Achi e v in g the visio n
The Wildlands and Woodlands vision builds
on decades of planning and leaves room for
continued growth and development—as much
as a doubling in the amount of developed
land. Though bold, the vision is achievable
and financially prudent. It ensures that New
England will retain the natural qualities and
resources that shape its identity and support
local economies, communities, and quality of
life. In conserving its natural infrastructure, New
England can maximize resilience to changes in
climate, land use, and the economy. In so doing,
the region will provide national leadership in
the integration of economic prosperity, natural
resource conservation, and energy and resource
efficiency. Conservation today will pay lasting
dividends that will only increase in value.
In the face of all current and future
threats, the single most important action
that we can take is to maintain forested
landscapes on a scale that allows natural
and human communities to flourish.
Achieving the Wildlands and Woodlands vision will require:
^ Regional partnerships that enhance existing networks and
increase engagement with private landowners interested in
conservation (Figure D);
^ Finance tools that expand incentives for private landowners
and build access to conservation capital; and
^ Conservation strategies that provide innovative approaches
to address parcelization, fragmentation, and sprawl.
Protecting and sustainably managing millions of acres of forest in
hundreds of thousands of intermingled ownerships is a daunting
proposition. It cannot be accomplished by sweeping public acquisition
or regulatory fiat. It will require working with thousands of willing
private landowners who are interested in securing the future of
their land through conservation easements and other approaches.
Fortunately, a number of successful conservation initiatives and
funding programs already exist in the region. Wildlands and
Woodlands seeks to honor and advance the efforts of the individuals,
organizations, and agencies whose legacy defines our existing
conservation landscape, and whose ongoing energy is crucial to
conserving the natural infrastructure upon which our future and all
human endeavors depend. The full report offers examples of specific
actions that landowners, non-governmental organizations, and local,
state, and federal government can take to help make the Wildlands
and Woodlands vision a reality.
A New England that remains four-fifths covered with forests, farms,
and aquatic ecosystems is an attainable vision that resonates with the
region’s history of bold conservation thinking. Protecting our natural
infrastructure is also consistent with an emerging regional, national,
and global focus on renewable energy, clean air and water, and on
the creative slowing of climate change. It is our hope that citizens,
non-profit organizations, and government agencies across the region
will band together to achieve the Wildlands and Woodlands vision.
Wildlands and Woodlands
A Vision for the New England Landscape
H
istory has provided New England with a unique
opportunity: a second chance to determine the fate
of its forests and their balance with farmland and
development. Following an early history of forest clearing and
intensive logging, much of the region has reforested since the
nineteenth century. But over the past 20 years, development and
parcelization have fragmented forests and farms across the region.
Today, for the first time in 200 years, forest cover is declining in
every New England state (Figure A).
The current wave of deforestation poses far greater ecological
challenges than the episode in colonial times. The hard deforestation
today, often involving the land’s development to asphalt, concrete,
and steel, is much more difficult to reverse than the historical
clearing of land for farms and pasture. Current estimates project
that development levels, if continued at the current rate, may
reach 63% in some parts of the region by 2030 (Figure B).
Where development prevails, the envelope of human influence
surrounding each new building and paralleling every road
undermines ecosystems, threatens wildlife, and hinders many
productive forest uses. Across the far north of the region, forests
face parcelization and perforation due to a region-wide transition
from traditional family and industrial ownership to investment
ownership coupled with leisure development along lakes and
ridgelines. This legal fragmentation hinders management, sets
the stage for deforestation, and threatens the long tradition of
public access to forests.
The Wildlands and Woodlands vision calls for a long-term
conservation effort to retain at least 70 percent of New England
in forestland, permanently free from development.
This vision would conserve 30 million acres of New England’s existing 33 million acres
of trees, waters, and wetlands for current and future generations (Figure C) and support:
^resilient watersheds for clean and abundant water,
^areas for recreation, hunting, and other traditional uses,
^a local source of wood and other forest products,
^a continental-scale habitat corridor for wildlife and plants, and
^a globally important source of renewable energy and carbon
storage that helps slow the rate of climate change.
Wi ldlan d s An d Wo o dland s : At A G l ance
The Wildlands and Woodlands vision strikes a balance between
active, long-term forest management and protected special places.
Expansive “Woodlands” are voluntarily conserved and sustainably
managed as working forests, and targeted “Wildlands” are
established as large landscape reserves.
4,800,000
3,200,000
New England Population
(right axis)
1,600,000
Year
1600
1650
1700
1750
1800
1850
1900
1950
Connecticut
Massachusetts
Rhode Island
Maine
New Hampshire
Vermont
2000
All New England
(% of all six states)
A New England mosaic of Wildlands, Woodlands, working farms,
and sustainable development would support a greater array of
human experience, wildlife habitat, and natural benefits than any
one of these could alone.
6
11
12
15
Farmland
Woodlands
14
Woodlands
Data Sources for Figures Figure A: Modified and updated from Foster and Aber (2004). Figure B: Population map is based on data from
the U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division, Washington, D.C. To represent meaningful changes, only sub-county areas with a 2008 population of
50 people or more are shown. Projected forest development map is reprinted from the Forests on the Edge research project, courtesy of S.M. Stein
and the U.S. Forest Service. Figure C: Data from Foster and Aber (2004), Irland (1999), Redman and Foster (2008), NRCS NRI (1982), NLCD
(1992, 2001), Wilkinson et al. (2008). Figure D: Map information from Highstead Regional Conservation Program.
