Green Mountain Bear Corridor
Bear wandering the woods of Vermont.
Photo by Josh Rinehults/iStockphoto.com
At A Glance
- Green Mountain Bear Corridor is 20 miles long.
- The conservation effort took 12 years to complete.
- The effort was started in 1993 by a citizen-initiated project.
Bears need an extensive, uninterrupted range for access to varied food sources, mates and territories that young bears can claim as their own when they leave their mothers. In Vermont, where black bears and humans compete for the same forested mountains, the fragmentation of critical bear habitat is a growing problem.
Green Mountain Bear Corridor is a 20-mile travel corridor connecting two isolated north and south units of the Green Mountain National Forest with Calvin Coolidge State Forest, Plymsbury Wildlife Management Area and other private and public conserved lands. Tracing the Green Mountains’ spine in south-central Vermont, this 20,000-acre expanse is now protected for bear passage.
The Green Mountain Bear Corridor was completed after a 12-year effort that began in 1993 by a citizen-initiated project. Given the challenges and complexities of protecting a mix of state and private lands, many groups needed to work together to make the conservation effort to create a protected passageway linking Vermont’s disconnected black bear territories a success. The final 400 acres that completed the corridor was added by a partnership, led by the Fund, that included the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, the Freeman Foundation, the Mt. Holly Conservation Trust, National Park Appalachian Trail Project, Ninevah Foundation, the State of Vermont, USDA Forest Service and the Vermont Land Trust.
