Wildlife and Waterfowl Benefit from Wetlands Protection

Morgan, Vermont—3 May 2005—The Vermont chapter of The Nature Conservancy announced today the conservation of an additional 195 acres in the southern reaches of the Pherrins River Wetland Complex, located in the Northeast Kingdom. With the donation of a conservation easement on this 195-acre parcel, the partnership between The Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land has conserved more than 770-acres of boreal forest, swamps and bogs in this unique wetland area.

Known locally as Underpass Ponds, the wetlands complex provides a haven for resident wildlife and visiting waterfowl. An ancient sphagnum bog hides just out of sight, moose highways wind among the boreal trees and beaver dams dot the glacier-carved landscape. Braided channels of water flowing through the wetland complex run both north to the Coaticook River and south to the Pherrins River, a tributary of the mighty Clyde River.

The new owner, a private individual, worked with The Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land to create a conservation easement, designed to protect wildlife and the wild character of the property. He said, "It’s a place that really inspires a person to stop and take a look around. Now the world has it again. Very few things that we do are going to last as long as protecting the land."

Although the distant future of an individual parcel can never be guaranteed, conservation easements are one of the most powerful and effective tools available for the conservation of private lands. Conservation easements are voluntary agreements between a landowner who donates or sells certain rights to their property, such as the right to develop, and a private or public organization who agrees to hold the landowner’s promise not to exercise those rights. In Vermont alone conservation easements have been used to protect a total of over 368,000 acres of agricultural land, working forest and natural areas, and to secure public access. The Nature Conservancy of Vermont currently holds conservation easements on approximately 34,000 acres.

The Pherrins River Wetland Complex is a valley landscape shaped by glaciers. Ridges of sand and gravel created large depressions where wetland ecosystems now reside.

The varied geology of the wetland complex contributes to the biological diversity found here. The natural communities of the landscape range from black spruce swamps and spruce-fir flats growing on granite, to cedar swamps and sweet gale shorelines found on the slightly calcareous rocks nearby.

Pherrins Bog, located at the heart of the wetlands complex, was visited early in the 20^th century by avid naturalists from the Vermont Bird and Botanical Club. It was first identified for protection over 35 years ago in "Vermont Natural Areas," an inventory of the state’s unique and representative natural areas, written by Dr. Hub Vogelmann, Professor Emeritus of the University of Vermont. This document was the first blueprint for the conservation of Vermont’s natural treasures. About two acres in size, Pherrins Bog consists largely of an open bog mat of sphagnum moss and sedges scattered with pitcher plants, leatherleaf shrubs, bog cranberry, and small tamaracks. This buoyant bog mat is ringed by a shrubby zone of Labrador tea, which is in turn encircled by a firmer, more established zone of bog forest that is dominated by balsam fir and black spruce.