Nearly 500 acres of private land at the entrance to the popular Robert T. Stafford White Rocks National Recreation Area in Wallingford have been conserved in perpetuity as public land.
That鈥檚 according to the Trust for Public Land, which secured funding for the acquisition.
The property is home to the popular network and features views of Otter Creek, the Taconic Range and the Green Mountains.
鈥淚t鈥檚 just a remarkable place, in part because of the really fascinating geology of the White Rocks area鈥檚 quartzite cliffs,鈥� said Shelby Semmes, who leads the Trust for Public Land鈥檚 work in Vermont. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a great destination in late summer when it鈥檚 very hot and humid. When you walk on the Ice Beds Trail, you feel like you鈥檙e walking into a refrigerator because ice gets stored there.鈥�
The parcel sits adjacent to the state-owned Otter Creek Wildlife Management Area and federally managed Green Mountain National Forest, and it expands a swath of more than 270,000 acres of conserved forestland.
Connected blocks of forest this big are a rarity in Vermont, and scientists say they are critical for protecting biodiversity as the climate changes.
Semmes says the newly conserved land constitutes a bridge for wildlife and plants, between the Otter Creek wetland complex on the valley floor and the top of the Green Mountain spine.
It鈥檚 also really nice to know that you鈥檙e walking along the Long Trail or the AT on the spine of the Greens, and that there is just a connected corridor, a natural state of being, all the way down to the valley floor.Shelby Semmes, Trust for Public Land
She says this sort of corridor is critical for helping plants and animals move into cooler habitat as the climate warms, without having to migrate to far northern climes.
鈥淚t鈥檚 also really nice to know that you鈥檙e walking along the Long Trail or the AT on the spine of the Greens, and that there is just a connected corridor, a natural state of being, all the way down to the valley floor,鈥� Semmes said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 reassuring for a lot of people that those places exist.鈥�
Prior to the transaction, the parcel was owned by a local family who managed the popular community hiking trails there for more than 90 years.
The family asked not to be identified but said in a statement, 鈥淭hese woods are our friends and we look forward to a continued relationship with them under the careful stewardship of the Green Mountain National Forest.鈥�
In 2023, Vermont committed to conserving 30% of the state鈥檚 land by 2030 and 50% of the state鈥檚 land by 2050. This acquisition counts towards that effort.
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In addition to providing recreation value, the land is also a biodiversity hotspot, according to the Trust for Public Land, and is home to habitat frequented by state- and federally endangered bats, peregrine falcons and the state-threatened plant short-styled snakeroot. It鈥檚 also home to a large wetland complex that provides flood resilience to communities downstream.
The effort was funded in part by the , a program created by Congress in the 1960s that invests earnings from offshore oil and gas leases to acquire new federal land. It鈥檚 one of the largest sources of funding nationwide for conservation projects.
The Appalachian Trail Conservancy, Conservation Alliance, Altra Running, Athletic Brewing and a host of individual donors also contributed to the acquisition.
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