NORTHEAST WILDERNESS TRUST

Our primary purpose and the focus of our work is wilderness land conservation—protecting places by owning land and holding forever-wild easements. We prioritize projects that will add resilience to nature in the long run due to their size, character and/or location. We partner with other trusts, nonprofits, municipalities and other public and private landowners to advance such protection. We promote the value of wilderness and lend our voice to efforts that advance policies and practices that support wildland conservation, remove barriers and disincentives to forever-wild protection, and contribute to a wild and healthy future.

In 2020, NWT developed a 5-year strategic plan that focuses on the single goal to "accelerate the pace of wilderness conservation" with the aim to conserve 25,000 acres by 2025.

In order to accomplish our goal, we developed four main strategies/pillars as outlined below.

Pillar 1: Protect
Accelerate and expand wilderness preservation across the Northeast for the benefit of all life.

Benchmarks: By 2025, Northeast Wilderness Trust will preserve an additional 25,000 acres of wilderness and steward 60,000 total acres. (25 by ’25!)

How We’ll Do It:
• Prioritize landscapes that emphasize connectivity
• Expand conservation in focal landscapes
• Deepen existing partnerships
• Engage new partners across the Northeast
• Be a resource for other land trusts in exemplary stewardship

Pillar 2: Connect
Strengthen our region’s collective wilderness ethic by connecting people with meaningful wildlands experiences.

Benchmarks: Northeast Wilderness Trust will implement a new online experience and an on-the-ground ambassador land program, connecting people from all walks of life to the Northeast’s extraordinary wildlands.

How We’ll Do It:
• Offer new ways to experience and love wilderness
• Create ambassador landscapes (see opposite)
• Monitor rewilding areas
• Host events centered on wilderness spirituality and science
• Launch “Friends of Northeast Wilderness Trust” groups

Pillar 3: Champion
Elevate the understanding of and support for wilderness. Wild forests offer solutions to two great global crises: climate change and mass extinction. Rewilding the world’s natural habitats offers a hopeful path toward a brighter future.

Benchmarks: Northeast Wilderness Trust will articulate and promote the importance of wilderness across the region by publishing Wild Works and other articles, presenting on wilderness, and hosting gatherings.

How We’ll Do It:
• Define a wilderness ethic for the 21st century
• Increase awareness of wilderness values
• Convene “Wilderness Gatherings”
• Present regularly across the region
• Facilitate conversations about wilderness’ benefits with partners and state and local governments

Pillar 4: Sustain
Through organizational excellence, build an enduring institution that can deliver on the promise of perpetuity.

To advance the strategies of Protect, Connect, and Champion, Northeast Wilderness Trust will employ a variety of strategies to build a deeper and wider base of support. Doing this will allow the Wilderness Trust to increase staff capacity and mission effectiveness.

Benchmarks: Northeast Wilderness Trust both operates and is viewed as an efficient, transparent, professional, and resilient organization.

How We’ll Do It:
• Broaden volunteer opportunities
• Deepen relationships with all supporters
• Cultivate new funding sources
• Ensure financial stability
• Continue using best practices

NWT has a small, dedicated staff and board who work collaboratively with other land trusts, landowners and conservation organizations across the region. We respond to opportunities and strategically identify and protect wilderness areas in the northeast. This work will leave a legacy of wild forests for future generations of all species. As a small organization NWT is nimble and lean and is able to respond to emerging opportunities with success.

For over 17 years we have adhered to the strictest standards in land conservation. In 2009 we became an accredited member of the Land Trust Alliance, a national land conservation organization that works to save the places people need and love by strengthening land conservation across America.

Land trust accreditation is a mark of distinction, showing that we meet a high standard for land conservation. It demonstrates not only that we are a strong, effective organization but also that we successfully adhere to the Land Trust Accreditation Commission's Land Trust Standards and Practices. Accreditation is a catalyst for improvement, which results in faster, better, stronger conservation.

To ensure that all land is protected in perpetuity we have a formal Stewardship Fund. For each easement or property we acquire, a contribution is made to the fund. The Stewardship Fund ensures annual support for a portion of ongoing stewardship costs. In addition, it helps to cover the costs of membership in Terrafirma, a conservation defense insurance program. In the rare instance of legal action needed to defend a wilderness property, Terrafirma insures the costs of upholding conservation easements and fee lands held for conservation purposes.

During 2019 the Northeast Wilderness Trust:

Completed a 5-year strategic plan

Hired a new staff person, bringing our staff up to 5 full-time and one part-time

Received the transfer of the 5,487-acre Burnt Mountain forever-wild easement for permanent safekeeping, further cementing a close partnership between The Nature Conservancy in Vermont, which now owns the property.

Closed on the Eagle Mountain Wilderness Preserve in Chesterfield, NY, permanently safeguarding 2,445 acres of forest and five pristine ponds. This was the single largest fundraising lift completed by the Wilderness Trust in the shortest period of time.

Secured a small but important 13-acre lot in Atkinson, Maine that will be a public access gateway to the thousands of acres we already protect in the area.

Hired two new staff positions: 1. Outreach and Communications Coordinator to build the base of support for wilderness preservation throughout the region, and 2. Southern New England Land Steward, that boosts our capacity for monitoring and managing properties and easements in the most populous corner of our mission area

Published a 2018 Annual Report detailing our work.