The Staying Connected Initiative

The goal of the Staying Connected Initiative (SCI) is to sustain, conserve, and restore landscape connectivity across the Northern Appalachians to Acadian region, in order to mitigate the impacts of habitat fragmentation and climate change.

Central to that goal has been the definition of key linkage areas: geographically defined places where—if landscape connectivity is lost—wide-ranging mammals like bear, moose, and bobcat will be limited in their ability to move between the region’s core habitat areas, reducing genetic exchange between populations and threatening their long-term survival.

Scroll down to visit priority linkage areas and explore connectivity projects around the Northern Appalachian - Acadian region.

The Hudson Mohawk Lowlands lie between two of New York’s most iconic conservation areas – Adirondack Park and the Catskill Mountains. By connecting these two core forested areas, SCI is working to create a critical wildlife corridor from the Northern Appalachians to the Central Appalachians. This corridor consists of 272,000 acres (110,074 hectares) of land, representing a diversity of resilient and connected habitats for a variety of wildlife. Strategies to achieve success in this linkage include overcoming transportation challenges and increasing land protection efforts to strike a balance between human development and wildlife habitat needs in this important region.

SCI partners have teamed up to launch several transportation planning efforts to improve wildlife passage across busy roads and highways in the Mohawk Linkage. Four major roadway barriers, including the very busy interstate I90, were assessed for both terrestrial and aquatic permeability to identify potential wildlife crossing hotspots, and this information was used to locate opportunities for improving transportation infrastructure. Through a combination of field research and wildlife connectivity modelling, the team was able to identify on-the-ground priorities for land protection, ecological restoration, and transportation mitigation projects, while also highlighting a variety of co-benefits that improved connectivity will generate for local communities. 

The Greens to Hudson Highlands linkage covers roughly 2.4 million acres (971,000 hectares) of western Massachusetts, southern Vermont, eastern New York, and northern Connecticut, connecting the southern Green Mountains in Vermont to the Hudson Highlands in New York. Efforts to maintain and restore connectivity in this region focus on a north-south structural pathway to allow movement for a range of native wildlife species, including otter, porcupine, fox, bear, and bobcat. Communities in this linkage have a successful history of land conservation and responsible land stewardship, which contributes to maintaining a continuous path of connected lands and waters.

In 2016, a wildlife tracking study in the linkage resulted in a mink protecting its own habitat. Wildlife trackers found a spot where a mink had crossed a busy highway and, curious as to where the mink had come from, backtracked it to a parcel of privately owned land. Several photos of the tracks were shared with the landowners in a holiday card, and the following year, the entire 70-acre (28-hectare) forested parcel was donated by the landowners for conservation! Thanks to strong participation SCI partners working in Massachusetts, wildlife tracking, camera studies, and bridge and culvert surveys continue to help us better understand wildlife movement patterns in the Greens to Hudson Highlands linkage to inform more effective conservation.

Between New York’s Adirondack Park and Tug Hill region lays the Black River Valley. The southern portion of the valley stands out as a natural funnel for wildlife—a largely forested stretch of land surrounded by agricultural and residential areas. Wide-ranging species like black bear and bobcat currently use the valley as a corridor to move between the Adirondacks and Tug Hill, and once extirpated species like moose and marten are beginning to return to the area. By partnering with local leaders and community members, important wildlife habitat is being conserved, and innovative solutions are being implemented to remove barriers to wildlife movement.

In 2017, SCI partners installed a “critter shelf” within an existing large culvert to provide wildlife with safe passage across busy State Route 12. The shelf is constructed of a wire mesh that hangs suspended well above the water that flows through the culvert, allowing animals a dry pathway without inhibiting the culvert’s ability to move water safely. Since its installation, SCI partners have documented over a dozen small- and medium-sized mammal species using the shelf, which demonstrates that retrofitting existing infrastructure is an important and cost-effective connectivity strategy. Even more, by securing a conservation easement on one side of the culvert, SCI partners have ensured that this crossing will continue to connect important wildlife habitat in perpetuity.

