Deer Run Nature Preserve Phase 2

Thanks to tremendous support from the community, the Green Mountain Conservancy is pleased to announce the addition of 626 acres to the Deer Run Nature Preserve. This new purchase brings the number of conserved and protected acres of wildlife and plant habitat to 913. It substantially increases the diversity of the Preserve’s plants and animals, their habitats, and the overall experience of the human visitor. Additions to the Preserve include 2.5 miles of undeveloped shoreline of the West River, substantial grasslands managed for both wildlife and feed hay, unique Southern Appalachian broadleaf forests, moist nutrient rich Northern broadleaf forests, and nutrient rich floodplain forests found only on a small number of rivers in Vermont.

This Preserve also serves an important role geographically, for it incorporates the Southern terminus of the Putney Mountain Ridge. It plays an important role in connecting large unfragmented tracts of lands along the ridge to the North, to the West River and ultimately to lands further west. This is a unique place that has many stories to tell. Stories of cool moist forests rich with plants, of hot dry parkland forests, rocky cobble river shores rich with ferns, cold moss-covered streams coming right out of the mountain bedrock, ancient rocky talus forests reminding of times gone by and acres of flood plain fields, home to Bob-o-links and the elusive Savannah Sparrow. Now this land will be conserved in perpetuity, and will continue to tell these stories of old for ages to come.

The Deer Run Nature Preserve is located in Windham County, where the Vermont towns of Brookline, Dummerston, and Newfane meet. It spans both sides of the Putney Mountain Ridge and includes over 2.5 miles of West River shoreline as it curves around the southern terminus of the mountain.