JAMAICA -- Nearly 600 acres that will be allowed to grow into old-growth forest has officially been conserved as the College Hill Wilderness Sanctuary in Jamaica.
"College Hill Wilderness Sanctuary is a hopeful example of land trusts and private landowners working together to advance statewide conservation priorities," said Jon Leibowitz, president and CEO of Northeast Wilderness Trust. "Old forest is rare in Vermont, making this project an invaluable opportunity to boost in one transaction both wildlands and old-forest acreage as called for by Act 59 and the state's Agency of Natural Resources in the Vermont Conservation Design report."
The College Hill parcel is just to the west of Jamaica State Park, snuggled into an area surrounded by the Green Mountain National Forest and the Winhall Town Forest.
Northeast Wilderness Trust, a Montpelier-based regional land trust that focuses on wilderness conservation, purchased the land, which will be passively managed to allow the property's forests to transition to old growth.
Northeast Wilderness Trust's conservation and management approach helps remedy this imbalance by protecting land as "forever-wild," which delivers a suite of benefits for wildlife and the climate. Once preserved, Northeast Wilderness Trust lands are allowed to passively rewild, which minimizes human influence and allows forests to evolve naturally -- increasing in complexity, resilience, and carbon retention.
"These special places, the old-growth forests of tomorrow, tend to support greater species richness and act as powerful carbon sinks, both of which are critical as humanity confronts the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change," stated Leibowitz.
Act 59 requires that 30 percent of Vermont's land be conserved by 2030 and also stipulates that Act 59-related conservation decision-making "prioritiz[es] ecological reserve areas to protect highest priority natural communities and maintain or restore old forests."
According to the latest update from the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, the state is 89 percent of the way to the 30x30 goal. But significant additional acreage must be protected in the coming years if the state is to meet that target, according to the Wilderness Trust, a private organization which hopes to supplement the state's efforts to conserve land.
"Given the magnitude of that need, and considering that about 85 percent of Vermont's forests are in private hands, future state acquisitions of private land alone will likely be insufficient to close the gap," stated Leibowitz.
Northeast Wilderness Trust worked with the current landowner to keep the parcel from becoming part of the roughly 12,000 acres of forestland Vermont loses to development each year.
That the landowner chose to sell the property to a land trust, rather than to a developer or logger, is significant, said Leibowitz.
"The parcel has substantial logging and development potential, as its forests have not been cut since the 1940s and it lies close to Stratton Mountain Resort."
This and other active Northeast Wilderness Trust land conservation projects in Vermont, including Hawk's Nest Wilderness Preserve in the Northeast Kingdom and Journey's End Wilderness Preserve in Jay, will help the state meet another of its conservation goals.
The College Hill project is supported by The Nature Conservancy's Vermont Biodiversity Protection Fund, which was launched last January with a donation from an anonymous foundation. The protection fund is also funded by the Atlas Timberlands Partnership, which was created in 1997 by the Vermont Land Trust, TNC, the Freeman Foundation, and individual donations.
The Northeast Wilderness Trust, which has 230 acres in Guilford known as the Dykema Conservation Easement, has protected 95,000 acres in the Northeast, including 18,000 in Vermont.
Leibowitz said the Jamaica property is under incredible development pressure because of its location to Stratton Mountain Ski Area and is important for east-west passage of wildlife.
"It ranks quite high for its climate resiliency," he said. "But what's really special is the landowner hasn't logged it for 70 years, which makes it an old forest in Vermont."
To learn more, visit newildernesstrust.org.
College Hill Wilderness Preserve is one of seven projects in Vermont that received biodiversity grants from The Nature Conservancy, including two conservation projects in Newfane, and Halifax and Guilford.