SHREWSBURY, Vt. (AP) - The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department has established its 100th Wildlife Management Area.
The 526-acre property in Shrewsbury is “a key parcel in a strategic, state-significant wildlife corridor, connecting state land to the north with federal and privately conserved land to the south,” said commissioner Louis Porter.
The area is used by black bear, bobcat, moose and deer, as well as upland bird species and migratory songbirds, according to the department’s public land section chief Jane Lazorchak. It contains small wetlands, vernal pools, early successional forest, and mast-producing trees, she said.
“In addition to protecting valuable habitat and forest connectivity, this property safeguards public-use for hunting, hiking, wildlife viewing and other dispersed wildlife-based recreation,” she said.
The site was originally settled in the late 1700s and bought by the town in 1870 to create a town farm to house the poor, officials said. The town farm was abandoned by 1903 and the land exchanged hands several times but has remained undeveloped, the department said.
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