I write in support of H.276, Vermont Climate Resilience and State Wildlands Act. This bill, recently introduced by Middlebury State Rep. Amy Sheldon, would create a wildlands system on lands owned by the state of Vermont.

In 2001, I edited a book titled “Wilderness Comes Home: Rewilding the Northeast” that focused on wilderness and wildlands in the Northeast. The book sought to (1) survey the state of wildlands in the Northeast, (2) provide an Eastern voice in the wilderness conversation, which typically centered in the West, and (3) present a model for developing a wilderness and wildlands system in the Northeast moving forward.

In terms of thinking about wildlands in Vermont and the Northeast, three characteristics are central: the lands will be recovered and restored rather than pristine, the lands will be both public and private, and these wildlands will be situated in a landscape of sustainably-managed farmland and forestland.

In the 25 years since I edited this book, there have been several positive developments in Vermont. More wilderness was designated in the Green Mountain National Forest in 2006, bringing the total in the forest to over 100,000 acres. The Northeast Wilderness Trust (NEWT) — a land trust based in Montpelier that either owns or holds easements on wildland — has thrived, protecting 93,000 acres in New England and New York, including 18,000 acres in Vermont. And the Wildlands, Woodlands, Farmlands, and Communities Initiative (WWFCI) was launched in 2010 to focus on a regionwide landscape-level conservation vision, featuring a mix of wildlands (at least 10%), managed woodlands (60%) and farmland (7%). This vision makes clear that the choice is not between wildlands and managed forests, but a call for both.

Turning to Vermont more specifically, the WWFCI undertook a census of wildlands in New England in 2023, and determined that Vermont has a bit over 220,000 acres of wildlands, 3.7% of the state. The bulk of these wildlands is in the Green Mountain National Forest; an additional tens of thousands of acres are under the private control of groups like NEWT. Which brings us to H. 276. This bill is exciting and of great importance in complimenting wilderness in the national forests and in private lands — the third leg of a wildlands stool.

Why wildlands? Wildlands are places where natural processes dominate and are important for many reasons:

• for protecting water quality and advancing flood resilience;

• for sequestering carbon;

• for improving air quality;

• for biodiversity: these lands serve as ecological reserves, satisfying other Vermont policies such as the Vermont Conservation Design, which calls for 9% of Vermont to reach old forest or old growth conditions; and the Vermont Climate Resilience and Biodiversity Protection Act (Act 59), which seeks to conserve 30% of Vermont by 2030 and 50% by 2050. This is crucial to connectivity, as species move across the landscape due to climate change;

• for recreation and scenery;

• for solitude.

Wildlands serve multiple uses, and are very much part of the working landscape.

H.276 would bring Vermont to 7% wildlands. Although logging would no longer occur on these lands, the vast majority of the state’s forestlands would remain open to logging. I am not opposed to logging: I burn firewood to help heat my house; and I sit on the board of Vermont Family Forests, which works with family landowners to plan active forest management — including logging — on their lands. The time may come to debate how much wildland should be set aside in Vermont. But with less than 4% wildlands, such a debate is premature.

In closing, I strongly support H.276. It is an important step to protect Vermont biodiversity and further climate resilience. As fellow New Englander Henry David Thoreau wrote over 150 years ago: “In wildness is the preservation of the world.”

Chris McGrory Klyza

Middlebury

Editor’s note: Chris McGrory Klyza is the Stafford Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Environmental Studies and Political Science at Middlebury College.