Newsletter, August 2023 (No. 26)
Forever-Wild Conservation & Northeast Wilderness Trust
Only 3.3% of New England is protected as wildlands, such as Blue Mountain Wilderness Sanctuary in Ryegate, VT, conserved by Northeast Wilderness Trust. Experts call for at least tripling that number. Photo: Jerry Monkman/Ecophotography
By Nadine Canter, Communications Director, Northeast Wilderness Trust
Greetings! I’d like to introduce you to Northeast Wilderness Trust, an accredited regional land trust focused exclusively on forever-wild conservation. While our office is in Montpelier, Vermont, we protect more than 78,000 forever-wild acres throughout New England and New York. The Wilderness Trust protects “Nature for Nature’s Sake”, which is a way of saying we protect places where nature directs the ebb and flow of life and where wildlife is free to flourish. On forever-wild lands every acre protected today is given the chance to become an old-growth forest of tomorrow. This hopeful work is often referred to as rewilding.
Most of you receiving this newsletter from Northern Rivers Land Trust (NRLT) are probably aware that NRLT protects lands by holding conservation easements on privately owned land. What the Wilderness Trust does is different, and the same. It is the same because we are both protecting landscapes from uses that would adversely affect the land’s natural values. We are different because whereas NRLT works to protect a wide range of important conservation outcomes including farmlands, scenic open spaces, recreation areas, and managed forests, Northeast Wilderness Trust only focuses on one outcome — protecting places as forever-wild.
On forever-wild lands that Northeast Wilderness Trust safeguards people are welcome for walking, quiet reflection and nature observation, hunting in some cases, and for certain kinds of research. Forever-wild lands will never be logged. We partner with Nature and give forests the time and space needed to evolve and mature, store carbon naturally, and sow the seeds of a resilient and biodiverse future. We also believe that wild Nature has intrinsic value and is worthy of protection in and of itself. Together with a community of supporters and partner land trusts, we are setting the stage for wilderness recovery and rebounding wildlife populations.
Partnering with local land trusts has been central to Northeast Wilderness Trust’s work since our founding because rewilding land requires permanence. We thus employ a strategy called ‘belt and suspenders conservation’. For every property we own as a wilderness preserve or sanctuary (the belt), we look to partner with another organization who will then hold a forever-wild conservation easement (the suspenders). With this double layer of protection, we know that these forests will be protected for generations to come and have the best chance to become old-growth forests of tomorrow. Likewise, we often hold forever-wild easements on land owned by another land trust or non-governmental organization, and in rare cases, land owned by individuals.
Wildlands in New England, Vermont Conservation Design, and H.126
Wildlands protect the homes of wildlife, remove carbon from the atmosphere, clean the water and air, and offer people beauty and quiet. Learn more about saving Vermont’s next wild place, Bear’s Nest Wilderness Preserve. Photo: Jerry Monkman/Ecophotography
Forever-wild conservation as a strategy is complementary to the protection of managed woodlands and farmlands. All are essential
to a resilient future. This holistic approach to conservation is consistent with: 1) Vermont Conservation Design, a state-wide study that identifies paths forward for maintaining and enhancing an ecologically functional landscape and calls for at least 9% of Vermont to be old forest; and 2) the Wildlands, Woodlands, Farmlands & Communities initiative—which calls for 70% of New England to be permanently conserved and at least 10% of that to be wildlands.
A report released this spring (May 2023) by Harvard Forest, Highstead Foundation, and Northeast Wilderness Trust considers how New England, with some of the most intact temperate forest on the planet, is uniquely positioned to accelerate the pace of wilderness conservation. The study, Wildlands in New England: Past, Present, and Future, shows that Vermont is nearly 80% forested and 26% of the land is conserved, but only 3.7% of the state is protected as wildlands. This significant gap creates an urgent call to action for advancing wilderness protection. As Wildlands in New England illustrates, allowing more forests to grow old without human intervention is the lowest-cost option for increasing carbon storage and overall biodiversity on the landscape.
