Forest Watch -- Saving and re-creating wild forests, advocating for wilderness in Vermont and the northeast, protecting imperiled species

Staff Members | Board of Directors | Goals

Forest Watch was founded in 1994 as Green Mountain Forest Watch and focused initially on improving management of the Green Mountain National Forest. In 1998, the name was changed to Forest Watch to communicate the organization’s commitment to all forests all across New England.

Today, Forest Watch works to protect and restore forests—young and old, small and large, private and public. Our goals are to restore wilderness, protect imperiled wildlife, improve public land management, and promote ecological forestry. We are a non-profit, 501 (c) 3, conservation organization that uses research, education, advocacy, negotiation, and sometimes litigation. There is no other group in New England quite like us.

A Few Milestones

1994: Founded Forest Watch. A handful of concerned citizens, with the endorsement of Vermont’s leading conservation organizations, established Forest Watch so it could provide leadership on forest protection and restoration.

1996: Defended Lamb Brook—and won. Forest Watch led a coalition of conservation organizations and private citizens in successfully defending a beautiful, remote wild forest—Lamb Brook—from road-building and logging by the U.S. Forest Service.

1998: Protected endangered wildlife from logging. Forest Watch stopped the U.S. Forest Service from selling timber on the Green Mountain National Forest until the agency could ensure Indiana bats (Myotis sodalis) and other endangered wildlife would be protected from harm.

1999: Defended Joseph Battell’s wildlands legacy. Forest Watch rediscovered the long-forgotten last will and testament of Joseph Battell, a 19th century philanthropist. We resurrected Battell’s clear directive that 50 square miles of Vermont, now in the Green Mountain National Forest, be protected as "forever wild."

2001: Proposed 80,000 acres of new wilderness. Working with the Vermont Wilderness Association, a coalition of 16 conservation groups, Forest Watch unveiled a proposal to establish 80,000 more acres of Vermont wilderness. These areas would be free of roads, motors and logging, yet rich in wildlife and opportunities for hiking, hunting, fishing and other backcountry recreation.

2002: Reached 4,000-member mark. Thousands of thoughtful and engaged people have joined Forest Watch to get informed about and involved in forest protection and restoration. We want to count you and your friends and family among them.

Please join Forest Watch or renew your membership today. Encourage others to do the same. Together we can protect and restore the forests of home.

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Forest Watch • PO Box 188 • Richmond, Vermont 05477
tel. (802) 434-2388 | www.forestwatch.org

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