CLAYTON, N.Y. — The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Thousand Islands Land Trust (TILT) in February announced acquisitions and easements to protect more than 182 acres of significant watershed lands in the town of Clayton in Jefferson County.

This partnership is part of the state’s Water Quality Improvement Project (WQIP) Program and seeks to help protect the surface-water quality of the St. Lawrence River, a source of public drinking water for thousands of people in the region, the DEC and TILT said. 

“These latest easements and acquisitions in partnership with the Thousand Islands Land Trust will continue to help ensure clean water for communities and preserve the water quality in the St. Lawrence River watershed.” DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos said in a release.

The St. Lawrence River is a drinking-water supply for many communities in the region, and as shoreline development and agricultural expansion continue, the susceptibility for water contamination of this widely used source water grows, the DEC and TILT contend. TILT is focusing its conservation efforts under this state WQIP project to help preserve the river’s Grindstone and Picton islands. TILT has acquired easements and acreage totaling about 182 acres across five parcels that contain natural vegetated shoreline buffers and coastal marsh habitats that will be “conserved in perpetuity” to ensure the protection of valuable drinking-water supply. The details are as follows.

• Deedy: This 2018 conservation easement in Clayton was a full donation to TILT for permanent source-water protection. The late Ken Deedy, one of TILT’s founders, along with his nephew, Matthew M. Deedy, donated an easement on nearly 26 acres of their 31-acre property on Grindstone Island. The easement was implemented to limit subdivision, development, mining, and other major disturbances to the land’s source-water value and sensitive ecological and aesthetic qualities. The easement-protected forests, granite outcrops, and undeveloped shorelines provide habitat for many species of native flora and fauna.

• Picton III and IV: Picton III is a conservation easement on about 32 acres that was also a full donation to TILT. Picton IV is a 49-acre conservation easement partially donated to TILT. Picton Island’s array of mixed deciduous-coniferous forests, coastal wetlands, and granite rock outcroppings comprise a diversity of habitat types and terrain variations that protect the water quality of the St. Lawrence River. The unfragmented forest acts as a habitat corridor, providing connectivity across the Frontenac Arch, the release stated.

• Ramseier: This conservation easement on about nine acres in the town of Clayton was acquired for $41,500. It abuts TILT’s Heineman Songbird Forest at the foot of Grindstone island. The easement maintains the natural beauty of the undeveloped shoreline near the Picton Channel, as well as a coastal marsh and its upland buffer, which are both key to protecting the drinking-water source, per the release.

• Rusho: This 67-acre parcel was acquired for $115,000. Situated between Delaney Bay and TILT’s Rusho Farm Preserve on Grindstone Island, the Rusho property’s forested riparian habitat and marsh fringes provide “unparalleled” source-water protection value, the organizations contend.

The Department of Environmental Conservation awarded the Thousand Islands Land Trust a $555,571 WQIP grant to use toward the protection of these parcels and two other easements in progress in the Thousand Islands region, further protecting the water quality of the St. Lawrence River.