Planning For Change
Greetings friends, and welcome to the Summer 2026 edition of CONNECTIONS, the quarterly newsletter from Cold Hollow to Canada. We hope this edition finds you enjoying the recent sunshine and warmth after a prolonged cool, wet spring. While it may have felt like we were dodging rain drops more than normal, this spring actually saw less rain fall than during the same period last year, and while there seemed to be a perpetual chill in the air through much of April and May, we actually saw temperatures running almost 2 degrees warmer than on average this same time a year ago. This has a very real impact. Monitoring efforts by our partners at the Department of Forests, Parks & Recreation showed that full leaf-out of sugar maple this year occurred 12 days earlier than the long-term average. If nothing else, this illustrates our need to plan for, and adapt to, the slow, often subtle, shifts occurring in our forests as a result of a changing climate.
Speaking of planning and change, this Spring we at Cold Hollow to Canada were beyond excited to announce our new 5-year Strategic Plan for the organization. Every five years, we take some time to reflect on all that we’ve accomplished with the communities in our region and map out a strategy for continuing to further our mission – forging a pathway for advancing ecosystem integrity, biological diversity, and forest resiliency in Vermont’s Cold Hollow Mountains.
In 2021 Cold Hollow to Canada (CHC) released the organization’s first comprehensive strategic plan, intended to serve as a roadmap to ecosystem integrity and forest resiliency in Vermont’s Cold Hollow Mountains. Focusing on three pillars of work—Sustainable Stewardship, Forestland Conservation, and Community Empowerment—the plan outlined foundational goals, key elements, and critical metrics based upon the fundamental importance of our regions forests and our mission to protect them. Since then, CHC has grown to become a leading grassroots conservation nonprofit in northern New England, known for programs which are highly regarded, impactful, and innovative, wedding stewardship and conservation in an effort to create real and lasting impact at both the parcel and landscape scale.
Today, we look ahead to the next five years of work before us. With an ambitious goal of conserving 23,000 acres by 2030 (now 44% complete) and increased demand for our programs, CHC has an unprecedented opportunity to sustain and grow the capacity and impact of the organization. Through the partnerships formed and innovative models developed, CHC is set to advance an additional 5,400 acres in conservation easement projects over the coming year (getting us to 67% of our goal), while also building out a long-term project pipeline already including an additional 4,000+ acres of forestland in our region, setting the stage to not only meet, but potentially exceed our goal by 2030. This work is driven by deep relationships with local landowners from all seven CHC communities developed through the Woodlots Program, now in its twelfth year. With over 60 ownerships and 15,000+ acres in participating ownerships, Woodlots continues to be a key driver of exemplary stewardship and conservation.
Today we continue to find ourselves in a period of rapid and accelerating change. Global climate change, demographic shifts, and market disruptions in what were once cornerstones of rural economies have left us stewards of this immense and critical resource at a crossroads. The base of support for our work has also shifted, with federal backing for conservation efforts declining at an unprecedented scale. How we respond to these changes will define our communities for generations to come, and will decide whether the shared identity around this place we call home will persist. To ensure that we choose the right path, we have created this updated strategic plan, which charts a course for our next five years of land protection and stewardship based on a clear vision for conservation to guide our activities. We hope that all who turn to its pages see themselves in this collective effort and feel the deep commitment that drives our work forward as we collectively see what we know, love what we see, and protect what we love. We hope you will take some time to read through our plan, and share in our joy as we look to 2030 and beyond.
With love and gratitude,
Your friends at Cold Hollow to Canada
Charlie Hancock
Board Chair, Cold Hollow to Canada