Silvio O. Conte National Wildlife Refuge

In 1998 The Conservation Fund worked with private, public and nonprofit partners to protect 300,000 acres of critical forestland in New York, New Hampshire and Vermont through a series of acquisitions, completing the largest multi-state conservation project in U.S. history.

As part of this project, The Conservation Fund and its partners purchased approximately 133,000 acres from Champion International Corporation. Some 26,000 acres of the acquisition were used to create the Nulhegan Unit of the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge. Located in Essex County, in the heart of the famed Northeast Kingdom, these lands contain the largest deer wintering areas in the state, miles of river frontage in the Nulhegan Basin and Paul Stream watersheds and many ecologically sensitive areas containing a variety of rare and threatened species of wildlife and plants.

Prior to this acquisition, the Nulhegan Basin was one of the most significant unprotected wetlands in northern New England. The refuge supports healthy populations of moose and provides an economic base to local communities that rely on tourists seeking recreation opportunities. The remainder of the larger 300,000 acres of forestlands were conserved for sustainable forestry or protected as wildlife habitat in refuges and state wildlife management areas.