Split Rock Wildway is a wildlife corridor in New York’s Adirondack Park linking Lake Champlain, at only a hundred feet above sea level, westward to the High Peaks, 46 of which top 4000 feet in elevation, via the West Champlain Hills. Split Rock Wildway has some of the richest biological communities in the Park, yet is still predominantly private land. Groups working to protect Split Rock Wildway include: Adirondack Land Trust, Champlain Area Trails, and Northeast Wilderness Trust, the Adirondack Council, and The Rewilding Institute.
To complete Split Rock Wildway, Adirondack Council and partner groups work to secure 20,000 or more acres of wildlife habitat, including the richest upland plant communities in the Park. So far, conservationists have protected about half the wildlife corridor. Split Rock Wildway contains much of the Boquet River watershed, a priority for aquatic restoration (including removal of derelict dams). Species benefiting from this area include Black Bear, Bobcat, Fisher, Mink, River Otter, Atlantic Salmon, Brook Trout, Bald Eagle, and Peregrine Falcon, as well as wildflowers and cove northern hardwood communities. On-the-ground rewilding work in Split Rock Wildway is farther along than for most other rewilding projects across the US East; and its proponents like to boast that it is the “most diverse wildlife corridor in the biggest park in the most prosperous state in the most powerful nation in the history of life on Earth!” Needed to complete the Wildway are acquisitions by land trusts and/or New York State, strong conservation easements on lands that remain in private ownership, and promotion of wildlife-friendly farming practices around the wildlife corridor.