Working to build awareness, appreciation and commitment towards maintaining healthy, intact, forested landscapes in Southwestern Vermont.
This project is supported by a generous grant made available from the High Meadows Funds (now Vermont Community Foundation), awarded to Merck Forest & Farmland Center.
Did you know that the Taconic Mountains contribute to one of the world’s most intact temperate broad-leaf forests, spanning from New York to Nova Scotia?
Why are intact forests important? Well, networks of intact forest form a connected landscape, which serves to maintain wildlife travel corridors and support forest resilience, carbon storage and a myriad of other ecosystem services including clean air, clean water, and nutrient cycling.
We are on a mission to maintain this intact forested landscape.
The Connected Taconics Project aims to empower the public in a collaborative effort to steward this landscape. By providing free educational services and connecting people with regional ecosystem monitoring efforts we are working to better to understand and conserve the ecological value of these lands, together.
Taconics to Green Mountains Linkage
The Staying Connected Initiative has identified 9 key linkages serving to connect ecosystems spanning the Northern Appalachian-Acadian Region extending from New York to Nova Scotia. Located in Southwestern Vermont, the Taconic Mountains to Green Mountains linkage represents one of these rare, and highly important, areas.
A keystone forest linking it all together
Here in our backyard exists a keystone block of 42,000 acres of currently intact forest that is a critical pinch-point maintaining the Taconic to Greens Linkage. Vermont Conservation Design has assigned this forest a state-wide importance score of a 9 on a 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest) priority scale. This area is bounded by route 7A to the East, Route 315 to the North, Route 313 to the South and Rupert-Sandgate Road to the West.
Learn More…
…about our mission, partners, and the results of our efforts.
Lets Connect
Ready to learn more? Request a free consult from a professional ecologist or attend an upcoming workshop.
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