Multi-year partnership to connect Worcester Range to Northern Greens reaches milestone, protects 1,200 priority acres for wildlife and forest health
When siblings David, Marc, Nella, and Paul Wennberg conserved 227 acres of forestland in Waterbury, they did something that will benefit wildlife across a much wider swath of Vermont’s landscape.
Their family property sits at the heart of one of Vermont’s most important wildlife corridors.
The Shutesville Hill Wildlife Corridor spans thousands of acres of forest along the town line between Stowe and Waterbury. It has been identified as one of ten top priority corridors in the state by the Vermont Department of Fish & Wildlife.
The permanent protection of the Wennberg family land will help keep pathways open for wildlife to thrive.
Header photo shows (left to right) Marc, David, Paul, and Nella Wennberg at a stream on the protected Waterbury land. Courtesy David Wennberg.
Protected land borders Stowe, has wetlands, streams, and a vernal pool
Located on the boundary with Stowe along the flanks of North Hill, the ecologically rich parcel has hardwood forest, a vernal pool, and miles of headwater streams.
There are also about five acres of wetlands that include an active beaver-influenced pond and wetland complex, and a forested swamp that is not common in Vermont.
Photo of bear in the Shutesville Hill Wildlife Corridor captured on a wildlife camera in 2019
“We are guests of the animals and flora”
“This land has always held a special meaning for the Ottolenghi-Wennberg family,” said David Wennberg, on behalf of the family. “Since we bought the property with our Waterbury Center friends and neighbors in the 1970s, we have considered this place as one where we are guests of the animals and flora that were there long before us. When the Vermont Land Trust approached us about preserving it as a critical piece of the wildlife corridor, we were very excited. With the conservation easement transferred this month, we feel the land is now where it was always destined to be.”
“This is a really critical stretch of forestland and wildlife habitat right in the center of the corridor,” explained Bob Heiser, VLT Project Director who worked with the Wennbergs. “We are grateful to the Wennberg family for ensuring that this critical link in the landscape remains connected, and for joining other rural landowners in the region who have conserved their lands for the benefit of wildlife.”
The Wennberg family generously sold the conservation easement for less than its appraised value.
A conservation ethic runs in the Wennberg family, as the siblings’ late mother, Emma Ottolenghi, conserved fifty acres of her land nearby, also in the Shutesville Hill Wildlife Corridor, in 2007. At the time, Emma said, “I’m doing this for my great, great, great grandchildren, and for Vermont.” Almost two decades later, her children have followed suit.
Aerial view of the Shutesville Hill Wildlife Corridor in Waterbury with the latest protected land in the center. Credit David Middleton
Protecting space for animals to roam, from the Worcester Range to the Green Mountains
The Shutesville Hill corridor is the only viable connection in the area for wildlife to move between two vast stretches of forest – the Worcester Range and the Northern Green Mountains.
Taken together, those forest swaths provide over 85,000 acres of intact, connected forested habitat for animals, especially wide-ranging species like bear and bobcat that need a lot of room to roam.
“Shutesville Hill Wildlife Corridor is regionally significant because it allows for east-west movement between the main spine of the Greens Mountains and the Worcester Range,” said Jens Hawkins-Hilke, conservation planning biologist with Vermont Fish & Wildlife. “This is important not only for regular movement of animals to meet their daily/seasonal needs, but also in the context of climate resilience; allowing entire populations to adjust their home ranges in the face of a changing climate.”
With increasing pressure to convert the forestland to other uses, saving space for wildlife in the corridor has been a conservation priority for nearly 15 years.
The Shutesville Hill Wildlife Corridor partnership, consisting of towns, conservation organizations, and state agencies, has been working to protect this threatened connection that is essential for wildlife and landscape resilience in the face of climate change.
The group works collaboratively and pools resources to assess the need, identify priority areas, and partner with local landowners who share their concern for Vermont’s wildlife and forests.
Map with protected land in the Shutesville Hill Wildlife Corridor in Waterbury and Stowe, Vermont
Project marks milestone in multi-year effort spanning Waterbury and Stowe
The Wennberg family land had long been identified as a priority parcel in the corridor, and is the seventh parcel protected by the Shutesville Hill Wildlife Corridor partnership.
This moment marks a milestone in the multi-year partnership effort, bringing the total to 1,200 conserved acres, over 25% of the priority area. It adds to the network of protected lands in the region that provide safe space for wildlife and plant species shifting northward as they adapt to a changing climate.
Given the land’s strategic importance in the Shutesville wildlife corridor, VLT sought conservation funding for the project once we began discussions with the Wennbergs.
The project received funding from the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board, The Nature Conservancy’s Vermont Biodiversity Protection Fund, as well as generous individual donors.
“We’re grateful to the Wennberg family for helping conserve a piece of land that is so important to wildlife, forest health, and the long-term resilience of this landscape,” said Gus Seelig, Executive Director of the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board. “This conservation project protects a strategically important section of one of Vermont’s highest-priority wildlife corridors. By keeping these forestlands connected, landowners and partners are helping support biodiversity, strengthen climate resilience, and ensure that future generations will continue to benefit from healthy, working natural landscapes.”
“The success of the Shutesville Hill Wildlife Corridor partnership demonstrates what can be accomplished when landowners and conservation partners collaborate to protect Vermont’s important natural areas,” commented Gannon Osborn, Director of Resilient and Connected Lands at The Nature Conservancy in Vermont. “The Nature Conservancy in Vermont greatly appreciates Vermont Land Trust’s work in this critical corridor and the opportunity to support this exceptional conservation project.”
Now that the land is conserved, VLT will continue to monitor the parcel into the future, and support current and future landowners in their land management.
