This article was written by GMC Executive Director Mike DeBonis and appears in the 2024 Summer Long Trail News under the title, “Conservation and Climate Change: Protecting the Long Trail Twice.”
Imagine the surprise in 1986, when Green Mountain Club leaders learned that private lands hosting 32 miles of the Long Trail were for sale on the open market. From this existential threat to the trail, the Long Trail Protection Campaign was born: “Preserving Vermont’s Green Mountain Profile,” read the August 1986 Long Trail News. Thirty-eight years later, the effort has protected 88 miles of the Long Trail and conserved more than 25,000 acres of land. By all accounts the Long Trail Protection Campaign has been and continues to be a tremendous success, with just over six miles of Long Trail left to be protected.
| Protected | Unprotected | |
| Long Trail (Main Junction to Canada) | 96% (148.5 miles) | 4% (6.7 miles) |
| Long Trail/Appalachian Trail (Mass border to Maine Junction) | 99.8% (101 miles) | 0.2% (0.2 miles) |
| Side Trails (that access the LT or AT) | 93% (160.75 miles) | 7% (12.5 miles) |
| Appalachian Trail in Vermont (Maine Junction to New Hampshire) | 99.3% (40.75 miles) | 0.7% (0.3 miles) |
| 1,000-foot corridor (full system) | 82% (386 miles) | 18% (85 miles) |
Land Conservation Benefits
Permanently protecting the Long Trail was the top goal in 1986, and remains a priority today. But the benefits of land conservation have evolved to serve purposes beyond protecting the narrow footpath.
The 25,000 acres the campaign has conserved, including 21,500 acres transferred to the Vermont State Forest system, are managed for multiple uses. In addition to providing a permanent route for the trail, these conserved trail lands improve air and water quality, and provide critical wildlife habitat, hunting and fishing opportunities, and on- and off-trail recreation access.
Conserved lands also help us adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change. Conserved lands sequester carbon, buffer floods, and provide valuable habitat for plant and animal species at risk. That’s one reason the Vermont General Assembly passed the Community Resilience and Biodiversity Protection Act in June 2023. The act sets the goals of conserving 30 percent of Vermont’s landscape by 2030 and 50 percent by 2050.
In 1986 losing access to portions of the Long Trail was the biggest risk we faced with unprotected land. Today, climate change is the biggest risk to the trail, posing the challenges of 1) maintaining sustainable trails and 2) rebuilding trails and associated structures after catastrophic storms like we saw in July and December in 2023.
Trail Investment through Conservation
As a trail manager, when I consider the benefits of land conservation, the one that stands out is the opportunity conserved lands afford us to invest what is needed to maintain and repair trails, shelters, bridges and other structures in the face of an unprecedented climate impacts.
Last year’s storms damaged long stretches of the Long Trail, and it will take years and hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair them. The scope and cost of repairs is more than we can accomplish with our usual annual funding. Frankly, without the permanent land protection we have, we wouldn’t be able to make investments necessary to do this work.
The Burrows Trail in Camel’s Hump State Park is an example of a capital trail investment designed for climate change. Reconstructing this old and badly eroded trail from top to bottom was about half done when the storms of July 2023 hit. The trail made it through intact, due largely to new and reinforced trail structures at the top, which slowed water on the trail below. We budgeted the complete reconstruction of this heavily used trail to take three years and $750,000. There is no way we could have made such an investment in the trail if it weren’t permanently protected.
Not all trails are on protected public land like Camel’s Hump State Park. The club holds 95 easements on public and private land. These agreements provide permanent protection for the trail while enabling landowners to retain ownership and manage their land for other purposes.
Protecting the Trail Twice
The best trail easements provide permanent trail protection with enough flexibility to allow for changing trail and landowner needs. Examples are relocating a washed out part of a trail, or relocating some of a trail in a ski area to allow a new lift or access road. Easements typically provide for such adjustments when agreeable to the landowner and easement holder, but funding them is a different story.
The club can raise money for trail work on unconserved land, but we couldn’t justify it without assurance the trail would remain there. Thus unprotected portions of trail are more subject to damage or loss from climate change, because we might be unable to repair or rebuild them after extreme weather. Long term protection of land with treasured recreational assets like the Long Trail is one of the best tools we have to maintain recreation resources and combat the impacts of a changing climate.
The Long Trail Protection Campaign is close to its goal of permanently protecting a 1,000-foot corridor along the whole Long Trail, but it has also achieved much more. The 25,000 acres of conserved lands really protect the trail twice: First by ensuring the trail can exist forever, and second by enabling us to invest as needed to keep it there.
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