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2007 was NWT's most productive year to date! We protected over 4,000 acres of wilderness in Maine, New York, and New Hampshire.
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Northeast Wilderness Trust Receives a Gift of 408.5-Acre Wilderness Conservation Easement Abutting the SandwichRange Wilderness Area of the White MountainNational Forest
The Northeast Wilderness Trust is pleased to announce that we recently received a donation of a conservation easement on a 408.5-acre property in Sandwich, NH. This new property, named Tewksbury Brook for the small stream that runs along its eastern border, was a project that finally came to completion after several years this past January 2009. Abutting the 35,800-acre Sandwich Range Wilderness portion of the White MountainNational Forest, this new piece of wilderness serves as habitat for a myriad of species and is an important connective corridor between the White Mountains and the OssipeeMountains.
The donors made the gift of the conservation easement to the Northeast Wilderness Trust, while donated the remaining fee-interest to the Lakes Region Conservation Trust, based in Center Harbor, New Hampshire. The Lakes Region of New Hampshire is experiencing a high rate of development, and the community-driven conservation donors wanted to see Tewksbury Brook remain as wildlife habitat.
The Tewksbury Brook property brings the Northeast Wilderness Trust’s total conserved acreage in the SquamLakes region up to 695.5 acres. Currently, the Northeast Wilderness Trust is in the process of raising $25,000 for the long-term stewardship of the property’s conservation values. If you would like to learn more about how you can help, please contact the Northeast Wilderness Trust in Boston, MA by calling (617) 742-0628, email info@newildernesstrust.org, or visit NWT’s website at www.newildernesstrust.org. For further information about Lakes Region Conservation Trust, please call (603) 253-3301, email lrct@lrct.org, or visit LRCT’s website at www.lrct.org.
Northeast Wilderness Trust Augments Split Rock Wildway Conservation with the 90-Acre Rowe Property
Working with local partner the Eddy Foundation, which purchased the conservation easement on the Rowe property, the Northeast Wilderness Trust closed on the purchase of a 90-acre piece of wilderness land in the Split Rock Wildway’s Boquet Mountain Matrix Area in March 2008. Located just west of our Boquet Flats and NorthwestBoquetMountain properties, the Rowe property adds to our existing portfolio of five properties, totaling over 495 acres of protected wilderness from the valley of Lake Champlain towards the boundary of the AdirondackPark. This property was important to the Northeast Wilderness Trust, Eddy Foundation, and other regional conservation groups’ larger vision for the ‘Split Rock Wildway’, because of its largely intact northern hardwood forest, strategic proximity to other protected lands, and development threats.
The success of this property demonstrates that local partners and connective conservation has been very effective in this region of New York! To find out more about how you can help further the efforts across the Split Rock Wildway, please contact us.
Northeast Wilderness Trust Receives 86-Acre Easement Donation in the SquamLakes Region of New Hampshire
The 86-acre Metcalf property, containing a mix of old-growth potential habitat for pine marten, was sold to the Squam Lakes Conservation Trust, with the Northeast Wilderness Trust receiving the donation of a ‘forever wild’ easement. The donors of the easement wanted the property to serve as an undeveloped, wilderness link between the Squam Range Wilderness to the Sandwich Notch Road. Though the property had been heavily logged in the past, the surrounding conservation land made this project a great foothold for the Northeast Wilderness Trust in protecting wilderness lands throughout the Squam Lakes Region, as well as working with our friends at the Squam Lakes Conservation Trust. The property is bordered by conservation land in several directions: the Sandwich Range Wilderness of the White MountainNational Forest is nearby to the north, and the SandwichNotchPark and the SandwichTownForest are also in the vicinity. In-tact wetlands and mature forest stands of beech, hemlock, and oak.
Wapack Wilderness PROTECTED!
