Green Mountain Bear Corridor: Safer Passage for Vermont's Black Bears

The final piece in the 20,000-acre, 28-parcel Green Mountain Bear Corridor was secured last year with a 400-acre easement, thus completing a 12-year initiative led by the Fund with assistance from Appalachian Trail Conservancy, Freeman Foundation, Mt. Holly Conservation Trust, National Park Appalachian Trail Project, Ninevah Foundation, the State of Vermont, USDA Forest Service, Vermont Land Trust and many others.

"This is a critical milestone in the (long-term) effort on the part of many private and public organizations to conserve the lands between the two units of the Green Mountain National Forest for black bear and other wide ranging wildlife species."

- Kim Royar, Wildlife Biologist, Vermont Agency of Natural Resources

Summary

Bears need an extensive, uninterrupted range for access to varied food sources, mates, and territories that young bears can claim as their own when they leave their mothers. The Green Mountain Bear Corridor project was citizen-initiated in 1993 to secure safer passage through the Green Mountain range for black bears. Today, a host of partners celebrate the protection of a 20-mile travel corridor connecting two isolated north and south units of the Green Mountain National Forest.

Challenge

In Vermont, where black bears and humans compete for the same forested mountains, the fragmentation of critical bear habitat is a growing problem.

Solution

Given the challenges and complexities of protecting a checkerboard mix of state and private lands, a partnership led by The Conservation Fund helped the initiative succeed. Together with Appalachian Trail Conservancy, Freeman Foundation, Mt. Holly Conservation Trust, National Park Appalachian Trail Project, Ninevah Foundation, the State of Vermont, USDA Forest Service, and Vermont Land Trust, the Fund preserved a passageway linking Vermont's disconnected black bear territories.

Results

Tracing the Green Mountains' spine in south-central Vermont, this 20,000-acre expanse is now protected for bear passage. The corridor connects the north and south units of the Green Moutain National Forest with Calvin Coolidge State Forest, Plymsbury Wildlife Management Area and other private and public conserved lands.