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Working to preserve and restore forever-wild landscapes for wildlife and people.

Fall 2005

Walking on the Wild Side with

Northeast Wilderness Trust

A Natural ClassroomNortheast Wilderness Trust Joins Hampshire Country School to Preserve Wapack Wilderness

Continued on page 5

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ome places have a memorial arch, some people have a Monet painting,” said Bill Dickerman, headmaster of Hampshire Country School, in Rindge, New Hampshire, “our identity is our land.” Now, the Northeast Wilderness Trust has joined with the school to ensure that this identity remains wild—through a conservation easement on the school’s 1,400-acre Wapack Wilderness. Follow Dickerman along the Wapack Trail that cuts through the eastern part of the school’s property, and onto the summit of Stony Top Mountain. You’ll see a green carpet rolling towards a network of wetlands. To the northwest rises Mount Monadnock, one of the most-hiked mountains in America. But here is a quiet place, mostly forested, with rich stands of hemlock, oak, and pine. “We have for decades been looking for a way to make sure that in the long run this would be protected,” Dickerman said, but the school’s trustees never found

the right conservation partner. “Then, a few years ago, we and the Northeast Wilderness Trust discovered each other and it was an exact match,” he said. “The trust understood that we want the land preserved just as it is.” The Wapack Wilderness contains nearly two miles of the Wapack Trail, one of the oldest footpaths in New Hampshire, stretching north from Mount Watatic for 21 miles to the Pack Monadnocks near Peterborough. Those who hike the trail follow some famous boots. Benton MacKaye, creator of the Appalachian Trail and co-found-er of the Wilderness Society, delighted in the Wapack Trail, which he saw as a microcosm of his beloved “AT.” But the Wapack Wilderness is more than a hiking trail. It is a refuge for people and nature, harboring eight distinct natural communities, including two rare ones. Its ancient trees, pristine waters, and rugged topography make it an ecological treasure; its landscape context makes it a regional conservation priority. The property abuts Binney Pond State Park and land conserved by the New England Forestry Foundation. Watatic Mountain Wildlife Area is two miles to the southeast, linked by the Wapack Trail, and Annett State Forest is two miles to the northeast. Saving the Wapack Wilderness will link and expand a network of natural areas.

Wapack Wilderness, New Hampshire

Left: View of Island Pond and Wapack Range. Above: Looking over Binney Pond State Forest from the summit of Pratt Mountain.

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Working for Balance From the President and Executive Director

Board of directors

Tim Burke, NY Daryl Burtnett, NHTom Butler, VT Eve Endicott, MAAnne Faulkner, NHPeter Lowell, MEMerloyd Ludington, MAJim Northup, VTKeith Ross, MARick Van de Poll, PhD, NH

advisors

Phyllis Austin, ME Meade Cadot, NH Mike DiNunzio, NY Carolyn Fine Friedman, MABill McKibben, VT David Publicover, PhD, NHStephen Trombulak, PhD, VT Kathleen H. Fitzgerald Executive Director

Lindsey Farnsworth Membership & Administrative Coordinator

Joshua Brown Newsletter Editor

Design: RavenMark, Inc.

Northeast Wilderness Trust is a 501(c)3, membership organization.

contact information

Northeast Wilderness Trust

14 Beacon Street, Suite 506 Boston, MA 02108617-742-0628 (phone)617-742-0639 (fax)

info@newildernesstrust.orgwww.newildernesstrust.org

Northeast Wilderness Trust is a regional land trust working to preserve and restore forever-wild landscapes for wildlife

and people in New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Please contact us to learn how you can preserve your land or become a member today.

Walking on the Wild Side Page 2

Fall 2005

Kathleen H. Fitzgerald, DirectorRick Van de Poll, President

“Wild country...a means of reassuring ourselves of our sanity as creatures, a part of the geography

of hope. – Wallace Stegner

cross the Northeast there has been tremendous land protection success; however, it is sobering to think that New Hampshire, the fastest growing state in the region, loses approximately 17,000 acres to development every year. In addition, the rate of consumption of natural resources grows each year in NH, and the construction of new homes now uses more energy, fiber, minerals and water than ever before. What will it take to balance the ecological budget? How might we invest in our natural resources on a bioregional basis so that our children and our children’s grandchildren will have enough to live on in the next century? In an age where our discussions of Hurricane Katrina, genocide in Darfur, and war in Iraq give scant lip service to the long-term damage to thenatural community versus the human one, is this even possible? Are we evenaware of the long-term ecological damage we inflict upon the world? We atthe Northeast Wilderness Trust believe that one of the critical ingredientsto reaching balance is wilderness preservation. It is, finally, an act of humility.

As Aldo Leopold wrote,

The outstanding scientific discovery of the twentieth century is not television, or radio, but rather the complexity of the land organism. Only those who know the most about it can appreciate how little we know about it. The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: “What good is it?” If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not.

In an effort to strike ecological balance, the Northeast Wilderness Trust is preserving places of wildness, mystery and richness. We are excited toannounce our latest land protection campaign in New Hampshire—the WapackWilderness. In addition, as our land protection program grows, so is our staff; please see the announcement inside. We invite you to join us as we aim to preserve nature’s complexity by protecting private lands as wild. Thank you for your support of this hopeful work.