17
13
19
20
7
16
18
Wildlands
Protected Forest
0
Year
Developed or
Farmland
Unprotected Forest
0
0
5
10
Water and
Herbaceous
Wetlands
Developed
50
4
3
9
W&W Vision
Accomplished
2070
6,400,000
W&W Vision
Evolving
2060
8,000,000
Wildlands and Woodlands Authors
2
8
2050
50
Start of
W&W Vision
100
The full Wildlands and Woodlands
report, published in May 2010, is
distributed by the Harvard University
Press (Cambridge, MA). For copies,
visit www.wildlandsandwoodlands.org
or the Harvard University Press at
www.hup.harvard.edu.
< 21
2040
9,600,000
21–30%
2030
60
30–40%
Not shown: 2008
population less
than 50 people
Figure C. New England Land Cover: Past, Present, and Future
Wildland reserves: 7% of New England (3 million acres)
Wildlands are large protected areas that are identified based on
local considerations and support four objectives:
^ Slow the pace of climate change by supporting complex, aging
forests that can store twice as much carbon as young forests; ^ Provide rare habitats for a diverse array of plants, animals, and
micro-organisms; ^ Safeguard lands of natural, cultural, and spiritual significance; and
^ Serve as unique scientific reference points for evaluation and
improvement of management practices elsewhere. >10% gain
2020
11,200,000
5–10% gain
50 Miles
2010
12,800,000
N
40–63%
2000
80
Percentage of
private forest
developed by 2030
1
1980
14,400,000
^
0–5% gain
0–5% loss
1960
90
10
Figure D. Existing Regional
Conservation Partnerships
>5% loss
Percent of New England
16,000,000
Forest Cover (percentage of state)
100
local resource base for sustainable wood products and future
ecosystem-service mitigation markets; Enhance the natural benefits that forests provide: clean water
and air, flood and erosion control, and carbon sequestration
to combat climate change; Maintain access to continuous landscapes for nature-based
tourism, recreation, and enjoyment; Provide extensive connected forest habitats for plants and animals
pressured by development, natural disturbance, and climate
change; and
Expand the cover of trees in and around town centers, suburbs,
and cities.
1940
^
^
20
N
50 Miles
^ Bolster New England’s economy by providing a dependable
Figure A. New England Forest Cover and Human Population
30
Seldom does history provide us with second
chances. Seldom does an investment in the
infrastructure that supports both nature and
human activity offer the promise to yield so much.
Projected Development
of Forests (2000–2030)
Woodlands are working forests that vary in both ownership and
management types and support five objectives:
^
40
Population Change
(2000–2008)
Managed Woodlands: 63% of New England (27 million acres)
Together with farms and preserved open space, the natural infrastructure
conserved by Wildlands and Woodlands would support thriving and
sustainable communities with a balance of well-managed forests and
protected special places.
70
Figure B. Recent Population Change and Future Development of Forest Land
23
22
21
7 Mt. Agamenticus to the Sea
Conservation Initiative
8 The Chittenden County Uplands
Conservation Project
9 Orange County Headwaters Project
10 Chateugay No Town Conservation Project
11 The Quabbin to Cardigan Partnership
12
13
14
15
Great Bay Resource Protection Partnership
Pioneer Valley Land Trust Group
Highland Communities Initiative
North Quabbin Regional
Landscape Partnership
16 Nashua River Watershed Association
17 West Suburban Conservation Council
18 Mass-Conn Sustainable Forest Partnership
1 High Peaks Initiative
2 Mahoosuc Initiative
3 Upland Headwaters Alliance
4 Twelve Rivers Collaborative
5 River Link
6 Portland North Land Trust Collaborative
19 Litchfield Hills Greenprint Collaborative
20 Fairfield County Regional
Conservation Partnership
21 The Lower Connecticut River and
Coastal Region Land Trust Exchange
22 The Borderlands Project
23 Taunton River Coalition
John D. Aber, University of New Hampshire
Charles V. Cogbill, Sterling College
Elizabeth A. Colburn, Harvard University
Anthony W. D’Amato, University of Minnesota
Brian M. Donahue, Brandeis University
Charles T. Driscoll, Syracuse University
Aaron M. Ellison, Harvard University
Timothy J. Fahey, Cornell University
David R. Foster, Harvard University
Brian R. Hall, Harvard University
Clarisse M. Hart, Harvard University
Malcolm L. Hunter, University of Maine, Orono
Lloyd C. Irland, Irland Group and Yale University
William S. Keeton, University of Vermont
David B. Kittredge, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Kathleen F. Lambert, Harvard University
James N. Levitt, Harvard University
Robert J. Lilieholm, University of Maine, Orono
David A. Orwig, Harvard University
Jonathan R. Thompson, Smithsonian Institution
Design: RavenMark, Inc. Printing: Stillwater Graphics.
Maps: Brian Hall, Harvard Forest. Photographs: John Burk,
David Foster, Rob Lilieholm. • May 2010