NorthWoods Stewardship Center is pleased to announce the receipt of several grants supporting trail construction and maintenance in the Northeast Kingdom. The funding, provided by the Vermont Recreation Trails Program (RTP), supports the efforts of the NorthWoods Conservation Corps to provide hands-on service learning opportunities to local young people ages 15-20.
The RTP grants, administered by the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation, will fund nine weeks of crew work in Willoughby State Forest and the Kingdom Heritage Lands (former Champion Lands) in northern Essex County. NorthWoods crews will stabilize upper portions of the Bald Mountain and Mount Pisgah Trails in Westmore and continue work to develop a new Shore Trail Loop near the south end of Lake Willoughby.
Additionally, NorthWoods will construct the final leg of the Middle Mountain Trail in Avery’s Gore and Warren’s Gore, which completes the first phase of a long-range trail connecting Gore Mountain and Bluff Mountain on the Kingdom Heritage Lands. The project is part of an effort undertaken by NorthWoods in partnership with Green Mountain Club, Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, Plum Creek Timber, Sweet Tree, LLC, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service to develop non-motorized recreational access on the Kingdom Heritage Lands.
In total, NorthWoods will employ and train over 60 young people in northern Vermont and New Hampshire this summer (and an additional 20 crewmembers at sites in the southern Connecticut River Valley), including local youth from Brunswick, Burke, Derby Line, Glover, Greensboro, Island Pond, Lunenburg, Lyndonville, Newport, North Troy, St. Johnsbury, Waterford, Wheelock and Williamstown in Vermont and Alstead, Berlin, Colebrook, Dummer, Groveton, Jefferson, Lancaster, and Milan in New Hampshire. Crewmembers gain valuable job skills, hands-on conservation experience and a well-earned paycheck during a six week season.
Additional funding for the NorthWoods Conservation Corps is provided by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, the New Hampshire Recreation Trails Program, Fields Pond Foundation, the Corporation for National and Community Service (AmeriCorps), and private contributions from local supporters.
Established in 1989, NorthWoods Stewardship Center is a nonprofit environmental education and conservation service organization based in East Charleston, Vermont. Through three programs—education and camps, a youth conservation corps, and the Forest Stewardship Institute—NorthWoods inspires individuals to be stewards of their environment.
The Recreational Trails Program (RTP) is a federally funded program of the Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), providing grants administered at the State level to help develop and maintain recreational trails, trail-related facilities and trailheads.