JAY — Northeast Wilderness Trust has permanently protected more than 340 acres adjacent to the Long Trail corridor and Jay State Forest, creating the Journey’s End Wilderness Preserve.
The Montpelier-based regional land trust announced the protection, which bolsters Vermont’s conservation landscape and strengthens northern Vermont’s wildlife corridors during a time of rapid ecosystem change.
The project capitalizes on habitat connectivity opportunities presented by long-distance hiking trails. The 272-mile Long Trail is a continuous stretch of conserved lands spanning Vermont’s length and connecting with Canada’s Sutton Mountains.
“The history of conservation along the Long Trail is one of incredible foresight by many individuals and organizations,” said Jon Leibowitz, president and CEO of Northeast Wilderness Trust. “We are happy to contribute to the mosaic of conserved public and private land—both managed and wild—that today anchors Vermont’s most iconic hiking experience.”
Leibowitz noted that wildlife, especially wide-ranging species like moose and fisher, require linkages between conserved lands to find mates, food and shelter, particularly as they adapt to rising temperatures.
Journey’s End joins other Northeast Wilderness Trust projects along trail corridors, including more than 16,000 forever-wild acres adjacent to the Appalachian Trail and nearly 2,000 acres along New Hampshire’s Wapack Trail.
The preserve will boost Vermont’s wilderness acreage. Just 4 percent of Vermont is currently protected as wilderness, where nature directs life with minimal human influence. Balancing wilderness with managed forests, farms, recreational lands and human communities is a key objective of Northeast Wilderness Trust’s work and a goal of Vermont Conservation Design.
The preserve’s former owners, Ted Vogt and Susan Shea, recognized the land’s ecological and connectivity potential early on.
“I gained an appreciation for the beauty and environmental values of this land through my experiences as an end-to-ender on the Long Trail and as a Green Mountain Club volunteer,” Vogt said. “Twenty years ago I started to dream about protecting some of the lands around Journey’s End. Northeast Wilderness Trust has made that dream a reality.”
“We chose to work with the Wilderness Trust to conserve our land because of the organization’s forever-wild mission,” Shea added. “There is very little old-growth forest in Vermont; with time this forest will become one.”
Journey’s End will never be logged again. Two layers of legal protection secure the preserve’s future: primary ownership by Northeast Wilderness Trust and a conservation easement held by another land trust.
Since its founding in 2002, Northeast Wilderness Trust has protected more than 103,000 acres, including more than 19,000 acres in Vermont. More information is available at newildernesstrust.org.
