The Nature Conservancy in Vermont

06/18/2026

It's peak bloom right now at our Eshqua Bog Natural Area! This weekend (6/20) will be a great time to visit, into early next week. For more about this ecological treasure, check out this wonderful piece in Happy Vermont.

“Showy lady’s slippers are found in other fens and wetlands around the region. But for whatever reason, Eshqua is the showy lady’s slippers’ favorite. And there are hundreds of them, maybe even thousands,” McNamara says.

Eshqua Bog Natural Area puts on a show every June, when showy lady’s slipper orchids turn this natural area into a botanical sweet spot.

06/15/2026

The pitcher plants are blooming at our Chickering Bog Natural Area! TNC Vermont stewardship staff took these photos today. The mossy trail out to Chickering Bog winds through gently rolling terrain, with a boardwalk at the end that allows you to get very close to these elusive plants.

📷: Adrienne Bartlett/TNC

06/11/2026

Warbler Blitz is a wrap! We have partnered with Audubon Vermont for the past 8 years for an annual spring winged warbler survey at our Helen W. Buckner Memorial Preserve. Buckner is home to possibly the largest population of Golden-winged and Blue-winged Warblers (and their hybrids) in New England. Both species are High Priority Species of Greatest Conservation Need in Vermont. We survey the warblers each spring to assess the size and health of the population as TNC continues to engage in shrubland bird habitat improvements on the preserve. Thank you to Mark LaBarr from Audubon Vermont for leading the Warbler Blitz with gusto!

📷: Lydia Parker/TNC

06/09/2026

We have been watching the showy lady's slippers very closely at our Eshqua Bog Natural Area! They look to be on track for a peak bloom the weekend of June 20, as long as the weather stays seasonable for the next week and a half. It is likely to be very busy that weekend, so if you have flexibility, consider visiting on a weekday to avoid the crowds.

📷: Jack Markoski/TNC

06/05/2026

The monarchs are coming! In the next few weeks monarchs will arrive in Vermont after making the journey north from Mexico. It takes 2-4 generations of monarchs to make the trip from Mexico to Vermont every spring. The butterflies stop and reproduce along the way, laying eggs on milkweed. One of the benefits to this multi-generational migration is that it allows the butterflies to sync their flight with the seasonal wave of plant growth. Interestingly, the monarchs that migrate south in the fall make the entire ~2,500 mile flight to Mexico themselves! This specialized generation lives much longer and their role is to migrate south and survive winter, rather than focus on reproduction.

📷: Roger Irwin

06/03/2026

Vermont Public joined us among the elms as we work to bring back this crucial species.

Scientists with the Nature Conservancy and Forest Service have been raising American elms that are bred to be resistant to Dutch elm disease at two sites in Vermont. Now, they’re injecting them with the fungus to see what happens.

06/01/2026

We are deeply saddened at the passing of devoted conservationist, loving husband, father, and grandfather, and community leader, Dr. Clive Gray. Clive was a dear friend of The Nature Conservancy, serving as a Board member and helping to shape our land conservation work in the Greensboro, Vermont region. Clive’s family owned and then donated the beloved 256-acre Barr Hill Natural Area to TNC VT, our first preserve in the state. Clive and the Gray family were committed to protecting our natural world while also ensuring it remains accessible to the public, and have continued to lovingly help us steward Barr Hill and other natural areas around Greensboro. Clive leaves behind a legacy of caring for people and the land we all depend upon, and will be greatly missed by us all.

Read about his extraordinary life: https://vtdigger.org/2026/05/11/clive-gray/

Photos: Clive in the forest at Barr Hill © Karen McNeill Saielli, Clive and TNC VT State Director Eve Frankel, the view from Barr Hill © Jack Markoski

05/29/2026

The yellow lady's slippers are blooming at our Eshqua Bog Natural Area! Eshqua Bog is a botanical sweet spot with a wide variety of species that bloom all summer. Most visitors go when the showy lady's slippers are blooming later in June, but go now if you want to see the dainty yellow lady's slippers. They're a little smaller, so look carefully, but about a dozen are visible from the boardwalk.

More about Eshqua Bog:
https://nature.ly/4eGFGie

📷 : Lynn McNamara

05/27/2026

What does it take to save a species? To save the American elm, we are injecting them with disease. That may sound counterintuitive, but elms that survive the injection may show a strong future for this iconic tree.

As our funding for this elms work closes out, we are looking for a new source of funding. If you want to be part of the next chapter of this story, and help return elms to downtowns and floodplains across New England, let us know! Contact info at the bottom of the linked story.

https://nature.ly/4dPGSjg

Before disease brought them down, American elms had a firm place on streets and floodplains. Breeding survivor trees may show the way for restoring them.