Rindge and New Ipswich, New Hampshire
In November 2007, the Northeast Wilderness Trust completed the first phase of the Wapack Wilderness project, preserving 1,200 acres of vibrant forest, waterways, and wetlands in Rindge and New Ipswich, New Hampshire. An additional 200 acres will be placed under easement by December 2008.
This exceptional wild landscape is owned by the Hampshire Country School, a small, private school for students who do not thrive in traditional settings.  The wilderness easement has preserved over a mile of the historic Wapack Trail and eight distinct natural communities—two of which are rare. The property also abuts other protected lands resulting in greater habitat connectivity.
The opportunity to protect an intact forest of this size is increasingly rare in southern New Hampshire as the State faces unprecedented growth. By working with the Trust, the School has preserved a unique landscape, ensured the continuation of countless recreational opportunities for the region’s residents and visitors, maintained a natural classroom for its students, and generated needed revenue for its educational programs and land stewardship. Students and school, land and wild creatures, residents and visitors—all win.
If you know of a private school or institution that might like to conserve its wildlands, please contact the Northeast Wilderness Trust for more information: 617.742.0287, info@newildernesstrust.org
Download Wapack Wilderness Profile (.PDF)
Howland Research Forest PROTECTED!
Howland and Edinburg, Maine
In November 2007, the Northeast Wilderness Trust purchased and permanently protected the 550-acre Howland Research Forest, located in Howland and Edinburg, Maine. Howland Forest is characterized by old-growth spruce and hemlock and provides habitat for species such as moose, black bear, bobcat, and bald eagle.
 Initially established as a research site by International Paper in 1987, Howland has hosted scientists from around the world for studies on forest health and climate change. Over a decade ago, Howland scientists began to examine how the forest stores carbon and helps stabilize our planet from three meteorological towers on the land. These scientists now have one of the longest records of carbon intake and output (flux) in the world. This data forms the basis for policies that mitigate the impacts of global warming.
In 2004, Howland Forest was purchased as part of a larger land transaction and was scheduled to be logged. Concerned about the fate of their research, scientists from the University of Maine, Woods Hole Research Center, and United States Forest Service contacted the Northeast Wilderness Trust to develop a solution. The Northeast Wilderness Trust with the support of conservation partners raised the necessary $1 million to purchase and preserve the forest in perpetuity.
Hersey Mountain
New Hampton and Sanbornton, New Hampshire
 In June 2007, the Northeast Wilderness Trust (NWT) and the New England Forestry Foundation (NEFF) completed a forever-wild conservation easement on Hersey Mountain, a forested property located in New Hampton and Sanbornton, New Hampshire. Situated on a ridge between the curving Pemigewasset River and Interstate 93, Hersey Mountain is a 3,100-acre largely roadless property, forested primarily by northern hardwoods and home to a diversity of wildlife, including moose and black bear. Comprised of multiple tracts of land, the Hersey Mountain property is a natural junction for both wilderness preservation and sustainable forestry.
A rigorous ecological assessment of the property was conducted by ecologist and NWT president Rick Van de Poll to determine which areas should be preserved as wilderness. Upon Van de Poll’s recommendation, approximately 2,100 acres have been protected as wilderness under a conservation easement held by the Northeast Wilderness Trust. The rest of the property, 1,000 acres, will be managed for sustainable forestry by NEFF. This marks NWT’s first conservation transaction in New Hampshire!
Special thanks to Sweet Water Trust for helping to create the Hersey Mountain Wilderness Area.
Split Rock Wildway
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Split Rock Wildway Linking the Split Rock Wild Forest and the foothills and High Peaks of the Adirondack Mountains Projects
The Split Rock Wildway is an ambitious effort led by local citizens and a diversity of conservation organizations to protect wildlife habitat linking the publicly owned Split Rock Wild Forest along Lake Champlain with the foothills and High Peaks of the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York. To date, approximately 6,000 acres have been protected, primarily through state or private land acquisition-a promising start towards restoring and protecting the rich biological diversity and wildlife habitat of this area. Northeast Wilderness Trust has protected five critical parcels in the Split Rock Wildway and is working on the protection of other lands and waters in the Wildway.
