This project will enable the Green Mountain Conservancy to further its mission of acquiring and protecting increasingly rare natural landscapes in southern Vermont. A 626-acre complex forest ridgeline and river corridor property, the end of the iconic Putney Mountain Ridge, has become available through a generational land transfer. Acquisition of this land by the not for profit Green Mountain Conservancy will increase the size of the Deer Run Nature Preserve (DRNP) to 913 acres.
To conserve a large unfragmented and rare block of highest priority forest and agricultural land to: 1. Support on-going and threatened biodiversity including the protection of rare and endangered species like the bob-o-link and northern long-eared bat; 2. Allow the forest to regenerate naturally; 3. Protect the 2.5 miles of river frontage from degradation and pollution, and 4. Provide public access for recreation and environmental education.
The Green Mountain Conservancy will raise the needed funds to purchase, conserve and manage this 626 acre parcel of pristine woodland, which, together with its first purchase, a 287 acre contiguous parcel, will create a 913 acre nature preserve.
DRNP will protect numerous common and rare species and the natural communities they need to survive and thrive; irreplaceable geological features resulting from floods, glaciation and continental collisions; and 2.5 miles of pristine river frontage. It will safeguard a wildlife corridor from the CT River to the Green Mountains, sequester 1600 tons of carbon yearly and provide resilience against climate change. The aesthetic values of this amazing ridgeline will be preserved.
