BRISTOL — From black bears and bobcats to gray foxes and gray squirrels, Addison County is home to a plethora of wildlife. 

It’s also home to many humans. 

To survive and reproduce in areas broken up by human activities and development, local species rely on wildlife corridors, or pathways linking habitat areas that allow animals to move around and find resources to meet their basic needs. 

A group of Middlebury College students spent this past spring studying such corridors in Bristol to help inform town planning and offer local officials recommendations for ensuring future development keeps wildlife in mind.  Similar studies have taken off in other Addison County towns in recent years, including in New Haven and Monkton. 

“The wildlife corridors we’ve been studying are crucial for maintaining local wildlife diversity and ecological balance at the interface of urban and natural landscapes,” said Middlebury College student Eli DiBari. “In Bristol, as in many other places, these corridors serve as essential pathways that connect fragmented habitats, allowing wildlife to move safely between different areas, and limiting human-wildlife interactions. As communities expand and more homes are developed, habitats can become more and more fragmented, making wildlife corridors even more important.”

Students’ research was conducted in year-long collaboration with the Bristol Conservation Commission and completed as part of the college’s Community Engaged Practicum. Through the course, students collaborate with local partners and organizations on a community-engaged project. 

The conservation commission hopes to use student findings to meet some of its goals outlined in the 2020 Town Report and to inform Bristol’s next Town Plan, local Conservation Commission Chair Carolyn Dash said. 

A GROUP OF Middlebury College students spent this past spring semester out in the Bristol landscape, collecting data on the town’s wildlife corridors and the animals that use those pathways. Other Addison County towns have tackled similar projects in recent years.
Photo courtesy of Eli DiBari

“We realized the town plan wildlife corridor maps hadn’t been updated in nearly 20 years, and we didn’t have the expertise to tackle this issue,” Dash said at a May 9 commission meeting where students presented their findings. 

In the spring of 2023, former Middlebury student Lauren Gemery laid the groundwork for the project completed in 2024. Through independent study, Gemery synthesized wildlife data from previous town reports, began exploring potential sites for camera trapping studies and explored what other towns had done to update their wildlife maps, along with conducting other research.  

This past fall, Middlebury student David Goldsmith explored the composition and activity of wildlife in two Bristol parks using game cameras. 

Research conducted by students this spring built off of those efforts, as well as regional and state research. 

A large part of the work consisted of camera trapping at sites in or around Bristol, particularly targeting mammals in areas of non-conserved river corridors and large, non-conserved forest blocks. 

Students set up 17 cameras at sites near Piney Woods Road, Bristol Pond, Notch Road, and along the New Haven River near the Bristol Cliffs Wilderness. 

“We’re really interested in these areas because these are the forest blocks in between the protected area,” explained Middlebury student Max Zeltsar. “For maintaining movement along the mountains, ridges within Bristol and in and out of the town, these areas are really essential, especially up by Bristol Pond.” 

Students collected more than 20,000 photos of wildlife from February through April. 

BOBCATS, COYOTES ETC.

Near Bristol Pond, students set up cameras in a narrow stretch of forest sandwiched between open farmland and a cliff leading to the pond. The corridor connects key wildlife regions in the Hogback Mountains and the lands of the Watershed Center. Students’ cameras captured more than 100 northern raccoons crossing the area, as well as bobcats, coyotes and porcupines. 

“Even how it small this site is, I thought it would be useless, but it’s actually being used,” said Middlebury student Brian Lee. 

The group also placed cameras off Piney Woods Road, in a mixed-use area of development. Their cameras spotted less wildlife activity, but picked up white-tailed deer, eastern cottontail and eastern gray squirrels. 

“We were curious how these areas that have dispersed housing with a lot of open fields, what the wildlife corridors and connectivity look like in these types of areas,” said Middlebury student Bailey Walker. “We mostly saw deer in the fields coming through, and definitely a lot less wildlife activity and diversity compared to a site with a lot of riparian habitat like Bristol Pond.” 

In addition to collecting data through camera trapping, students also surveyed Bristol residents on what wildlife they’ve spotted around their homes and their thoughts on conservation. 

