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SAVE THIS LAND, VERMONT, REWILDING

Help Create a New Sanctuary in Vermont

Northeast Wilderness Trust is working to conserve more than 800 acres in Ryegate, VT as the Blue Mountain Wilderness Sanctuary. The property we are raising funds to protect includes the summit and ridgeline of Blue Mountain and low-lying wetlands and forest along the mountain’s base. We need your help! Join us with a gift today to save this land as wilderness; we must raise the full funding to conserve this land by December 2022.

Blue Mountain, the namesake of the local high school and grange, is the scenic backdrop of much of Ryegate Corner. From its 2364’ rocky summit down to a low-lying Northern White Cedar Swamp (known as Ryegate Corner Swamp) at 970’, the proposed Blue Mountain Wilderness Sanctuary has an impressive diversity of habitats.

The landowner has amassed several smaller parcels over time to create this 800-acre forest block with the intention of devoting this land to wildlife habitat in perpetuity. He has never harvested trees on these lands, some of which he has owned since the 1990s, giving these forests a jump-start on their journey to a distinguished old age. If Northeast Wilderness Trust can raise the necessary funds, the Blue Mountain Wilderness Sanctuary will be permanently conserved and will someday be home to an ancient forest of tomorrow.

Situated at the nexus of three watersheds and spanning a 1,300’ elevation gradient, the Sanctuary sits at a moment of transition in the landscape. It lies at the transition zone between ecosystems typical of northern New England and those of southern New England. Protecting transition areas like this one as forever-wild will be of utmost importance as climate change becomes more severe. As wilderness, the Blue Mountain lands will continue to build resilience and foster the micro-climates needed by species rapidly losing ground due to climate change.

You can make a difference for Blue Mountain and all the beings who live here, from beech to beetles, from birds to bears. Your gift to create Blue Mountain Wilderness Sanctuary will leave a lasting legacy in Vermont.

Thank you!