For the Wild,

Wapack Ridge

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Conservation SuccessesCampaign to Save Maine Land Moves Forward

To our great pleasure, Lindsey Farnsworth has joined our staff as our membership and administrative coordina-tor. Lindsey graduated from Brandeis University in May 2005 with a BA in Sociology and Latin

American Studies and an honorary minor in En-vironmental Studies. She has previously interned with Greenpeace, Envirocitizen, and Alternatives for Community and Environment. Much of her past work has focused on environmental justice, and now she is looking forward to learning more about the land trust movement and working with those who have been advancing wilderness preservation throughout the Northeast. Welcome Lindsey!

here’s big wild country in the Alder Stream Watershed in north-central Maine. Together, we’re going to keep it that way. It’s a breathtaking landscape of cedar swamps and bogs, conifer and hard-wood forests. Mink and river otter splash in its waterways and the land is still “mossy and moosey,” as Henry David Thoreau described the untamed Maine woods in the 1840s. Now, the Northeast Wilderness Trust stands poised to complete an important conservation agreement to protect this rich land, by taking ownership of 1,500 acres at the heart of the watershed. Thanks to your generous donations and commitment, we have raised 40% of the purchase price in short order. Our goal of $315,000 can be reached quickly—with your help. These 1,500 acres are pivotal to the ecological health of the whole watershed. The property contains significant portions of Alder Stream and extensive frontage on the Piscataquis River, an important river for Atlantic Salmon

recovery. It is connected by forested corridors to a 6,600-acre state wildlife management area and other conservation lands. Approximately 12,000 acres in the watershed have already been protected by the state and

private organizations. Conservation science shows that the great-est benefit to conserving biodiversity comes from protecting large, connected natural areas. By adding to these already protected lands, our Alder Stream property will help to stitch together a wild landscape. The generous owner of the property has removed most of the land’s develop-ment and timber rights in order to reduce the value

of the parcel, allowing us to purchase this land for just $210 per acre. Join the Northeast Wilderness Trust in working to purchase the Alder Stream property. We can ensure that the watershed’s woods and wetlands stay intact for future generations of bears and bitterns, wood turtles and warblers—and people. Please help us save this extraordinary place!

I’d like to help the Northeast Wilderness Trust preserve Alder Stream

o I’d like to support the acquisition of acres of the Alder Stream property. ($210 per acre)

o Enclosed is $

o Please do not send an Alder Stream Certificate.

o Please send an Alder Stream Certificate. Name to appear on the certificate:

o Please send me more information.

This is a gift from:

My name:

My address:

Please send the certificate to:

Address:

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Welcome Lindsey Farnsworth

ore than 90% of the northeastern United States is privately owned,” notes Kathleen Fitzgerald, Northeast Wilderness Trust’s executive director, “so private land acquisition and protection has become a necessary—and powerful—tool for conservationists in our region. We cannot solely rely on the preservation of public land wilderness under the 1964 Wilderness Act.” With this message, Fitzgerald led a delegation from New England in late September to the World Wilderness Congress in Anchorage, Alaska, where 1100 delegates from 55 countries gathered. There, she moderated a symposium exploring how this model of private land preservation contrasts with and complements the more well-known approach of federal designation of wilder-ness, often seen on public land in the American West. Sponsored by Ben & Jerry’s, Sweet Water Trust, and the Wild Foundation, the symposium included presenta-

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Northeast Wilderness Trust Protecting Land Between Lake Champlain and the Adirondack High Peaks

addling across Lake Champlain from Vermont’s Kingsland Bay State Park, a swath of green land can be seen to the west; it’s a beautiful arc of undeveloped shoreline. This is Split Rock Mountain and beyond it rise many spires of the Adirondack Mountains. The Northeast Wilderness Trust will acquire land in this region as part of our ongoing work to protect the Split Rock Wildway, a habitat linkage extending from the Champlain Valley of New York to the Jay Range Wilderness in the Adirondacks. NWT purchased an ease-ment on a 90-acre property here in March 2005—a unique floodplain and clayplain forest along the Boquet River. Now, we are set to purchase two additional properties in the wildway. NWT was delighted to receive a grant from the New York State Conservation Partnership Program (NYSCPP) to help with these acquisitions; it’s a remark-

able vote of support by the State for Northeast Wilder-ness Trust’s work in the wildway. The NYSCPP is funded through the Environmental Protection Fund and jointly administered by the Land Trust Alliance (LTA) and the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). NWT extends its gratitude to LTA and the State of New York for helping land trusts preserve New York’s special places. NWT is deeply grateful for support from the Conservation Alliance and Fendler Communications for land preservation in the wildway and for research on a possible wildway trail. NWT hired trail consultant John Davis to assess possible pedestrian trail locations, map existing trails, and determine compatibility with habitat protection. Special thanks to Heron Dance, www.heron-dance.org, for their support of the Split Rock Wildway.

