This story by Aaron Calvin was first published in News & Citizen on July 17.

With the pending purchase of an adjacent tract of land, the Peter A. Krusch Nature Preserve is set to greatly expand the publicly accessible forestland in Cambridge.

The Krusch Preserve Committee, which in 2021 established the preserve on land acquired by the town from resident Sally Laughlin, opened a 51-acre tract of dynamic woodland to the public, and created an accessible route to the Cambridge Pines State Forest.

A neighboring piece of land known as the Bormann property was considered for the preserve at the time, but an initial grant application was denied. Now, four years after the preserve first opened, the town is planning to acquire nearly 30 acres of additional land with assistance from the Vermont Land Trust.

The purchase will also connect the central section of the preserve with another piece of land owned by Cambridge village. Part of that land is off-limits to the public due to the existence of a wellhead on the tract, but trails that will be built through the area will more than double the area of publicly accessible forest, Laughlin said.

The expansion will add more diversity to the preserve, she said, and expand the preserve to over 200 acres.

“I was delighted when we walked up into the Bormann land, which is more hardwood forest, more maples and so forth,” Laughlin said. “There are wood thrush there, and there’ll be some different species of birds and plants and so forth.”

The Cambridge Pines State Forest contains some of the oldest trees in the town — it is a second-growth forest that has been mostly left intact since it was logged about 200 years ago. The current preserve contains meadow, forest, wetlands, Dragon Brook and a sand blow, land that has been rendered sandy and unvegetated by stiff winds.

The new portions opened up by this purchase will add higher elevation habitats to the range, and even features what Laughlin says is “probably the oldest yellow birch in Vermont,” just over the line into the village’s property.

The preserve has become regionally popular in its four years of public use, with a tracker borrowed from the Lamoille County Planning Commission indicating the preserve saw thousands of visitors within a 10-month span.

The Bormann family has entered an agreement to sell its property to the land trust, which will then transfer it to the town for the appraised value of $235,000. With additional costs, the land trust has estimated that the overall cost of the project to be at around $300,000, most of which will be covered by a grant they’re seeking from the Vermont Housing and Conservation Trust, along with $20,000 from the Cambridge Conservation Commission and additional funding raised by the nonprofit Friends of the Krusch Nature Preserve.

Bob Heiser and Friends of the Krusch Nature Preserve president Mary Fiedler, in a letter to the selectboard from land trust project director, noted that expanding the preserve has important environmental benefits.

“The forestland is part of a larger forest block identified by the State of Vermont as a Priority ‘Connectivity Block’ and Priority ‘Interior Forest Block,’ providing critical ecological connectivity on a statewide level,” the letter said.

The Cambridge Selectboard voted at its July 1 meeting to sign a letter of support to the housing and conservation board in support of the grant.

A public informational meeting about the project will be held Monday, Sept. 8 at 6 p.m. at the Cambridge Historical Society.

Esther Ngoy Tekele — a 23-year-old Congolese woman who has been held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody for over a week — was ordered to be released on bond on Thursday.

Tekele is a lawful permanent resident and has been living in Vermont for four years, according to her brother and her attorney. 

At the time of her arrest on July 6, Tekele was crossing the Canadian border with her family to re-enter Vermont after attending a wedding in Canada. Coco Ngoy, Tekele’s brother, said they were stopped by Customs and Border Protection agents at the Highgate Springs border crossing and waited for about three hours. When he asked for an explanation, an officer told him they were free to go except for Tekele. 

Ngoy said he left briefly to get food after hours of waiting, and when he came back, he was told his sister was no longer there, so he reached out to the Association of Africans Living in Vermont, or AALV, for help.

Nathan Virag, the attorney representing Tekele, said he wasn’t able to get in touch with his client for about two days. He said Tekele was questioned by Customs and Border Protection agents for hours before being transferred to ICE custody. “They were not giving us information, they were not letting her call us, none of that,” he said.

The first time Virag was able to speak with his client was July 8 when he visited her at Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility. 

“We were successful in getting a temporary restraining order to prevent ICE from being able to transfer out of state because that’s what ICE has been doing,” Virag said.

Tekele is a green card holder with no criminal record, according to Virag and Ngoy. She has a 2-year-old child and also takes care of her mother. Ngoy said they had crossed the Canadian border many times and never had any problems before.

Federal immigration officers had alleged that Tekele lied about her marital status and entered the country declaring to be unmarried, but instead she got married a few days earlier.

At a bond and master hearing in Chelmsford Immigration Court on Thursday, Virag denied the allegations and asked for his client to be released on bond, claiming she doesn’t have any criminal charges, has stable employment, and she plans to stay in the U.S. and apply for citizenship.

Judge Natalie Smith ordered Tekele be released on a $7,500 bond. An attorney for the federal government waived the right to appeal the judge’s decision. 

“It’s a relief for us,” said Ngoy. “At least Esther will be able to see her son and take care of my mom.” 

“Wrongly detaining lawful permanent residents at a standard crossing speaks to the lawless and inhumane immigration agenda coming from the White House,” U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., who helped locate Tekele after her arrest, wrote in a statement to VTDigger. “I’m so happy to hear Ms. Tekele is headed back with her family at home in Vermont but nobody with legal status in this country should have to live in fear of being held in a jail cell at any moment.” 

The government must submit evidence for Tekele’s removal by July 31, when the next hearing is scheduled. 

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to a request for comment. Customs and Border Protection did not respond to VTDigger’s emailed questions by the time of publication.

“She’s a great mother. She loves her child. She’s helpful in the Congolese community here in Vermont,” Virag said, “This is just a hardworking mother that’s fallen victim to a messed-up immigration system.”

The U.S. Department of Transportation is planning to provide $22.7 million to the Vermont Agency of Transportation to assist in replacing the Winooski River Bridge in Chittenden County, according to a Thursday statement from Vermont’s congressional delegation.

The bridge, which connects the cities of Burlington and Winooski, is more than 95 years old. Though it is not currently a danger to those who use it, state transportation officials said in a project outline that its maintenance needs and narrowness merit a rebuild.

The total cost of the bridge was estimated last year at $60 million to $80 million, and the project previously received a $24.8 million federal grant in 2022.

“The replacement of the Winooski River Bridge will boost northern Vermont’s critical infrastructure, improve safety and accessibility, and make Winooski more resilient to extreme weather,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., said in the release.

The new bridge is expected to feature improved drainage systems. The sidewalk area will also be widened for shared, safe use by pedestrians and bicycles, according to the Agency of Transportation.

The U.S. Department of Transportation allocated the latest federal money through a grant program funded by the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

In Thursday’s statement, Vermont Transportation Secretary Joe Flynn called the new grant “crucial” for the project.

The delegation also nominated the project for an additional $8 million in congressionally directed spending during the federal fiscal year 2026, which begins Oct. 1.

Officials say that construction on the bridge should begin in 2027.