Welcome back to National Parks and other public lands with T! 

Green Mountain National Forest►

We visited the Lefferts Pond Area of Green Mountain National Forest while staying in the Paw House Inn with our dogs. Green Mountain National Forest is one of only two national forests in New England. It encompasses over 800,000 acres.

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Pinchot, the first chief of the US Forest Service, promoted ‘managed conservation.’ This is different than the National Park Service’s mission of preservation for our public lands. Conservation allows for responsible, partial commercial use of National Forests. Green Mountains receives funding from the ski areas on Forest lands.

Lefferts Pond Area►

We drove the long dirt park road to the parking lot. This lot is for both Lefferts Pond and Chittenden Reservoir. We headed for the Lefferts Pond loop.

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Lefferts Pond is small and only 12 feet deep. Because it is relatively shallow, no motorized boats are allowed. It is a quiet wetlands ecosystem. We encountered only one fisherman and a random hiker on this side.

The trails are not the main attraction in the summer. After walking for a short while, the paths became heavily wooded and overgrown. We saw many directional signs for cross-country skiing.

We turned back. When we returned to the parking lot, we decided to explore the Chittenden side. This is where the summer action is.

The town dammed the East Creek in 1909 to form the 750 acre reservoir. Since it is within the National Forest, there has been almost no commercial development on the 7 miles of shoreline. But the lake is a great place to cool off in the summer by swimming, kayaking or paddle-boarding.

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Green Mountain Posts►

• Lefferts Pond
• Thundering Falls
• White Rocks National Recreation Area

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Location: Forest Rd, Chittenden, VT
Designation: National Forest
Date Designated/Established: April 25, 1932
Date of my visit: 8/1/2020