NEWS

2,000 acres added to Camels Hump State Park

Free Press Staff
A beaver pond sits at the edge of Camels Hump State Park in Duxbury, in the Dowsville Headwaters parcel.

The recent purchase of 2,085 acres in Duxbury by The Trust for Public Land will boost Camels Hump State Park's amenities, access and wildlife, according to a news release Monday from the California-based nonprofit.

Inclusion of the parcel known as Dowsville Headwaters will also enhance flood resiliency in a tributary of the Mad River and the greater Lake Champlain Basin, wrote Kate Wanner, who manages the project for the trust.

Expansion of the park adds to a 27,300-acre expanse of publicly protected forest land along the Green Mountains, and will solidify that resource as corridor for wildlife at a time when human settlement and rapid climate change drives animals to seek more suitable habitat, Vermont Commissioner of Forests, Parks and Recreation, Michael Snyder, wrote in the release.

"Conserving this property in public ownership will maintain a large contiguous forest block in an otherwise developed area," he added. "We hope Vermonters will appreciate the benefits for generations to come."

The recent purchase of 2,085 acres in Duxbury (in orange) by The Trust for Public Lands expands the size of Camels Hump State Park.

Purchase of the property by The Trust for Public Land was made possible by a grant from the federal Forest Legacy program; as well as grants from the Lintilhac Foundation, the Winthrop Smithy Family Foundation, Mad River Valley Rotary, the Eddy Foundation, Oakland Foundation, Cabot Creamery Cooperative and 38 individual donors, according to the trust's news release.

Bikers, hikers, backcountry skiers, snowmobilers, hunters, birdwatchers and anglers will benefit from the parks expansion, the release adds.