NWT executive director Kathleen Fitzgerald (7th from the right), NWT board members Tim Burke (last on right) and Tom Butler (12th from the right), join other grant winners selected by the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Land Trust Alliance under the NYS Conservation Partnership Program.

“M tions by NWT advisor Steve Trombulak, a conservation biologist at Middlebury College, NWT board member Tom Butler, author of a forthcoming book on wildlands philanthropy, James Sullivan, Executive Director of Two Countries One Forest, Karin Tilberg, Deputy Commissioner of Maine Department of Conservation, and John Davis, a conser-vation activist from the Adirondacks. “The landscape of the northeastern United States reflects an incredible story of recovery,” said Fitzgerald, as part of her presentation, “After centuries of massive clearing, the forests are returning and wildlife rebound-ing. While cause for hope, this recovery is incomplete.” Many delegates to the wilderness congress were surprised to learn that less than four percent of the northeastern United States is protected as forever-wild.

NWT Leads Symposium at World Wilderness Congress

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Walking on the Wild Side Page 5

We’ve moved.

A Natural ClassroomContinued from page 1

The opportunity to protect an intact forest the size of the Wapack Wilderness is increasingly rare—and increas-ingly important. New Hampshire faces unprecedented growth. By 2020, the N.H. Office of State Planning esti-mates a population increase of 38%, much of it concen-trated in the southern part of the state. With rapid growth comes habitat damage and fragmentation. Each year, nearly 17,000 acres of open space are lost to develop-ment in New Hampshire. Property values are soaring, and the demand for developable land is great. Not surprisingly, in recent years the cost of maintain-ing such a large property has become a financial burden for the Hampshire Country School, a family-style board-ing school for high-ability boys who need a small school with an unusual amount of adult attention. Rather than developing its land holdings for maximum profit, the school found a solution that speaks to its values and history: its trustees have offered to sell a conservation

easement on the school’s wildest 1,400 acres to the Northeast Wilderness Trust. By working with the Trust, the school will preserve this unique landscape, main-tain a natural classroom for its students, and generate needed revenue for its educational programs. Students and school, land and wild creatures, residents and visitors—all win.

Please visit us at our new “Beantown” office:

14 Beacon Street, Suite 506Boston, MA 02108

617-742-0628 (phone)617-742-0639 (fax)

If you have a special place you want to help preserve, please

contact the Northeast Wilderness Trust office directly:

(617) 742-0628 orinfo@newildernesstrust.org

Eve Endicott Joins NWT Board

W e’re delighted to announce that Eve Endicott has joined the NWT board of directors. Eve brings 30 years of passionate, expert experience to the job through her role as a vice president and regional director for The Nature Conservancy, her training as a lawyer, and her many other contributions to land protection in New England. She co-wrote a book for Island Press on public/private partnerships for land conservation, and her extensive background initiating and implementing complex land conservation projects make her a remarkable asset to our organization. Eve loves to kayak and hike in wild places. And, as resident of Boston, we look forward to seeing her often at our new office. Welcome Eve!

Split Rock Wildway partners left to right John Davis, Tom Butler, NWT Board member, Joe Martens, Open Space Institute, and Jamie Phillips on a site walk.

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We are well on our way toward raising the $1,350,000 needed to ensure the Wapack

Wilderness remains forever wild.

But we need your help to get the job done.

Make a tax-deductible contribution today and send it to:

Northeast Wilderness Trust 14 Beacon Street, Suite 506

Boston, MA 02108.

Thank you.

Northeast Wilderness Trust 14 Beacon Street, Suite 506 Boston, MA 02108

617-742-0628 617-742-0639 (fax)

www.newildernesstrust.org

Walking on the Wild Side Page 6

Northeast Wilderness Trust T-shirts!

Patagonia, 100% organic cotton.$15 for adult sizes: S, M, L, XL (colors: white, natural, yellow) $10 for kids: S, M, L (colors: white, natural)

(No small yellow available)

Northeast Wilderness Trust logo on the back.

Price includes shipping and handling. Send check and order information to Northeast Wilderness Trust.

Become a Member Today!Please join Northeast Wilderness Trust’s work to preserve wild nature in the Northeast by becoming a member.

r $25 Friend r $50 Supporter r $100 Guardian

Please make checks payable to Northeast Wilderness Trust.Send your name, address & tax-deductible donation to:

Northeast Wilderness Trust, 14 Beacon Street, Suite 506, Boston, MA 02108.

Thank you for your support!

r $250 Preserverr $500 Protectorr $1000 Benefactor

Give the Gift that Keeps on Giving

Looking for the perfect birthday gift or anniversary present? Look no further–make a donation to the Northeast Wilderness Trust’s Wildlands Philanthropy Fund. This Fund is used exclusively for land protection and is a superb way to recognize a friend, colleague, or family member. Contact us for more information at 617-742-0628.

You’re Invited!Northeast Wilderness Trust’s

Open House & Annual MeetingFriday, Oct 214:30-6:30 pm

Please join our board of directors and staff for food and drink at NWT’s new office at

14 Beacon Street, Suite 506, Boston.

Come hear about the NWT’s exciting wilderness initiatives.

RSVP to 617-742-0628