Vickie Bunnell
Easement

Northeast Wilderness Trust holds a forever-wild easement on the Vickie Bunnell Preserve, owned by The Nature Conservancy in New Hampshire. The rugged, mountainous 10,330-acre preserve lies near the Connecticut River in the northern New Hampshire towns of Stratford and Columbia.

Vickie Bunnell Preserve is complemented by adjacent managed forestland also owned by The Nature Conservancy in New Hampshire and further protected by an easement held by the State of New Hampshire. Altogether, these conservation lands include 15 square miles of high-quality wildlife habitat.

The preserve contains exemplary spruce-fir forests at high elevation; they are considered the best remaining example of this forest type north of the White Mountains. Four thousand acres of mature and old-growth forest, all in excellent condition, have been documented on this land.

Within Vickie Bunnell Preserve is New Hampshire’s highest mountain north of the White Mountain National Forest, the great Bunnell Mountain (or, Blue Mountain) which rises over 3700 feet.

Bunnell Mountain at 3,723 feet and 12 other peaks over 3,000 feet are inside the preserve. There are 28 miles of streams, the Cranberry Bog wetland complex, and several rocky outcrop cliffs that provide potential nesting habitat for peregrine falcons. Several rare plants and birds, such as the Bicknell’s Thrush, as well as American marten, have been found here.

Vickie Bunnell Preserve is open to the public; learn more about visiting this vast forever-wild landscape from The Nature Conservancy in New Hampshire’s website.

The permanent conservation of the preserve was made possible thanks to Sweet Water Trust.

Photography by Shelby Perry