BCJ_SPRING 17 Digital Edition

Michael Furtman photo
PUBLIC LAND OWNER
KINGDOM HERITAGE LANDS, VERMONT
BY MATT BRETON
I CUT THE BUCK’S TRACK BEFORE DAYLIGHT where he
crossed the road off the snow-covered mountains to the west. It
was the second to last day of the Vermont muzzleloader deer season,
and the sand was rapidly sliding out of my hourglass. Following
his track at sunup, I worked on sorting out his nighttime
wanderings through private timberland, trying to stay warm on a
cold December morning.
The Kingdom Heritage Lands, tucked away in the northeast
corner of Vermont, are a patchwork of private and government
properties open to public hunting. Public access to these acres is
protected through the collaboration of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, the State of Vermont as well as nonprofit and private
interests that demonstrate the value of conservation partnerships.
The habitat is an extensive area of northern lowland forest and
wetlands, ringed by hills and mountains of moderate elevation,
drained by numerous streams flowing into the Connecticut River.
Primarily boreal forest intermixed with hardwood, these lands
support activities ranging from recreation-based tourism to wood
harvest and maple sugaring. This forest region provides important
habitat for numerous animal species on the edge of their ranges
such as moose and spruce grouse. For New England sportsmen,
the ability to hunt and fish timber company land borders on sacred.
With 70 million people within a day’s drive, the existence
of areas like this is uniquely important in satisfying the need to
venture into remote stretches of wild country to track a whitetail
buck or to land a brook trout that never before has risen to a
fisherman’s fly.
With the rut behind him, this buck was focused on recovering.
His antlers left an impression in the snow on an old stump
where he’d fed on mushrooms. Inadvertently I jumped him out
of his morning bed, and the chase was on. The bucks of these
big woods are wanderers by nature and typically cover miles of
territory to feed, breed and finally head to their wintering areas.
I followed him across several ridges heading steadily back uphill,
noting where he stopped to check the wind. As the time and miles
passed, I wondered if I’d get a chance to put my tag in his ear.
In 1997, timber company Champion International decided to
sell 132,000 acres in northeastern Vermont. This land had been
managed for decades to produce an array of forest products with
an emphasis on spruce-fir pulp wood for paper. The Conservation
Fund of Arlington, Virginia purchased the ground in 1998 and
a number of interested parties came together to protect and preserve
this rich, multi-use area. TCF worked in partnership with
the Vermont Land Trust, Vermont Agency of Natural Resources,
Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, Vermont Chapter of
The Nature Conservancy and USFWS to create a new model for
the protection and management of large acreages in the northeast.
This partnership is particularly special because of the focus
on complementary management across the ownerships to achieve
three equally important goals: working forests, ecological protection
and public access.
Doug Morin, a wildlife biologist/state land planner for the Vermont
Department of Fish & Wildlife, called this arrangement
“unique for Vermont and rare for New England.” He also said,
“It might be a model for future public-private partnerships for
industrial timberland.”
The region’s people had a voice in shaping the direction of the
Kingdom Heritage Lands with 35 public meetings, workshops
and comment sessions – a level of input without precedent in Vermont.
The management plan divided ecologically significant areas
into federal land as part of the Silvio O. Conte National Wildlife
Refuge and state land in the West Mountain Wildlife Management
Area. The remaining acreage was purchased by Essex Timber
Company, later sold to current owner Plum Creek Timber
Company, for working forestry with easements protecting certain
natural resources and guaranteeing perpetual public access.
After several miles, the buck finally fed again and I knew he
soon would lie down. Slowing my pace, I began to search the
timber for his bedded form. I eased through one opening and
then into another with slow, quiet steps. Then I spotted him only
40 yards away. He slowly turned his head, revealing his antlers
and confirming what his tracks had told me several hours earlier.
The hanging black powder smoke slowly cleared. With the
tracking job now complete, I set myself to the reverent tasks of
dragging the deer out and getting him into my freezer.
The Northeast is not known for its public hunting opportunities.
As the timber industry changes, this unique collaboration
of public, private and nonprofit partners has been a successful
means to preserve and protect our wild places and traditions. I’ve
hunted the Rocky Mountain West and I am thankful for the vast
expanses available there, but being able to track a buck in classic
New England fashion leaves me with a sense of accomplishment
rooted in tradition. I am lucky to have a home landscape as rich
and accessible as our Kingdom Heritage Lands.
Matt is a native Vermonter who joined BHA after it dawned on
him just how important public lands are, following a trip to Colorado
to hunt elk. He helps produce the New England chapter e-newsletter.
12 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL FALL 2016
SPRING 2017 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 13