The Present

Above are two pictures of the river from the McKenzie property. The river is the main cause for moving the cross country ski trail.  One section of this riverbank has been completely deforested for a number of years and only recently has the Intervale Center planted some new saplings to cover the bare spot.  The planting job was funded by Green Mountain Coffee Roasters.

As for our own research, the methods with which we acquired our data were quite simple.  Using Tyler's iPhone and a program called AccuTerra, we were able to plot the original trail, the proposed reroute, and even take geo-referenced pictures along the way.  Once this was completed, we got some flagging (but oh so little flagging!) to place along the new trail so Dan Cahill from Burlington Parks and Recreation could see where we thought he should have the trail be constructed.

There is a lot of debris left from long ago.  People used to use the McKenzie Property as essentially an illegal but easy place to dump large unwanted waste.  Some examples of this can be seen above and all the way at the bottom of this page with Tyler.  There are many old rusted refrigerators as well as old rusted out cars.

While out on the property exploring, we found some tracks on the river bank that appear to belong to a mink. The site is full of all kinds of wildlife, from small mammals to birds (right).

Currently the McKenzie Property is protected by the LWCA(Land and Water Conservation Act) and is not allowed to be used for farming.  This means that until this protection is lifted and placed onto an equally important site somewhere else the current lessee, The Intervale Center, are unable to benefit from the land through agriculture on its large deforested field.



Below is a picture standing near the river looking in towards the rest of the property. As you can see, the flooding has left the forested area a mess with downed branches and wash-ups from the river.

All pictures courtesy Tyler Parent