Northeast Wilderness Trust holds a forever-wild easement on 1,170 acres of wilderness embedded within Vermont’s West Mountain Wildlife Management Area.
These four parcels in Brunswick were originally protected in 2002, when Sweet Water Trust helped The Nature Conservancy in Vermont purchase the land. The two organizations partnered to remove old logging roads and abandoned structures, helping to jump-start natural restoration.
The West Mountain forever-wild lands fill gaps within the “Ecological Core”—more than 12,000 acres of interior habitat—of the 22,000-acre West Mountain Wildlife Management Area, which is owned and managed by the State of Vermont’s Agency of Natural Resources. The West Mountain Wildlife Management Area and wilderness lands complement conserved forest in northern Vermont that includes state forests, parks, wildlife management areas, town forests, and private easements. All told, these protected lands secure more than 156,000 acres, which important sustenance and space for wide-ranging species such as moose, black bear, and possibly Canada lynx and eastern wolf.
