Central & Western: Chaumont Barrens Preserve

Clickable map

Why You Should Visit
Alvar communities are supported by a combination of extreme conditions: shallow soils, regular spring flooding, and summer drought. At Chaumont Barrens, an alvar landscape developed after the last glacier in this area retreated some 10,000 years ago. Melt water washed the landscape, dissolving bedrock cracks into deep fissures and washing away most of the soil, some of it into the fissures. Over time, a strikingly linear pattern of vegetation grew on this soil, including many plants that are rare in New York. The vegetation mosaic includes exposed outcrops, deep fissures, and rubbly moss gardens as well as patches of woods, shrub savannas, and open grasslands. In late May, visitors can enjoy a diverse succession of native wildflowers in bloom, especially prairie smoke, which can be seen nowhere else in the northeast.

Location
Jefferson County

Size
2,100 acres

What to Expect
The preserve is open daylight hours from early May until early fall. Opening and closing dates depend on the annual flooding cycle. For your safety and protection of the fragile soils and rare plants, please respect closure periods indicated on the parking lot sign.

The preserve has a self-guided, 1.7-mile trail that is uneven in spots. Use sturdy footwear and watch your step.

Prairie smoke
© Elinor Osborn

What to See: Plants

Prairie smoke
blue phlox
bloodroot
balsam ragwort
yellow lady's slipper
early buttercup
reindeer lichen
white cedar
white spruce
white pine

What to See: Animals

Porcupine
coyote
prairie warbler
clay-colored sparrow
scarlet tanager
golden-winged warbler
upland sandpiper
rufous-sided towhee
whip-poor-will
common yellowthroat
black and white warbler
cedar waxwing

Directions

From I-81, take exit 47, Coffeen Street, near Watertown.
West of the ramp, on NY-12F, about 1.5 miles to Paddy Hill, turn right, cross the Black River, and turn left on NY-12E through Brownville.
Go several miles on NY-12E, through the intersection at Limerick to Chaumont.
Take the first right in Chaumont, on Morris Track Road (County Route 125).
Go about 3 miles, turn left on Van Alstyne Road just after a small cemetery on the right.
Go about 1.25 miles to the Chaumont Barrens parking lot on the left.

Why the Conservancy Selected This Site
Chaumont Barrens is the best-preserved of a handful of New York alvar sites and one of the last and finest examples of alvar grasslands in the world.

What the Conservancy Has Done/Is Doing
We continue to expand Chaumont Barrens by acquiring high-priority tracts of land adjacent to our holdings. The Conservancy also invests heavily in managing invasive plants in the alvar landscape: For the last two years, we've hired a seasonal coordinator who oversees a region-wide, collaborative effort to control swallow-wort at Chaumont Barrens and throughout Jefferson County.