Lamphear Brook

Lamphear Brook and its watershed, located in northwest Albany township, are a spectacular feature of the Northeast Kingdom’s landscape. The brook, which drains part of the Lowell Mountain range, cascades over a hundred feet through deep gullies, including a 20-foot waterfall (below) before crossing RRoute 14 and emptying in the Black River.

Landowners and other townspeople have formed a group called Friends of Lamphear Brook, which is working with the Vermont River Conservancy and the Northern Rivers Land Trust to introduce conservation easements and other measures to protect the watershed. This includes efforts underway to restore a 160-acre parcel on the Irasburg border, formerly owned by Middlebury College, that was illegally clear-cut in 2011-12.

In December 2015 two owners of land in the watershed, Henry Coe and Allison Van Akkeren, conserved their properties with the NRLT. Henry’s property, in Albany, comprises two adjacent parcels totaling 125 acres more or less in the middle of the watershed, while Allison’s comprises close to 100 acres in Lowell, on the Albany border.

Both properties are labeled in the map of the watershed, given below, and each is the subject of a separate page listed under Easements.