The Nature Conservancy in Vermont - Long Pond Natural Area

Long Pond.

Visitor Information

The old logging roads at Long Pond Natural Area make good hiking trails and canoe access is possible from the opposite side of the pond. More information and directions to the natural area.

Get Involved

Would you like to get outside and help nature at the same time? Our stewardship staff holds volunteer work days here and around the state. Check out our volunteer page.

This 99-acre pond is remote and undeveloped, a place where beavers paddle freely and nature runs its own course. Softwood and northern hardwood forest surrounds the pond and a 30-acre northern white cedar swamp, located at the pond’s southern end, is a stunning ecological highlight.

Size
767 acres

What to see: plants
The northern hardwood forest surrounding the pond is composed of sugar maple, red maple, yellow birch, American beech, balsam fir, white and red spruce and white ash. The understory includes hophornbeam and striped maple. A few large old individual yellow birches still persist.

The mature northern white cedar swamp at the south end of the pond, on either side of Sawmill Brook, is the most extensive of several wetlands in the area. The dense canopy of cedar is broken occasionally by large white spruce. Flanking the brook is an open, narrow sedge-shrub swamp with sweet gale, leatherleaf, speckled alder and a variety of sedges. There are several rare plant species on the property.

What to see: animals
Long Pond is a rich haven for fauna. A few of the birds documented here include the common loon, flycatchers, great blue heron, mallard and black duck, red-tailed hawk, bald eagle, osprey, pileated woodpecker, hermit thrush, purple finch and black-throated green warbler. Mammals like the mink, snowshoe hare, red-backed vole, long-tailed weasel, river otter, bobcat, porcupine and moose also find their way to Long Pond.

Why the Conservancy selected this site
The cedar swamp that lies along the Long Pond outlet stream was identified as a high priority for conservation, and the undeveloped watershed adds to the importance of this site.

What the Conservancy is doing
The Conservancy continues to conserve parcels around the pond in order to protect the cedar swamp and the watershed that feeds the pond and the swamp.

Visitor information
The old logging roads on the property make good hiking trails, though a high-clearance vehicle or a set of sturdy legs is needed to traverse the rugged road that leads to the preserve and a walking trail that begins on the east side of the pond and leads to a lookout on Paddock Hill.

Canoe access is possible from the west side of the pond at the Fish and Wildlife fishing access. See directions below. Please read our preserve visitation guidelines.

Directions
From Willey’s General Store in Greensboro Village, take Garvin Hill Road for about three miles until you come to a “Y”. Bear left on Hill Road and, after about half a mile, bear right onto Hillcrest Road. Go three-quarters of a mile, then take a left onto Tamarack Ranch Road, as it’s called in the Vermont Gazetteer. There is an old converted schoolhouse on the right-hand corner and then a homestead on the left. After that it becomes a rough woods road. To drive in, you need a high clearance vehicle. Drive in as far as you are comfortable, avoiding right-hand turns. Park on the left side of the road at a small marked parking area and walk in straight until you come to the Conservancy trail sign-in box. Paddock Hill Trail begins here, uphill to your right.

To access the cedar swamp and the pond itself, follow the directions above. After taking the left on Hill Road, continue straight. Go about a mile until you reach the unmarked Vermont Fish and Wildlife fishing access road to the pond on the right. Park your car along Hill Road and walk down the unmarked road. Canoes may be launched from this point but the put-in is a long carry from Hill Road.