Widening the Wild

Freedom for the land, freedom for all people.

When it comes to diversity, equity, and inclusion in conservation, Northeast Wilderness Trust recognizes there is much work to be done. We acknowledge the painful histories of discrimination and oppression that have caused today’s inequities—within and beyond the conservation field. “Widening the Wild” is the Wilderness Trust’s initiative to move towards a fair and just wilderness movement that amplifies a diversity of human voices in the common fight for a resilient, abundant Earth—for all life.

EMERGENT COLLABORATIONS

Northeast Wilderness Trust is growing new relationships with indigenous peoples across New England and New York. This includes an emergent collaboration with Native Land Conservancy (NLC), an indigenous-led land trust dedicated to protecting culturally and ecologically important places in the ancestral homelands of the Wampanoag and other tribal Nations. Learn more about this collaborative work by clicking below.

REWILDING INTERNSHIP

In 2022 Northeast Wilderness Trust hosted a paid internship that offered wilderness stewardship experience. The goal of this evolving program is to kick-start careers in conservation and contribute to diversifying this workforce. A more diverse wilderness movement is a more durable, joyful, and beautiful one.

The Rewilding Internship was co-hosted in 2022 with Native Land Conservancy, and was based at Muddy Pond Wilderness Preserve and the Wampanoag Common Lands.

Please contact sophi [@] newildernesstrust.org if you’d like to be notified of future internship openings, or if you’d like to see this opportunity offered in your community.

COMMUNITY CONSERVATION

You have to love something before you are moved to save it.

Sylvia Earle

Community Conservation is the practice of connecting people to the land, and to each other. This type of conservation responds to needs expressed by the people who live near the conservation land. In Massachusetts, at Muddy Pond Wilderness Preserve, Land Steward Joe Falconeiri welcomes local school groups seeking outdoor education experiences and shares wilderness values and conservation ethics with students and teachers. In this urban context, opportunities to experience wild places are rare. Muddy Pond serves as a living laboratory and outdoor classroom for youth who may not otherwise get to spend time outdoors. We approach this work carefully, while striving to balance access with ecological protection.

If your school group is interested in visiting a wilderness preserve to learn about ecological values and how to make the world a wilder place, please contact sophi [@] newildernesstrust.org or 802.224.1000 ext. 108