Working Across Borders for the Future of Our Planet
As most of our members and supporters know, the Cold Hollow to Canada Region is located in one of the highest priority habitat corridors in the Northern Acadian Appalachian Wabanaki Ecoregion, also called the Northern Forest. This forest is the most intact broad-leaved temperate forest in the world and so is globally significant. Several habitat corridors have been identified as critical to maintain the ecosystem function and integrity of the forest as a whole. The Green Mountain Corridor connects the Northern Green Mountains in Vermont to the Sutton Mountains in Quebec to the north, and connects to Worchester Range in the east, to the Northeast Kingdom and beyond to Maine and the Maritime Provinces.
The corridor running North/South crosses the international border to Canada. Just across the border in Sutton, our conservation counterpart the Appalachian Corridor Association can be found doing similar work to Cold Hollow to Canada. Cold Hollow to Canada has a long history with ACA, communicating with staff and board since our inception. We have tracked wildlife together and have made lasting friendships. However, our connections have been mostly informal until now.
Recently, our partners at the Staying Connected Initiative pulled together an international gathering of organizations from the United States and Canada. From the United States, Cold Hollow to Canada joined: the VT Fish and Wildlife Department, VT Forest Parks and Recreation and Vermont Nature Conservancy, The Northeast Wilderness Trust, Northwest Regional Planning, One Forest Network, Vermont Natural Resources Council, and the Trust for Public Land from the United States. From Canada, representatives attended from: the Quebec-Laborador Foundation, Appalachian Corridor Association, Mont Pinnacle Land Trust, Memphremagog Conservation, Mont Echo Foundation, Foundation Massawippi, Nature Conservancy Canada, Quebec Ministry of the Environment, Quebec Transportation Ministry, and the Eastern Townships Council on the Environment.
This was the first time that so many organizations dedicated to protecting and stewarding nature across international borders in the Green Mountain Corridor have come together. The goal of the meeting was to come face to face and learn more about the work that we all do. The hope and expectation is that we will find ways to collaborate and perhaps form more unified messages to the people and communities we serve. The international border does create political and cultural barriers, but the wildlife and plant species who also live in this region pay no attention to this border. To maintain the integrity of this forest, we must also find ways to transcend this border and work together. What CHC co-founders and staff found was a group of like minded and dedicated people across our region, offering hope for the future as we work together.