The Nature Conservancy - Little Averill Lake Natural Area

Common loon.

Visitor Information

Little Averill Lake is a great place for a canoe trip. More information and directions to this natural area.

Get Involved

Would you like to get outside and help nature at the same time? Our stewardship staff holds volunteer work days around the state. Check out our volunteer page.

Little Averill Lake is set in a remote corner of the Northeast Kingdom. There are a few camps on this 438-acre pond and the forest is managed for timber production, but the pond, which sits at a relatively high elevation at 1,800 feet, feels like part of a larger, wilder landscape, and it is. The former Champion Lands, now owned by Essex Timber Company, surround the eastern flank of the pond. The cliffs and talus slopes of Brousseau Mountain to the northwest loom above the pond.

Size
38 acres

What to see: plants
There is a northern white cedar swamp and an unusual natural lake sand beach community on the property, which may have been created by the deposition of white sand that was pushed up onto the shore over time by waves and ice. Some of the plants in the beach and the open wetland here include green wood orchis, round-leaved sundew, bugleweed and marsh St. Johnswort. There are a number of sedges found in the area and shrubs including sweet gale, mountain holly and sourtop blueberry.

The lake is surrounded by northern hardwood forest and some mixed hardwood-softwood forest typical of the Northern Forest. Little Averill drains into Great Averill Lake.

What to see: animals
The Conservancy’s property on Little Averill Lake includes a documented nesting site for the rare common loon. The Vermont Institute of Natural Science monitors common loon breeding patterns on the pond. Please stay at least 200 feet away from loon nests May 15 to August 15.

Peregrine falcons nest on nearby Brousseau Mountain, and moose are abundant in the area.

Why the Conservancy selected this site
Loons, once endangered in Vermont, have nested at Little Averill since 1978. The Conservancy conserved this land to protect the nesting site for the loons and the lake sand beach community.

What the Conservancy is doing
Conservancy volunteers work with the Vermont Institute of Natural Science on a loon-monitoring project.

Visitor information
Visitors can put their boats into the water at the Vermont Fish and Wildlife boat access where there is a parking lot. Please read our preserve visitation guidelines.

Directions
Take 1-91 north from St. Johnsbury to exit 23 and take Route 5 to Lyndonville. Travel north through Lyndon Center to Route 114. This state highway goes through East Burke, East Haven, Island Pond and north to Norton on the Canadian border before it turns east toward Averill. From Norton center, travel east on Route 114 for 2.5 miles. Take a right onto Little Averill Road just before Great Averill Lake and the village of Averill. You’ll come to a junction after 3 to 4 miles. Take your first left at the junction, which leads to a parking area for the Vermont Fish and Wildlife boat access. Put in your canoe here and paddle along the north shore about 0.75 mile until you reach the sand beach.