In Vermont, steps to promote wilderness took a large leap forward on June 12, 2023, with the passage of H.126, the “Community Resilience and Biodiversity Protection Act”. Among multiple goals, the new law calls for establishing permanently protected ecological reserves (another name for wilderness or wildlands). The law sets goals of conserving 30% of Vermont’s lands and waters by 2030, and 50% by 2050.
Wilderness right here in your backyard
Whatever one calls it—wilderness, forever-wild land, ecological reserves, or wildlands—wild Nature can exist wherever people choose to commit to such a future. Nature deserves the space and time to heal and forever-wild conservation sets the stage for a more abundant, resilient, and beautiful tomorrow—which is why it is so exciting and hopeful. The good news is the pace of this work has been growing in the past few years.
Not very far from where you may live, the Wilderness Trust has protected three landscapes: Woodbury Mountain Wilderness Preserve, Blue Mountain Wilderness Sanctuary, and Duren Mountain Wilderness Preserve. And, we continue to protect more forests as forever-wild every day! In fact, we are gathering support to rewild more land in Vermont in the Jay area called Bear’s Nest Wilderness Preserve. I invite you to get to know our work. We also welcome the chance to partner with the NRLT to fulfill shared goals.
For more information about Northeast Wilderness Trust’s work check out these Frequently Asked Questions, and please feel free to email me with any questions, nadine@newildernesstrust.org.
NRLT Receives Grant Awards
by Jack Travelstead
The Northern Rivers Land Trust is the recipient of grant awards from the Davis Conservation Foundation and the Bafflin Foundation in support of the efforts to create a community forest in the Town of Wolcott. The NRLT has received $15,000 from the Davis Conservation Foundation and $25,000 from the Bafflin Foundation. The funding will help protect an important community resource for the people and wildlife of Vermont and recreationists throughout the region.
The grant funding will be used to cover project costs including land surveys, environmental assessments, appraisals and legal fees. The awards will be matched by approximately $1.4 million in public and private funding including $25,000 from the Town of Wolcott, $563,000 from the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board. The Trust for Public Land, which spearheads the project, is seeking funding from the federal Community Forest Program to complete the project.
The Davis Conservation Foundation is a public charitable foundation established in 1989 by Phyllis and Halsey Davis of Falmouth, Maine to support protection and conservation of our natural resources. The Bafflin Foundation continues the lifetime efforts of Lois Orswell to support art, animals, plants and earth.
NRLT Adds 2 New Trustees
Ethan Dreissigacker, Albany
Ethan grew up in Morrisville and spent his childhood exploring the Vermont woods as an avid birder, tracker, and Nordic skier. After earning an engineering degree at Dartmouth College Ethan returned to Vermont, spending several years as a semi-professional biathlete based out of Craftsbury. Ethan now lives in Albany where he operates a small business making biathlon equipment and works as a biathlon coach at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center. In addition Ethan serves on the board for both the Craftsbury Outdoor Center and the New England Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers. He is passionate about conserving both the wild (and less wild) places that serve as critical habitat for wildlife and people living close to the land. Ethan is an athlete and avid outdoorsman, spending as much time as he can running, hiking, hunting, fishing, biking or skiing.
Peter Watkinson, Greensboro
As a magna cum laude graduate in Computer and Information Science from Syracuse University in 1980, Peter Watkinson had an early start in consulting and software. This evolved into sales and business development roles in technology for the bulk of his career. A decade ago, Peter essentially got a Masters in Clean Energy and Climate Change as a founding member of the British American Business Council’s Environment and Energy Committee, writing a blog called Cleantech Compass, attending lectures at a number of colleges and universities in the Metro Boston region and studying the subject. His most recent role was developing utility scale solar projects in the eastern US as Director of Solar Energy and Storage for Schneider Electric.
Relocating to Greensboro VT with his wife in 2021, Peter has thought further about how to volunteer in areas that benefit the regional community, conserve land and address climate change. He has been a long time supporter of the AMC and President’s Society, recently joined the Advisory Committee of the Greensboro Land Trust, the Greensboro Conservation Commission and the Greensboro Association. He is an avid outdoor athlete often hiking, biking and skiing throughout the area.
NRLT Conserved Properties
NRLT conserved properties as of August 2023.