(Credit: Steve Thurston, 2022)
Executive directors: Michael Horn, left, of the Lake George Land Conservancy; Doreen Kelly of Wiawaka Resort. They announced a conservation easement on the grounds of Wiawaka, June 24, 2022.
The Wiawaka Resort Center for Women on the eastern shore of Lake George and the Lake George Land Conservancy have entered into a conservation easement that will protect 47 acres of forested hills above the resort, the groups announced on Friday.
“Under this conservation easement, Wiawaka will continue to privately own this land and the Lake George Land Conservancy will ensure the land’s permanent protection and assist with its stewardship,” Wiawaka Executive Director Doreen Kelly said at the ceremony that included about 100 people, mostly supporters of the resort. The ceremony was the nonprofit group’s first fundraising event of the season, their 119th, that began the following morning.
LGLC Executive Director Michael Horn said the group will maintain and build on trails already cut on the property. It will be open to the public, and the land not only has forests and trails but wetlands and trout streams, he said.
Exact details of the easement were not made available, but generally, funding would be paid by the LGLC to keep a landowner from selling land for development.
“Wiawaka continues to strive for ways to remain viable and sustainable for years and generations to come with this partnership,” Kelly said.
Horn told those gathered: “We protect the land that protects Lake George.”
“The Lake George Land Conservancy will put a legal protection on the property and forever ensure that it is protected, stays as forest land, and all the conservation benefits, the water quality benefits, scenic view and recreational opportunities are forever made available,” Horn said.
Horn and Kelly both said the decision has been years in the making and predates Horn’s directorship, which began on the first of this year.
“It fits both of our missions,” Horn said, adding later, “It’s just a natural partnership.”
[Read our coverage of Michael Horn here. Read more about the LGLC here.]
As well, Wiawaka has a full restoration and renovation planned for their main cabin, the Fuller House, starting this year, Kelly said.
Founded in 1903, Wiawaka is the oldest, continually operated women’s retreat in the country. It offered women in the shirt factories in Troy and elsewhere an inexpensive location for vacation.
The resort is famous for Wakonda, the cabin that artist Georgia O’Keefe called home during the summer of 1908, though then it was called Amitola.