State, Thousand Islands Land Trust to acquire 1,000 acres to protect water quality in Jefferson County

CLAYTON, N.Y. — Gov. Kathy Hochul and the Thousand Islands Land Trust (TILT) recently announced the acquisition of nearly 1,000 acres in Jefferson County through 17 projects focused on protecting the region’s drinking-water sources. The partnership will have “lasting impacts” on the water quality and habitats of the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario, Hochul’s office said in making the announcement. The agreement is supported with more than $5.8 million in state grants through the Water Quality Improvement Project (WQIP) program. Gov. Hochul signed the agreement Aug. 13 while visiting the North Country. “Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence River and their tributaries provide drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people across countless municipalities in the US and Canada. As shoreline development and habitat degradation continues at a record pace, these widely used surface water sources are becoming more susceptible to water contamination,” Jake Tibbles, executive director of the Thousand Islands Land Trust, said in the announcement. “To safeguard these waterbodies and the communities that rely on them, the Thousand Island Land Trust and its conservation partners have turned to New York State’s WQIP program to conserve some of the region’s last remaining and most sensitive riparian habitats. With Governor Hochul’s support, and through these land and easement projects, the State and TILT will be permanently protecting these invaluable natural resources now, and for generations to come.”