Northeast Wilderness Trust is a non-profit organization that protects wilderness throughout the New England and the Adirondacks. The unique aspect of Northeast Wilderness Trust (NEWT) is that it is the only organization working across the Northeast focused exclusively on forever-wild conservation. This group currently cares for more than 41,000 acres of wildlands across the six states. The Wilderness Trust owns some of their land and protects other lands through legal means including conservation easements.
At the end of March NEWT purchased 3,415 acres of mountain slopes on Mount Redington where some peaks are more than 4000 feet high. The Sanctuary sits between Bigelow Preserve and Saddleback Mountain, just west of Rangeley, ME. (Another NEWT acquisition, the 1,155 –acre Lone Mountain Wilderness Sanctuary is located just southwest of Redington.) Both properties are located within the Northern Appalachian/Acadian Forest Ecoregion—the largest and most intact temperate forest in North America.
The Western Maine Mountains extend from the Mahoosuc Range at Maine’s western border northeasterly to the hundred mile wilderness and Mt. Katadin There are many conserved forests in Maine’s high peaks but unlike the lands that NEWT acquires most are protected as “working woodlands”; they are managed and logged.
Keeping our mountainous forests interconnected is among the most widely cited strategies for ecosystem resilience in the face of climate change. The Redington Wilderness Sanctuary will never be logged and eventually will become an old growth forest. Additionally Northeast Wilderness Trust will donate a forever-wild easement to the Maine Appalachian Trail Land Trust, further safeguarding this land’s wildness.
Let’s think about what it means for nature that NEWT has purchased this land, according to their approach and philosophy.
“Forever-wild conservation is about freedom for wildlife, natural processes, and the evolution of the landscape,” writes Sophi Veltrop, Outreach Coordinator for Northeast Wilderness Trust. “What do we mean when we talk about ‘wildness’ or ‘rewilding’? In a wild landscape, trees grow old and store massive amounts of carbon. Trees also fall and remain in place, providing shelter to diverse species and enriching forest soils. On forever-wild land, management is minimal to non-existent, with light restoration occasionally occurring at the beginning phases of conservation. Rather than promoting ‘recreation,’ we encourage people to experience the land in reciprocity—through quiet enjoyment of the land and its wondrous beings without any motors or mechanization. There is no timber harvesting, in perpetuity.
And, while the focus of this type of conservation is for the more-than-human community of life, the many gifts offered by untamed forests inevitably spill over into the human world. People receive pristine water, birdsong, fresh air, spring flowers, dark nighttime skies, snowy animal tracks, and quiet places to escape the clamor of everyday life. Stepping into the wild, we can experience in our bones the fundamental truth that land does not belong to us, but that we belong to the land.”1
The acquisition of this Redington property also launches NEWT’s first project in the Wild Carbon™ program. People who buy wild carbon credits will know that none of the trees on these properties will ever be harvested for timber. “We are proud that every property enrolled in our carbon project will support old-growth forests in the future. This is a win for biodiversity and for long-term carbon storage,” says Sophie Ehrhardt, the Wildlands Partnership Coordinator for the Wilderness Trust. “We are pleased to bring to market high-quality offset credits for organizations and businesses with serious sustainability goals.” Perhaps just as important is knowing that all revenue from this program will go towards long term care of wild and resilient landscapes and towards conserving more of them*.
President Biden committed us to a global initiative last January. 30 by 30 calls for 30 percent of the earth to be conserved by the year 2030. Attaining this goal is necessary to protect biodiversity and existing ecosystems. Conserving land as wilderness is a critical component for saving species from extinction during climate change. NEWT’s purchase of the Redington Sanctuary and others like it puts us on the path to meet the president’s goal.
Redington Sanctuary is made up of a thriving and rare sub-alpine forest which begins at about 2,600 feet and extends to the tree line. This ecosystem supports birds like Spruce Grouse, Blackpoll warblers, Bay breasted warblers, Black – backed woodpeckers, and the threatened Bicknells thrush. It also provides habitat for the endangered lynx, American marten, coyotes, black bears and moose. The headwaters of many streams begin on the Redington property, including Oberton Brook, which provides critical habitat for Atlantic salmon downstream beyond the Sanctuary’s boundaries.
Fir waves, an ecological phenomenon that only occurs in the Northeast and Japan, are another special feature found at Redington Wilderness Sanctuary. A fir wave begins when a balsam forest ages and begins to die back. The remaining up wind trees are vulnerable because they are now exposed to the elements and so they begin to die back slowly. Meanwhile new growth begins on the other side of the gap. This process, which can occur over hundreds of years creates bands of differently aged forests that stretch across the mountainsides. From a distance these appear as serpentine silver snakes against forest green..
The other notable aspect of the Redington forest is that although fir dominate, Heart –leaved birch also thrive here. Heart – leaved birch were once considered to be a variety of paper birch. But the species is distinct because of its heart shaped many veined leaves, its pinkish –brown bark, and the fact that it only occurs in high elevation Appalachian and northern habitats.
The fact that this tree’s leaves are really heart shaped brings out the poet in me. In this unique Sanctuary ‘the wild heart of the forest’ also comes to life as a tree.
*Chief Seathl (Seattle) 1854 speech: “This we know: The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth.”
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