The recently completed Greater Northern Appalachians Wildlands Network Design identified 13 areas most important for connectivity. These trouble spots have pressing conservation needs, yet one stands out above all others for immediate action: the 1.8 million-acre Northern Green Mountains of Vermont and Québec.

An incredibly diverse region, the Green Mountains has many of the major ecosystem types of the Northern Appalachians—from boreal forests, temperate mixed hardwoods, and alpine meadows to floodplain forests and marshes. This spectacularly rugged landscape is home to moose, black bear, eastern coyote, bobcat, fisher, red fox, beaver, river otter and mink.

The culture of the region also owes much to the Green Mountains. Vermont is even named after them, derived from the Latin virdis montis. Historically the communities in the Green Mountains were supported by farming, logging and traditional industries like maple sugaring.

The Native Americans who inhabitated Vermont for thousands of years lived mainly in river valleys and had relatively little impact on the woodlands that made up much of the landscape. The arrival of Europeans in earnest in the late 17th and early 18th century, however, had profound consequences for the landscape. Many large animals disappeared from the landscape due to trapping and hunting. When European colonists began arriving in larger numbers in the 1760s, forests were cleared in whole or in part for lumber, fuel, and to make way for agriculture and pastures. By the early 1900s, the bear, moose, wolf, and bobcat were all but gone.

In more recent times, the forests have returned in much of the Green Mountains. With the return of the forest, so too have the moose and bear—though not the gray wolf, which remains endangered in the east. While the area still sees some poor logging practices on lands still under timber production, an even greater threat now looms on the horizon.

The Green Mountains’ proximity to Montreal, Boston and other urban areas in New England and Canada has added development pressure to an area that was once considered remote. As the rural economy stagnates, private land owners are selling large land parcels. The rural economy is shifting as thousands of acres of pastoral agricultural lands and timberland properties come on the market. These lands are being converted to housing as constructions starts to dominate the economy. The accompanying roads that come with such change will further fragment this landscape.

In the face of these threats, and the importance of this area, we have joined with a group of scientists and conservationists on both sides of the border to advance conservation in this place. This group has held one meeting of more than 25 partner organizations and we are now developing plans to advance conservation on the ground through several discreet projects:

• Mapping
• Lands trust organization and involvement
• Communications
• Outreach to major landowners, businesses
• Resources for partner groups

The Green Mountains is a crucial place for connectivity, tying the wild areas of the Adirondacks to the rest of the Northern Appalachians in Maine and Canada. It is also a place with a rich rural culture. If not secured now, it will be lost forever and the chance for animals like the wolf to recover and the black bear and moose to survive, and for rural communities to prosper, over time will be gone. Wildlife recovery efforts now underway depend upon successful protection of this precious landscape-scale passage for wildlife.

Conrad Reining