Students came up with a few suggestions to guide future development and conservation decisions in Bristol. 

They emphasized that incorporation of different sources and perspectives helps create the most robust framework for future development decisions. They also said centralized development within the Bristol village is the most effective way to allow for growth of the town and local businesses while preserving wildlife corridors. 

The group believes community members in Bristol are interested and invested in the future of local wildlife.  

Students created several resources to pass on to Bristol’s conservation commission, selectboard and planning commission. Those products include:

 • A report with recommendations for future approaches to wildlife connectivity work and infrastructure development in town. 

• An interactive ArcGIS map that can be used to compare land ownership in Bristol with conserved or protected land and identified wildlife corridors. 

• An online ArcGIS StoryMap that Bristol homeowners can access for information and resources on wildlife in the area and ways to protect habitat on their property. 

The group also created a “Bristol Homeowner Habitat Management” pamphlet, which provides information and resources for residents for taking care of the wildlife in their backyard. 

“It’s clear that you guys really love this land around you, and there’s also people who may be moving into this area who might not be as familiar with it,” Middlebury student AJ Rossbach said. “We targeted this pamphlet to be for new homeowners in the area who might not have as much experience in Bristol and Vermont, both to show them about the ecology we have here and the animals that live around them.” 

Rossbach noted residents can play a key role in supporting local wildlife. 

“Over 70% of Bristol is privately owned, so private landowners do have a considerable impact in how Bristol is able to continue maintaining its wildlife populations through its habitat,” she said. 

MONKTON AND NEW HAVEN PROJECTS

Other towns have tackled similar projects. The Monkton Conservation Commission in 2023 sponsored a natural resource inventory mapping of the town, conducted by Arrowwood Environmental. The effort was completed in coordination with the Monkton Planning Commission and supported by the selectboard.

MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE STUDENTS placed 17 cameras at sites in and around Bristol this spring, including the one shown here, as part of a semester-long project studying the town’s wildlife corridors and the mammals that rely on them.
Photo courtesy of Eli DiBari

Arrowwood was tasked with completing an identification, inventory and assessment of natural resources in Monkton, including areas like forest blocks and habitat connectors defined by Vermont’s Act 171. The act amended the state’s planning statutes to encourage municipalities to address the protection of such areas while supporting the local forest products industry. 

The assessment involved the use of remote mapping technology, in-person visits and on-the-ground mapping. 

“The mapping includes a connectivity layer, which indicates areas that have the most connectivity value in red, next-best in orange, and yellow having some value to wildlife,” explained Monkton Conservation Commission member Jaime Schulte. “In combination with forest blocks, core forest, conserved lands, and other layers this helps to create a good view of wildlife corridors across Monkton.”

Schulte said next steps are with the town’s planning commission, as they look at updates to Monkton’s Town Plan and zoning. The online map, Arrowwood’s presentation to the community and a detailed report can be found online at tinyurl.com/ye2c5ys2. 

In New Haven, the conservation commission began planning for a wildlife crossing survey around two years ago. 

“We were inspired to undertake this project by current concerns over fragmentation of wildlife habitat,” New Haven Conservation Commission Co-Chair Dave Lewis said. “Another Addison County Conservation Commission had completed a two-year project that undertook collection and recording of data that indicated areas where wildlife corridors intersected with roadways, documenting which mammal species were crossing roads. The information was used to create an overlay map for the town to highlight and categorize potential sensitive areas to be used in possible future town planning. In New Haven, our goal is the same.” 

The commission began by working with habitat maps created by state Fish & Wildlife officials and sorted through sites for areas to investigate. Lewis noted the commission looked for places where a wildlife corridor meets a roadway and is continued on the other side of the road. 

“The animals are compelled to cross in order to roam in the habitat. If the corridor goes away on either side then the habitat access is diminished and fragmented,” he explained. 

As of November 2023, the commission has been collecting data using digital game cameras. Lewis said the group is currently using 12-13 cameras.  

 “We have some community volunteers helping with camera monitoring and are collecting information on a common site to keep the data collated and secure. We continue to look for possible sites and work with landowners permission foremost,” he said.  

The commission hopes to use the crossing information collected to create a map to assist future New Haven planners.