30 x 30 (Act 59)

Posted Sunday, September 7, 2025

— ConnectionsLatest News 2025 Fall

Way back in 2008 Cold Hollow to Canada set an ambitious goal of doubling the amount of conserved forestland in our region. Since then, we’ve worked to permanently protect 8,637 acres priority forest, with 7,294 acres in our project pipeline expected to close in the coming year(s), bringing us 70% of the way towards our goal. At the time CHC set its goal, the phrase ‘30x30’ (protecting 30% of the global landscape by 2030) was unknown outside of the most diehard conservation organizations. Since then, it’s become a global effort, agreed upon at the 2022 COP15 Convention on Biological Diversity, which included G7 nations and the European Union, the outcome of which was the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Today, 30x30 is on the lips of countless Vermonters, in large part to the passage of Act 59 in June 2023. The Act, dubbed “The Community Resilience and Biodiversity Protection Act” seeks to chart a path for conserving 30% of the Vermont landscape by 2030, and 50% by 2030. With the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources and Vermont Housing and Conservation Board leading the effort, work over the last two years has focused on various working group efforts and public meetings to determine the “what, where, and why” that will inform this herculean effort. Earlier this summer, VHCB hosted numerous listening sessions around the state, with participation from CHC board members and staff. Co-founder Nancy Patch’s vision for acting locally in globally significant ways is featured prominently in the perspectives shared by conservation leaders across the state.

Now, the draft conservation inventory work is complete, which will inform how the Vermont Conservation Plan (VCP) can reach these ambitious goals. The VCP features an inventory of an overview of the VCP guiding legislation, timeline, goals, and work to date, such as results from the critical inventories of both our natural features, and our human values.

Cold Hollow to Canada’s work in our corner of the Northern Green Mountains is crucial to Vermont’s 30x30 efforts. We encourage all members to take some time and check-out the draft inventory and reports, as well as to stay engaged as these efforts continue to roll out across Vermont. You only see what you know, you only love what you see, and you only protect what you love. It’s on us to continue to open the eyes of Vermonters to the value of forest protection for future generations of human, plant, and animal like that call our shared landscape home.