This commentary is by Jon Leibowitz of Middlesex, executive director of the Montpelier-based Northeast Wilderness Trust, and Liz Thompson of Jericho, an independent ecologist and conservationist, formerly with the Vermont Land Trust, University of Vermont, and The Nature Conservancy.
Wildlands are places where natural processes are allowed to prevail and forests have the freedom to grow and change as they will, with minimal human intervention.
Wildlands provide critical support to nature and society. The benefits they bestow are more valuable than ever in the face of the intertwined crises of climate change, global extinction, and challenges to human health and welfare. And wild forests — including the animals, plants, mushrooms, and lichens that call them home — have intrinsic value, and a right to survive.
Vermont is nearly 80% forested, and 26% of the land is conserved, but only 3.7% of the state is protected as wildlands.
A hundred years ago, Vermont was not so heavily wooded. While old-growth forests blanketed the region prior to European settlement, subsequent clearing of the land for agriculture removed two-thirds of the forests by the late 1800s.
Today, the forests have largely returned, providing a great opportunity — and a second chance — for some of them to become old and wild once again.
How can we seize this opportunity? A new report, Wildlands in New England: Past, Present and Future, co-authored with over a dozen New England scientists and conservationists, calls for at least tripling Vermont’s wildlands. Such an effort, if planned wisely, complements the conservation of the diverse and productive timberlands and farmlands that support our rural economies.
This goal is part of a New England-wide effort to expand permanently protected wildlands. The report, the first study in the U.S. to characterize all forever-wild lands in a single region, was compiled by Vermont-based Northeast Wilderness Trust, Harvard Forest, and Highstead Foundation, together with more than 100 nonprofits and public agencies.
The small percentage of Vermont that is forever wild, 3.7%, stands in stark contrast to New York, where 9% of the land is permanently protected as wildland. Why is that so important? Only wildlands have the legal protection to become tomorrow’s old-growth forests.
The benefits of old forests are many. Our report demonstrates that allowing more forests to grow old, without intervention, is the lowest-cost option for increasing carbon storage and increasing overall biodiversity on the landscape. Further, wildlands are essential for wildlife habitat, enhancing landscape resilience and supporting human health.
In Vermont, the gap between current protections and the vision in Wildlands in New England represents a tremendous opportunity to strengthen protection and expansion of forever-wild areas — actions that are integral to Vermont Conservation Design, a statewide vision that calls for increasing Vermont’s old forest to at least 9% of the existing forest.
Just north of Montpelier, these visions can be seen in action. Woodbury Mountain Wilderness Preserve, protected by Northeast Wilderness Trust, is Vermont’s largest privately-owned wildland. The 6,098-acre preserve stores approximately 629,000 metric tons of carbon — roughly the carbon dioxide equivalent of taking 139,000 gas-powered cars off the road for a year. Most importantly, this carbon will never be lost to resource extraction.
Woodbury also provides vital habitat for bears, bobcats, warblers, moose and other organisms, as well as a place for people to find peace in wild nature.
Steps to promote wildlands took a giant leap forward on June 12 with the passage of H.126. Among multiple goals, the new law calls for the establishment of permanently protected ecological reserves, another name for wildlands.
State Rep. Amy Sheldon, D-Middlebury, who introduced H.126, says: “Wildlands are the lifeblood that will support both human and natural communities as we adapt to a changing climate. In Vermont, the recently passed Community Resilience and Biodiversity Protection Act establishes the goals of conserving 30% of our lands and waters by 2030 and 50% by 2050. The Wildlands in New England report is a critical first step towards quantifying where we are in meeting these goals and in identifying where we need to make strategic investments in conservation in the future.”
In addition to protecting new wildlands, many existing wildlands need further protection. One-third of Vermont’s wildlands are protected only by self-oversight — they lack the permanent legal protection to ensure they will remain wild in perpetuity.
Many privately owned lands may be treated as wildlands now, but increasing development pressure and property transitions could change that quickly, if legal protections are not in place.
Likewise, some state of Vermont wildlands are protected only through a management plan that can be easily changed. Even state natural areas can be de-designated in the future.
An ongoing proposal to create a gondola link between the two ski resorts in Mount Mansfield State Forest would impact a state natural area, which would necessitate removing at least part of it from our wildlands designation. A rigorous public process will allow a diversity of opinions to be heard on this proposal, and we all need to keep a watchful eye.
Integrating wildland conservation with the conservation of our actively managed woodlands and farms will support the animals and plants that make Vermont their home, will allow nature to prevail in many places, and will make our cities and towns more pleasant, habitable, and resilient to climate change.
Knowing where we have conserved wildlands already, we can strategically seek to rapidly increase the pace of protecting new wildlands, and expand and better protect existing ones throughout the Green Mountain State.
