View from the bluffs of our Silver Lake Bog Preserve
Silver Lake Preserve View from the bluffs of our Silver Lake Bog Preserve © John DiGiacomo

Places We Protect

Silver Lake Bog Preserve

New York

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See spectacular views and explore diverse habitats.

CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC

Due to COVID-19, Silver Lake Bog Preserve is closed until further notice.

With a 200-foot bluff overlooking Silver Lake, the Silver Lake Bog Preserve provides spectacular views. The 98-acre preserve contains a wide variety of habitats, including a black spruce-tamarack bog, northern white cedar swamp, a hemlock-northern hardwood forest, and a pine ridge.

The half-mile boardwalk provides access for people of all ages and abilities to get a closer look at the diversity of plants, such as sphagnum moss, evergreen leaves, pitcher plans, ferns, and wildflowers, that make up the understory of forest floor beneath the cedars, black spruce and tamaracks.

As you walk along the boardwalk or up the trail to the bluffs, you will observe distinct changes in the vegetation as the elevation and the soil moisture increase or decrease.  When the trail ascends into a northern hardwood forest, look for a variety of mosses, liverworts and saxifrages surrounding the nearby stream. After a 200 feet climb in elevation to the bluff you will be reward with a stunning view of Silver Lake and Whiteface. 

Why We Work Here

This site gives the Conservancy an opportunity to learn about and protect diverse natural communities within a small area. The different vegetation types that grow on the preserve provide a variety of habitats for many bird, mammal, and amphibian species.

Silver Lake Bog is a representative of an Adirondack Bog that formed in a depression and filled with water because of poor drainage. Plants and animals that adapt to living in bogs can tolerate very moist and acidic conditions. The bog is surrounded by a northern hardwood forest of beech, maple, yellow birch and hemlock and leads to a bluff overlooking Silver Lake. Keep your eyes and ears out for the many birds inhabit this area such as black-backed woodpecker, olive-sided flycatcher and many warblers.

What We Do

The Conservancy maintains this preserve for educational and scientific purposes.

Be sure to grab a preserve guide from the Adirondack Chapter of The Nature Conservancy in Keene Valley or at the trail register.

Animals:

  • spring peeper
  • wood frog
  • northern leopard frog
  • American toad
  • porcupine
  • white-tail deer
  • snowshoe hare
  • fisher
  • olive-sided flycatcher
  • white-throated sparrow

Plants:

  • Labrador tea
  • creeping snowberry
  • pitcher plant
  • bunchberry
  • sheep laurel
  • balsam fir
  • black spruce
  • white cedar
  • cinnamon fern

This 98-acre preserve is located in the Town of Hawkeye, near Union Falls and Silver Lake in Clinton County, NY. It is open to the public from dawn to dusk all year round for recreational, educational and, with written permission, scientific use. The Conservancy does not plow the preserve parking area in winter.

To help ensure the continued protection of the preserve and that this special place can be enjoyed for future generations, please respect the following guidelines: 

  • No removal or destruction of plants or animals.
  • No camping.
  • No fires or cooking.
  • No bicycling.
  • No littering.
  • No hunting or trapping.
  • All dogs must remain on a leash, and owners must remove dog waste. 
  • Staying on marked trails is a simple way to protect the Silver Lake Bog Preserve's natural areas.  Walking off trail causes erosion, tramples plants and can increase the likelihood of invasive plants becoming established. 
  • Please pack out what you bring in!