Land trust sells wild tract to private buyer

For the May/June issue of the Explorer, Brian Mann wrote a piece about the difficulty of getting state funding for smaller land deals in the Adirondacks. That’s because all the attention is on the acquisition of former Finch, Pruyn lands and Follensby Pond–roughly 80,000 acres in all. As a result, Mann reported, the Adirondack Land Trust planned to sell land abutting the Pigeon Lake Wilderness to a private buyer rather than the state.

Today the Land Trust announced that it has indeed sold the 340-acre property to a private buyer for $1.3 million. Known as the Mays Pond Tract, it includes 3,300 feet of the Mays Pond shoreline and a stretch of Constable Brook, a tributary of Big Moose Lake. The Nature Conservancy says the property will be protected by a conservation easement that prohibits subdivision and restricts development. There is a rustic lodge on the pond.

Mann is reporting for North Country Public Radio that a hiking trail that passes through the property will remain open to the public.

Environmentalists hoped the state would purchase the tract, but local officials opposed adding it to the Forest Preserve, Mann says.

Following is the text of the trust’s news release:

Keene Valley, New York  – The Adirondack Land Trust today announced that it sold to a private buyer a 340-acre parcel for $1.3 million in the towns of Webb and Long Lake. As part of the transaction, the property, which borders the 50,000-acre Pigeon Lake Wilderness, is now protected by a conservation easement[1].

Known as the “Mays Pond tract” and offered for sale on the open market through real estate broker LandVest, the property includes a rustic cabin and will continue to be used as a private wilderness retreat, just as it has for more than 70 years.

The conservation easement, which limits development and prohibits subdivision, is designed to protect the tract’s significant forest, wildlife and aquatic habitats, including 3,300 feet of undeveloped shoreline on 30-acre Mays Pond, 40 acres of wetlands, and a stretch of Constable Brook, a free-flowing tributary of Big Moose Lake.

“We’re delighted to have found a conservation-minded buyer for Mays Pond and to be opening a new chapter of cooperative stewardship,” said Michael Carr, Executive Director of the Adirondack Land Trust. “The buyer comes from a family with multi-generational ties to the Inlet area and tells us she ‘feels blessed to be the owner of such a beautiful piece of the Adirondacks.’”

“This is an excellent conservation outcome for a very special property,” added Carr.