The Algonquin to Adirondacks corridor — dubbed A2A — is one of the most intact forest and wetland linkages left in eastern North America, stretching between New York and Canada. In 1998, the journey of a collared moose named Alice helped bring attention to the A2A wildlife corridor. Since then, many groups and land trusts have joined forces in the Algonquin to Adirondacks Collaborative, an effort that brings together First Nations, conservation organizations, landowners and policymakers to conserve this natural landscape to benefit wildlife and people.

The accredited Northeast Wilderness Trust is a land trust exclusively focused on forever-wild conservation in New England and New York to support wildlife habitat and connectivity. Those goals led them to the A2A in 2022.

In the fall of last year, Northeast Wilderness Trust purchased 1,433 acres of former timberland in St. Lawrence County just beyond the Adirondack Park to create the Grasse River Wilderness Preserve. A few months later, in January 2023, the organization announced it had purchased roughly 1,050 acres, now called the Bear Pond Forest, in a remote part of the park, within the Five Ponds Wilderness. Read more.