Download Wildway Profile (.PDF)
Download Wildway Map (.PDF)
NWT was among the land trusts awarded a conservation transaction grant by the New York State Conservation Partnership Program, an innovative public-private collaboration designed to build strong local and regional conservation programs. The 2006 grantees are pictured above at the State Capital in June at a press conference highlighting the value of this unique partnership whose funding is in jeopardy. Photo courtesy of the LTA
Alder Stream A Wilderness in the Heart of Maine
The Alder Stream watershed is a focus of the Northeast Wilderness Trust’s conservation efforts because of its biological richness, recreational opportunities and wilderness character. The watershed is home to a great diversity of plants, birds, fish, mammal, reptile, and amphibian species. The Northeast Wilderness Trust’s pursuance and acquisition of the 1,500-acre Alder Stream property—located in the heart of the watershed—is vital to the ecological health of the watershed and an important step in advancing larger conservation efforts within the region. The Alder Stream parcel is characterized by cedar swamps and rich bogs, conifer and northern hardwood forest, and a remote, wild character. The property contains extensive frontage on the Piscataquis River, an important river for Atlantic salmon recovery, and a significant section of the Alder Stream. The Wilderness Trust's recent acquisition of the Alder Stream property will ensure that the watershed's woods and wetlands stay intact for future generations of bears and bitterns, wood turtles and warblers, and people.
Download Alder Stream Profile (.PDF)
Click here to learn more.
Quebec to Vermont Corridor Cross-border connectivity
Northeast Wilderness Trust is working with Canadian and American partners to preserve a wildlife and recreational linkage from Quebec to Vermont. Appalachian Corridor Appalachien (ACA), a conservation organization dedicated to the protection of lands in southern Quebec, is a lead partner. (www.apcor.ca) The ACA corridor follows the extension of the Appalachian range, encompasses the northern Green Mountains, Sutton Mountains massif, and extends north to Mount Orford. This natural corridor includes diverse forests and vegetation, and provides habitat for myriad of species such as lynx and bear, which depend on this corridor for survival, and hundreds of species of birds.
Habitat for Wild Creatures Making room for wildness in a crowded world Projects
The Northeast Wilderness Trust is working to preserve habitat, feeding sites, and movement corridors across the Northeast for mammals, such as the black bear. To maintain healthy populations of mammals, we must preserve adequate and secure habitat for breeding, eating and living, along with habitat linkages to ensure genetic exchange, safe movement, and dispersal.
Wilderness — A Scientific Baseline and Reservoirs of Biodiversity
The protection of land as forever-wild has long been recognized for its scientific value. As early as the 1920's ecologists called for the protection of wilderness to ensure a baseline for scientific study. In 1942, ecologist E.L. Sumner wrote "to the men of science, the dwindling wilderness is an irreplaceable reservoir of information on natural conditions." Wild areas serve as reservoirs of biological diversity and provide refuge for species. Land preserved as forever-wild provides a baseline against which we can evaluate the impacts of human activities. Northeast Wilderness Trust is committed to helping preserve wild areas that can serve as baselines for scientific study.
Preserving Family Lands Projects
Across this magnificent region, families are preserving their lands as forever-wild to leave a legacy for future generations of all species. Integral to land conservation and management is the sound understanding of which species occur, what their relative abundance and distribution are, and what sort of population fluctuations can be expected. Lester Anderson, founder and advisor of the Colby Hill Ecological Project (CHEP) donated an easement to NWT on his family research forest in Lincoln, Vermont. For more information on CHEP, please visit the Vermont Family Forests website.
There are many options for landowners. Contact the Northeast Wilderness Trust to learn more about how you and your family can preserve your land as wild.
"To save every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering." - Aldo Leopold, Round River, 1953
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