Vermont State Parks

Mt. Ascutney, 9 AM Easy-moderate hiking, approximately 2 - 2 1/2 hrs. All ages welcome. Trail depends on conditions. Pets on leash welcome.  Meet at entrance to Mt. Ascutney State Park. Dress in layers, bring water and snacks. Microspikes or snowshoes recommended. Lake Willoughby Area, 10 AM Join us for this First Day Hike in memory of Dave Hardy, who dedicated countless hours to the stewardship of the Long Trail in Vermont. This hike has beautiful overviews of Long Pond, Lake Willoughby and Bald Mountain and is considered moderate with a few tricky areas. Snowshoes or microspikes will be need for this 4-mile round trip. All ages, pets permitted on leash. Meet at Long Pond trailhead 10AM.(From RT 5A in Westmore, turn onto Long Pond Road at the Westmore store, continue up for 2.5 miles, go past Long Pond for about 1/8 mile, parking is on the left at the Long Pond Trail parking area). Please confirm with Jean Haigh at jhaighvt@gmail.com  or Cathi Brooks at cathibr...

Winter solstice takes place Friday December 21, 2018 at 5:23pm. This marks the beginning of astronomical winter and is the day of shortest sunlight. I enjoy the optimism of days lengthening and darkness shortening following the solstice. If you are wearing a warm coat and mittens today, and you can remember sunny picnics enjoyed on summer beaches, then you know some things about seasons. All planets in our solar system orbit the sun. Our earth takes 365.25 days to travel around the sun, which is one year. While earth makes this journey, it also rotates around its axis, which takes 24 hours. That is our day length. Earth does not have a perfect, straight up and down axis, earth sits at a tilt of 23.5 degrees. This tilted axis is what causes our seasons. In December and January, the earth is closer to the sun than it is in July and August, but because of the axis tilt, North America is facing away from the sun during our winter months. During summer, North America tilts towar...

Lowell Lake State Park Master Planning Public Meeting Monday, December 10, 2018 6:00 - 7:30 PM Londonderry Town Offices As a result of the recently adopted Long Range Management Plan for Lowell Lake State Park , FPR committed to complete a Master Plan. This process includes significant public input. You are invited to participate in the first meeting to provide your input on the future of park developments and recreational amenities. Our consulting team will be sharing their preliminary assessment of the park facilities, analysis of park capacity, and possible reuse opportunities for the historic buildings. After their initial presentation, a group discussion will follow to gain insights that will help guide their planning and design efforts. The meeting will be held from 6 to 7:30 P.M. on Monday, December 10, 2018, in the Londonderry Town Office (100 Old School Street), South Londonderry, Vermont. For more information, contact: Ethan Phelps, Parks Regional Manager  8...

Vermont State Parks invites you to #GetOutside this Friday after Thanksgiving and turn Black Friday Green. Instead of waking up at the crack of dawn to jostle among the hoards at big box stores and shopping malls searching for cheap deals on consumer goods, why not #GetOutside in a Vermont State Park? Entry at Vermont State Parks is FREE and we invite you to spend time with friends and family exploring and discovering the wonders of Vermont’s beautiful outdoors. For more information on trails near you, visit  https://www.vtstateparks.com/hiking.html . PS -- Support your local Vermont merchants on Small Business Saturday!

Earlier this week, we received an email from a park visitor who happened upon some strange black boxes in the woods at Lake Shaftsbury State Park. There were at least a dozen of them and he was curious about their purpose, so he sent us photos and asked if we knew what they were.We shared them around with park staff, managers, friends at Fish & Wildlife and a host of others, to no avail. Finally, today, we have an answer!  They are mosquito traps. Our friends at Vermont Agency of Agriculture explains, "Yes! Those are resting box traps. We come by weekly during our collection season (beginning of June through Mid-October) and use an aspirator (a big vacuum) to collect mosquitoes in the boxes. They are called resting boxes because after a female mosquito feeds, she settles to the forest floor looking for a dark place to digest the blood meal and create eggs. Resting boxes target  Culiseta melanura , the primary vector of Eastern Equine Encephalitis, although we do get ot...

Waterbury, Vt . – Eight months of work is underway to improve public access areas at the Waterbury Reservoir. The project will require temporary closures at some sites while work is underway, and will include improvements to parking lots, erosion prevention, and boat ramp upgrades. Installation of a new composting toilet Installation of a concrete boat launch Paving of the access road and parking area (may occur in Spring 2019 depending on weather conditions) Erosion control and site drainage improvements Traffic flow improvements Installation of a concrete boat launch Re-grading the parking area Guard rail installation Erosion control and site drainage improvements Installation of a concrete hand carry access ramp Re-grading the parking area Erosion control and site drainage improvements The locations include Waterbury Dam Boat Launch, Blush Hill Boat Launch and the Moscow Paddler A...

Park staff keeps an eye on the beach, cleaning and doing weekly swim water testing  On a hot day, nothing feels as good as a swim. But before you jump in that pretty, pristine-seeming lake, do you ever wonder how clean it is? We all know that appearances can be deceiving, and that even the cleanest looking lake can harbor bacteria, algae, and other lurking nasties. This is one reason people enjoy and appreciate visiting our swimming areas. Vermont State Parks tests swim water at managed areas weekly and have for over 25 years. “We do it to assure our visitors that we are keeping an eye on the water in which we recreate,” says Frank Spaulding, Parks Projects Coordinator who compiles the swim water testing results each week. Occasionally there are elevated readings and alerts are posted, but, as Spaulding points out, “consistently, over time, our water is great.” Every week, 38 different managed swim areas at state park beaches are tested for e-coli., an indicator bacte...