The LGLC has begun a multi-year habitat restoration project at the Cook Mountain Preserve in Ticonderoga. The project includes removing invasive plants, planting native plants, and thorough long-term adaptive management, in order to restore biodiverse native plant communities that benefit water quality and provide healthy habitat for wildlife.

The hiking trails will remain open throughout the project, however, please keep clear of the work area and respect the workers space and equipment.

In the late 1800s, after attending business school and running a diner in Poughkeepsie, George Delano returned to his hometown of Ticonderoga to farm his land on the slopes of Cook Mountain. He maintained a sugar bush for maple syrup and two apple orchards, shipping the fruit to New York City.

Nearly a century later, George’s grandchildren, Donald and Marjorie Delano, donated 152 acres to the LGLC, establishing our first public preserve. The Cook Mountain Preserve was expanded in 1995 by an 18-acre addition donated by Dr. and Mrs. George Boyle.

Today, the preserve offers two miles of hiking trails and has stunning views of Lake George, Lake Champlain, and the Green Mountains. A few remaining apple trees serve as reminders of the land’s past agricultural life, while heavily vegetated meadows have taken over where beavers once thrived in a series of ponds and wetlands.

Unfortunately, the preserve’s post-agricultural lowlands and wetland areas have been vulnerable to invasive terrestrial plants over the years as the area naturally reforested.

Over the past two decades, LGLC stewardship staff and volunteers have made efforts to manage the invasive species on the property, but the high-density and large scale of the invasion (covering 32 acres) has proven to be too much for a small crew to manage successfully.

The LGLC has contracted with the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps (VYCC) to begin a large-scale management and restoration effort for a lasting impact.

During the summer of 2026, the VYCC field crew will spend over a month working on mechanical invasive species removal throughout the densely invaded areas on the property.

To start, removal will be focused on the largest invasive shrubs to prevent more seeds from being produced. The large-scale mechanical removal will create open space to easily navigate and follow up with chemical spot treatments when invasive species resprout. After a few consecutive years of suppressing the invasives, the LGLC will be able to restore the area with native tree and shrub plantings.

The target invasive species on the property are primarily common buckthorn, invasive honeysuckle species, and Japanese barberry. Overall, these three invasive species have overlapping negative impacts: they reduce native plant populations, alter soil chemistry and soil characteristics that further exclude native species, produce less nutritious fruits for wildlife, degrade water quality through erosion, and increase tick populations.

This project will have a lasting positive impact on the entire invaded area. Native plantings following the removal effort will facilitate native species recovery, restore wildlife habitat, and build ecosystem resilience in the face of climate change.

The Cook Mountain wetland complex connects to a stream that enters Lake George. By replacing invasive species with native wetland shrubs, their extensive root networks will improve water quality and watershed resilience by stablizing soils and preventing erosion.

Through long-term adaptive management, this project will restore biodiverse native plant communities that benefit water quality and provide healthy habitat for wildlife.