For the past two and a half years, a dedicated group of leaders from New York and Vermont has been working to establish a world-class botanical garden on the New York side of the Lake Champlain Basin. The Lake Champlain Botanical Garden (LCBG) is designed to serve as both a beautiful horticultural destination and a living model of environmental and water stewardship. By integrating ecological restoration with public education, the LCBG aims to be an economic, cultural, and scientific asset for the rural Adirondack region.

The project is currently in an exciting phase of organizational development. A significant milestone was achieved this past spring through a grant from the Lake Champlain Basin Program, which enabled LCBG to host a workshop with Bob Brackman, former executive director of the San Antonio Botanical Garden, former director of Cheekwood Estate & Gardens, and interim director of the American Horticultural Society (AHS). His mentorship helped the LCBG board articulate its core ecological principles and define the strategic priorities needed to build a robust, sustainable organization.

Innovation and collaboration are central to the LCBG model. A key partnership with Mitch Glass, senior lecturer at the Cornell University Department of Landscape Architecture/City and Regional Planning has provided the project with visionary design concepts. Over the past two years, Cornell studio classes have utilized sample local sites to develop proof of concept, site-specific botanical garden renderings. This collaboration—which even resulted in a student-designed logo—has added immense richness to the LCBG story and continues to inspire the project’s physical and aesthetic planning.

Currently, the LCBG team is focused on a capital campaign to secure seed funding and identifying the ideal 100-acre parcel to call home. Having recently received the gift of a beautiful 3-acre lakeview parcel to support future administrative operations, the organization is poised for the next stage of its growth. They invite partners and community members to follow their progress by signing up for their quarterly newsletter as they transform this vision into a landmark reality for the Champlain region.

They are also eager to connect with others involved in rural public gardens, to learn from those who have walked this path!

contact@LakeChamplainBotanicalGarden.org