Land Trust focuses on Grasse River plot

CANTON — The St. Lawrence Land Trust will focus on conservation of a 30-mile stretch along the Grasse River and extend the model that emerges to other landowners and the larger community.

"A big part of this is developing a language of conservation that speaks to north country people," Executive Director Richard W. Grover said. "We're still on the learning curve."

The trust, started in 2003, has completed two conservation easements on the Oswegatchie River near Ogdensburg and on 50 acres of wild forest in the Little River watershed south of Canton. It has two others pending on the Raquette River near Raymondville and on more than 180 acres on the Grasse River across from Canton's Taylor Park.

To build momentum but avoid a shotgun approach, the trust decided to use recent community interest in conservation easements and waterfront revitalization around Canton to build a foundation that could extend from the Adirondack Park boundary south of Russell north to Morley.

The project has the support of the county Environmental Management Council. The state's Open Space Plan also speaks strongly about a northern flow corridor.

"This initiative is to take this another step, assemble contiguous property and see where we come out on the other end," Mr. Grover said. "We want to see if we can accelerate this whole process."

The land trust submitted two funding proposals in November to the Land Trust Alliance, which administers the state Conservation Partnership Program.

One requests $7,500 for legal fees and services to complete the 180-acre easement project. The other is for $40,000 to pay for the outreach program by improving the Web site, prepare information material for land-owners and have community meetings.

The Geographic Information Systems lab at St. Lawrence University is preparing river corridor maps free of charge.

The Sweetgrass Foundation awarded the land trust a $2,500 matching grant as an incentive to gather community support. Tax-deductible donations to the St. Lawrence Land Trust may be sent to 151/2 Elm St., Canton, N.Y. 13617.

The trust will respond to landowner inquiries throughout the county.