The Algonquin to Adirondacks region connects Canada’s Algonquin Park to the Adirondack Park in New York through the Frontenac Arch and surrounding lands. Home to a vast array of plants and animals, this large forest and wetland linkage provides the best remaining potential for wildlife movement across the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence system, with the Thousand Islands serving as “stepping stones”. 

Our active partners in the linkage include the Algonquin to Adirondack (A2A) Collaborative - a U.S., Canadian, and First Nations partner organization that works with scientists, policy-makers and a variety of conservation groups to protect and enhance the unique ecological features and functions of the A2A region.

SCI partners are currently working to help reduce wildlife road mortality and restore the ability of wildlife to move freely between Canada and the United States across the Algonquin to Adirondacks linkage. The A2A Collaborative has completed road ecology studies on major highways, including the 401 in Eastern Ontario, to determine possible locations for wildlife crossings. They are also working with transportation departments in Northern New York to complete road mortality studies and assess bridges and culverts for terrestrial and aquatic connectivity using NAACC (North Atlantic Aquatic Connectivity Collaborative) assessment protocols.

The Green Mountains to Adirondacks linkage consists of a mosaic of forested ridges, farms, urban areas, wetlands, river valleys, and lakes. High-quality natural habitats in the region connect Washington County in New York to Rutland County in Vermont, creating a critical corridor for numerous species of wildlife. In various areas of the linkage, development and agricultural expansion put pressure on the remaining forest patches, and as such, SCI partners are working with local communities to develop holistic land use plans that encompass the needs of both wildlife and human communities in this important region.

SCI partners in the linkage are actively working together to improve both climate resilience and water quality within an ecologically important natural area called Hubbardton River Clayplain Preserve (HRCP). This work blends a variety of different management activities, including the restoration of degraded streams by adding woody material, constructing beaver dam analogs, reconnecting acres (2 hectares) of floodplain and wetlands, and revegetating over 30 acres (12 hectares) of abandoned hay fields using techniques such as cluster planting, direct seeding, and facilitating natural regeneration. In addition to these activities, SCI partners are also improving structural connectivity along an adjacent state-owned highway by providing under-road passage for imperiled wildlife. These combined efforts provide a holistic approach to improving the health of the HRCP and surrounding landscape for the benefit of both wildlife and local communities.

The Southern Green Mountains to Taconic Mountains linkage covers nearly 70,000 acres (28,300 hectares) of developed, agricultural, and forested land within Vermont. The linkage mostly covers a narrow valley with unique climate, bedrock, and landforms that differ from the mountains on either side of the valley. The forested areas that remain in the linkage are under significant pressure from development, which threatens to cut off the natural wildlife corridor connecting the Southern Green Mountains to the Taconics. Land use planning with local communities is essential to ensure that a network of connected habitat continues to allow wildlife to pass through this important region.

In 2016, the Vermont legislature passed the Forest Integrity Law that requires towns in Vermont to include patches of forest and other habitat connections in each town plan, and to ensure that development occurs in a way that minimizes forest fragmentation. Since then, SCI partners in Vermont have provided technical conservation planning assistance to approximately 80 municipalities each year. One example is the town of Dorset, which has successfully mapped forest blocks, wildlife road crossings, and travel corridors as part of their 2020 Town Plan and are using this plan, as well as several state-scale planning tools, to identify ecologically important areas.

The Northern Green Mountains is one of the wildest but least protected landscapes in northeastern North America. Connecting the mountains of northern Vermont to southern Québec, the linkage covers over 722,000 acres (292,000 hectares) of forest, agricultural areas, and small towns and villages. Maintaining large, connected blocks of forest is a priority for this linkage, and this is achieved through a variety of strategies, including land use planning with local communities, landowner engagement, and improving wildlife passage across busy roads.

As wildlife don’t adhere to national borders, SCI partners in Vermont and Quebec are working together to strengthen cross-border collaboration efforts by sharing conservation success stories and lessons learned, as well as enhancing citizen science programs, such as  WildPaths  (USA) and  Stop Carcasse  (Québec), to better understand international wildlife movement patterns. The information collected from direct observations, road kills surveys, and winter track surveys is being used to identify strategic locations for wildlife passage across the US-Canada border.

