Keeling Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

Northeast Wilderness Trust (NEWT), founded in 2002, conserves forever-wild landscapes for nature and people. The Wildlands Partnership (WP) program is a scalable natural climate solution to combat climate change. WP accelerates the pace of wilderness conservation by engaging and supporting accredited land trusts to conserve lands as forever-wild.

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The concept of equal rights is at the very core of the work of the Northeast Wilderness Trust. Although our work is largely directed to creating equality for nonhuman life, it is a broader vision of a world where there is equality among humans, peace among nations, and space for wild nature to thrive that drives our passion. We recognize that all forms of oppression‚Äîfrom the destruction of forests to the persecution of the other, whether gay or black or impoverished among others‚Äîare related, and that ultimately, we must work to end this oppression on all levels. 

Staff and board are currently undertaking important DEI work that will further efforts to empower traditionally underrepresented communities in the environmental movement and among land trusts. This work will culminate in a more diverse board and staff. Additionally, we are involved in external activities such as First Light in Maine, aimed at educating land trusts on Native American‚ experiences. We secured funding for a paid internship that will be offered to the BIPOC community. We are also working with land trusts such as the Native Land Conservancy (NLC) in MA, which will hold a forever-wild conservation easement on land NEWT lands in MA. NLC will have unique rights on the land to practice native traditions that are often excluded on privately held lands. 

We let nature lead. While we realize this doesn‚ t speak to the question in a conventional way, it is important to make a case for the rights of nature. Fundamental to our program is our belief that wildlands have an intrinsic right to exist. That right is rarely acknowledged by humans, and we, and our wild cousins, continue to pay the price for humans‚ domineering approach to nature. In a world where people generally manage land for their own purposes, nature rarely gets to call the shots unhindered by human interference, extraction, or manipulation of the environment. In this way, nature is extremely underrepresented in the climate movement. Interestingly, wild, unmanaged forests have been shown to store more carbon than managed forests, and yet humans continue to hold the reins on the vast majority of the landscape. As a result, the majority of the northern forest in our region is destined to remain young‚Äîteenaged really‚Äîand never will achieve its full potential to store carbon and provide the other essential functions of old-growth forests. The Wildlands Partnership and the Wild Carbon Program aim to change that through permanent legal protection of wilderness on all enrolled properties.

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