Green Mountain Club director tells Senate committee Long Trail is 98% legally protected; about 4.5 miles remain

Molly Flanagan, director of land conservation at the Green Mountain Club, told the Senate Institutions committee on March that the 272-mile Long Trail is now 98% legally protected but that roughly 4.5 miles remain on private parcels without formal protection.

"The Long Trail is now 98% legally protected," Flanagan said, adding that those remaining unprotected segments amount to about 4.5 miles spread across roughly 14 parcels, from short 300-foot gaps to one stretch just under 1.5 miles. She said the club has conserved more than 25,000 acres and completed about 100 real-estate transactions since the campaign began.

The update traced the program’s history back to a 1985 joint resolution in which the Vermont General Assembly described the Long Trail protection campaign as "unique, historic, and irreplaceable" and committed support for its preservation. Flanagan said the long-running partnership with the state and other conservation organizations has added more than 16,000 acres to the Vermont State Forest System and protected over 80 miles of the trail through that collaborative work.

Flanagan described recent project work, including the Deer Camp Tract in Johnson — a roughly 12-acre parcel purchased by the club in 2024 and conveyed to the Long Trail State Forest with a conservation easement held by GMC and the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board. She said a fortunate transfer of other state-managed lands freed $85,000 that helped finance that purchase.

She also detailed a larger community purchase related to Mad River Corporation land, noting the buyer closed late last month on about 1,100 acres and the ski area has committed to place a conservation easement on part of the property. "That was a huge effort of that community and creates an opportunity to bring it under conservation," Flanagan said, and GMC is working with the buyer and land managers on a possible conservation easement to protect the trail segments that cross the property.

Beyond protecting the trail tread itself, Flanagan said the club is working to secure a 500-foot corridor on either side of the trail to preserve the trail’s remote character. She said about 85 miles of the Long Trail currently lack that full 500-foot buffer.

Flanagan described the club’s approach as relationship-based, using the full suite of tools — fee acquisition, conservation easements, and trail rights-of-way — and emphasized that private landowners’ willingness varies. In response to a committee question about risk to the unprotected segments, she said some landowners are institutions whose missions align with public access and others are family-owned parcels that decline restrictions; none are currently considered "critical" risks, she said.

The club’s 2023 strategic conservation plan is guiding its renewed focus on completing corridor protection, Flanagan said. She also told the committee that GMC had no funding request or actionable purchase to bring to the legislature this session but welcomed the opportunity to return when specific projects require committee consideration.

Committee members praised the club’s work and noted the trail’s recreational and economic value. The committee recessed for a short break after the presentation; Flanagan and members said they expect the club to report back when projects that need legislative action are ready.