The Worcester Range to Northeast Kingdom linkage covers roughly 1 million acres (405,000 hectares) in Vermont. Within this area there are three distinct biophysical regions - the Green Mountains, the Piedmont, and the Northeastern Highlands, all of which are critically important landscapes for wildlife. Some of the most wild, intact forested areas in the state occur in this linkage, where traditional lifestyles and nature-based recreation contribute to maintaining the natural values and abundance of wildlife in the area. Connecting the Worcester Range to Northeast Kingdom through improved transportation infrastructure and ecological restoration ensures that both wildlife and local communities continue to thrive in this special place.

Thanks to SCI partners, a four-year project on Vermont’s Wild Branch River has successfully decommissioned an undersized bridge and removed the abutments that were impeding the flow of water and blocking wildlife passage. A “wildlife shelf” was constructed under the new bridge, which allows bear, moose, and other wildlife to pass freely under this busy stretch of road. As part of this project, an adjacent wetland was also restored by connecting a stream back with its natural floodplain and restoring the floodplain forest, which will absorb excess water while also providing important habitat. These combined efforts of SCI partners are not only benefiting local wildlife populations, but also improving transportation safety by reducing wildlife collisions in the linkage.

Characterized by extensive forests, rugged mountains and remote lakes, the Northeast Kingdom - Northern New Hampshire - Western Maine linkage encompasses nearly 1.5 million acres (607,000 hectares) of conserved land, providing high-quality habitat for wildlife. While largely intact, development and agriculture in the fertile river valleys present a challenge for wildlife moving through the region. Maintaining connectivity between the large, intact tracts of forest is a high priority for Staying Connected Initiative partners, and this is being achieved through improved transportation policy, land conservation, and land use planning with local communities.

Achieving meaningful conservation in the NEK Northern NH to Maine linkage is all about partnerships. One of the greatest successes in the linkage occurred as a result of a collaboration among federal, state, regional, and private organizations that shared a vision for more ecologically compatible transportation infrastructure. A workgroup was formed to share ideas and identify strategies, and as a result, the team has developed a statewide wildlife corridor map and accompanying guidance document to inform wildlife friendly road and highway designs into the future. The workgroup continues to meet quarterly and offers rich opportunities for information sharing and collaboration amongst natural resource professionals, transportation managers, and regulators.

The Three Borders region links northern Maine to western New Brunswick and eastern Quebec. It is key to regional connectivity, connecting the Northern Appalachians with the extensive forests of the Gaspé Peninsula and Maritime provinces to the east. While large areas of forest still exist in the linkage, development, road fragmentation, and intensive forest management continue to put pressure on wildlife and create barriers to their movement. Through collaboration with multiple stakeholders and rightsholders, SCI partners are designing effective strategies to address various aspects of landscape conservation throughout the region.

One example of such collaboration is the modeling, validation, and implementation of wildlife crossings on Highway 85 between the Lower St. Lawrence River and the New Brunswick border. This stretch of road was long considered one of the most dangerous in Canada, with an average of 12 major wildlife collisions each year. In response, work has been underway since the early 2000s to widen the highway from two to four lanes. Thanks to the contributions of numerous SCI partners working together, 22 areas have been identified as strategic locations for large mammals to cross the highway, and wildlife crossings are now being installed in each of these areas as part of the highway expansion!

The Chignecto Isthmus is a narrow land bridge that connects Nova Scotia to New Brunswick and, by extension, the rest of North America. The Isthmus has two distinct coasts - the Northumberland Strait to the north and the Bay of Fundy to the south, and as such, contains a diversity of important wildlife habitats within a relatively small area. The Isthmus is an important transportation corridor, with the Trans-Canada Highway and an inter-provincial railway crossing over it. It is also the only route for terrestrial wildlife to move in and out of Nova Scotia, and without deliberate planning to conserve ecosystem connectivity, development on the Isthmus threatens to block wildlife from moving across this important land bridge.