We are delighted to share Putney Mountain Association’s newest acquisition project: the Hinton Woods. This unique 142 acre parcel of ridgeline joins more than 1000 acres into one forest block. It is home to millions of wild organisms, from breeding salamanders to roaming bears. Left to natural regeneration this forest will continue to store carbon and produce oxygen while the wetlands work as a sponge to hold heavy rainfalls. For present and future generations it will remind us of the immense beauty, fragility and resilience of nature preserved.

Your support is crucial to protecting this keystone parcel. Careful negotiations, grant applications and the generosity of Carmelita Hinton’s descendants are a solid foundation for this project. We need your help to complete the cycle. 

The Hinton Woods, a brief history 

The Windmill Hill Ridge was uplifted about 450 million years ago by the Taconic Orogeny, a clashing of tectonic plates that created a giant mountain range here. Eons of erosion by wind, rain and ice shaped the ridge into what we see today. The latest glaciation ended 15,000 years ago, and colonizing plants and animals followed the melting ice into the landscape, quickly followed by the first humans. In the last blink of this history people from Europe pushed out many of the native residents, bringing with them a new concept of land ownership and resource extraction. Soon nearly all of the trees were gone, replaced by fields and grazing sheep. 

The next step of interest for this parcel of land was its purchase by Carmelita Hinton, who moved to Putney in 1934 to found The Putney School. It has remained intact and undeveloped in the care of her family since. It will now, with your help, pass into the care of Putney Mountain Association which will strive to steward the land with respect for all of this history. 

Ecology

The Hinton Woods connects forestland protected by the Silvio O. Conte National Wildlife Refuge to the south, and the public Putney Town Forest to the north. All together it expands and joins a contiguous block of intact forestland on the ridge to over 1000 acres, most of it permanently conserved.  

Because of this, the parcel’s ecological value is multiplied. Large protected areas like this are needed to support biodiversity and to sustain ecological integrity. Safeguarding this wildlife corridor along the ridgeline will allow species to move across the landscape with fewer barriers, especially if range adjustments are needed in the face of changing climate. The Hinton Woods provide several specific wildlife habitat zones including a deer wintering area, a vernal pool and a complex of wetlands and streams. This forest will continue to carry out crucial ecological services including carbon storage and sequestration, nutrient cycling, soil building, as well as water and air purification – services that benefit us all. 

Recreation 

With this acquisition, access to the trail which has been possible through the generosity of the Hintons, will now be assured in perpetuity. Passage through this gorgeous and varied landscape will continue uninterrupted without the disruption to wildlife and landscape caused by construction of a new trail. As with all of its holdings, PMA will strive to balance recreational opportunities with quality wildlife habitat and steward the land for the benefit of all. 

BioBlitz of the Hinton Woods: Summer 2022

This Summer PMA is offering a special series of ecology classes and walks focused on the Hinton Woods. Members of PMA and the public will get to accompany local biologists as we survey flora and fauna. The biodiversity will be documented using the online platform iNaturalist, while participants learn about wildlife observation and classification. For more information see our events page.