The state of Vermont first purchased what is now called the Island Line Trail in 1963, before handing it over to the town of Colchester. Nearly 60 years later, it’s become one of the most treasured recreational paths in Vermont, and, as of last year, it’s back in the state’s hands.
When Colchester first took ownership of the abandoned rail line in 1966, maintenance was routine and would remain so over the next three decades. But the last three decades have been a different story.
Originally built in 1901, the Island Line Trail — or the Colchester Causeway — stretches three miles across Lake Champlain, connecting South Hero to Colchester and extending into Burlington, offering a continuous bike and recreation path through the area.
It remains one of the most popular biking destinations in the state, with unrivaled views of the Adirondacks and Green Mountains. The Washington Post, in 2018, called it “one of the country’s most spectacular bike trails.”
From 1962 to 1992, about 1,700 cubic yards of material making up the trail — mostly marble and stone — were eroded, according to Colchester Town Manager Aaron Frank. The next year alone, in 1993, 600 cubic yards were lost.
Since then, the trail has faced increased storm intensity, with higher and higher water levels battering the trail. In 2011, 8,600 cubic yards of material were lost after storm damage.
Then, in 2018, a two-day period of storms brought winds exceeding 70 miles per hour, sending 7-foot waves over the trail and racking up repair costs for the town.
The storms eroded significant portions of the trail, with 12,450 cubic yards of stone lost. Infrastructure work to repair the trail cost $1.8 million. Those repairs were paid mostly by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, following an emergency declaration for the area, with smaller contributions from the town and state.
“That’s roughly 10% of the causeway that was lost in 2018,” Frank said. “Pretty significant, and it’s really beyond the town’s capacity to address that.”
Colchester officials at one point looked into buying an insurance policy on the trail, but couldn’t find any company willing to cover it, Frank said. Because of this, the town moved to reconsider full ownership of the trail, voting in 2021 to hand it off to the state.
Now, the trail is back in the state’s hands after the town relinquished ownership through a quit claim deed in April of last year.
“If it was damaged, and it wasn’t something the town had the money for, or was willing to fund, then the town would have to decide, are we going to fix it?” Frank said. “Now that’s the state’s responsibility. Since it’s really a statewide resource, that seems more appropriate.”
The state Department of Forest, Parks and Recreation this April officially designated it as a state park, and moved to rename the trail Causeway State Park, according to meeting minutes from the department’s Essex District Stewardship Team.
“That’s our first step — it’s officially being designated as a state park,” said Oliver Pierson, the state’s director of forestry. “It will therefore in the near future begin to benefit from all of the same planning and consideration that state parks across Vermont benefit from.”
But while the trail has new ownership, much will remain the same.
Colchester will still be responsible for basic and routine maintenance not to exceed $20,000 annually, according to an operating agreement between the town and the state. But the state will now be on the hook for “non-routine” repairs, caused by “unexpected catastrophic events, natural or otherwise…”
“It’s a fantastic recreational resource as it is,” said Jason Nerenberg, a stewardship forester with the state parks department. “On Day One this became one of or maybe the most highly visited state park in our entire system, so we’re not looking to make any changes at present. I think it would be a little too early in the process for that.”
State officials say there are no plans to renovate or improve the trail at this time, and the trail remains in good condition, Nerenberg said.
“It’s certainly prone to more significant damage from storm events, but if we had calm seas year in and year out, the trail would last for quite some time,” he said. “It’s when you have these larger storm events that creates structural challenges, erosion, undermining the integrity of the elevated bed to the causeway, which is what’s really the most concerning.”
Read the story on VTDigger here: Colchester Causeway now under state ownership.