.