Camel's Hump Natural Area is a

protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the ...

. The natural area, wholly contained within

Camel's Hump State Park Camel's Hump State Park is a state park in the U.S. state of Vermont. The park straddles the northern Green Mountains in an area bounded by Vermont Route 17 on the south and the Winooski River on the north. As of 2017, the park covered a ...

, straddles the ridge of the

Green Mountains The Green Mountains are a mountain range in the U.S. state of Vermont. The range runs primarily south to north and extends approximately from the border with Massachusetts to the border with Quebec, Canada. The part of the same range that is i ...

in Chittenden and

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

counties, in the towns of

Duxbury Duxbury (alternative older spelling: "Duxborough") is a historic seaside town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. A suburb located on the South Shore approximately to the southeast of Boston, the population was 16,090 at the 20 ...

Huntington Huntington may refer to: Places Canada * Huntington, Nova Scotia New Zealand * Huntington, New Zealand a suburb in Hamilton, New Zealand United Kingdom * Huntington, Cheshire, England * Huntington, East Lothian, Huntington, List of Unit ...

, Fayston,

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish weavers settled in the area in the 14th ce ...

, and Buels Gore. Administered by the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation, Camel's Hump Natural Area is the largest natural area in

Description

Camel's Hump Natural Area was created in 1965, with significant additions made in 1969 and 1995. The focal point of the natural area is

Camel's Hump Camel's Hump (alternatively Camels Hump) is a mountain in the Green Mountains in the U.S. state of Vermont. The north slope of the mountain borders the Winooski River, which has carved through the Green Mountains over eons. At , it is tied (with ...

, the highest mountain in Camel's Hump State Park. The natural area consists of the following sub-areas: Altogether Camel's Hump Natural Area covers a total of , making it the largest natural area in the state.

Biodiversity

Camel's Hump Natural Area includes of

alpine tundra Alpine tundra is a type of natural region or biome that does not contain trees because it is at high elevation, with an associated harsh climate. As the latitude of a location approaches the poles, the threshold elevation for alpine tundra gets ...

, one of three such plant communities in Vermont. The natural area also supports an undisturbed subalpine boreal forest of

balsam fir ''Abies balsamea'' or balsam fir is a North American fir, native to most of eastern and central Canada ( Newfoundland west to central Alberta) and the northeastern United States (Minnesota east to Maine, and south in the Appalachian Mountains to ...

red spruce ''Picea rubens'', commonly known as red spruce, is a species of spruce native to eastern North America, ranging from eastern Quebec and Nova Scotia, west to the Adirondack Mountains and south through New England along the Appalachians to wester ...

, and heartleaf paper birch. There are at least 10 species of animals and 24 species of plants in the natural area thought to be rare or very rare. Some of these are protected by the Vermont endangered and threatened species rule, including Boott's rattlesnake-root (''

Nabalus boottii ''Nabalus'' is a genus of Asian and North American flowering plants in the tribe Cichorieae within the family Asteraceae. ''Nabalus'' is now considered the correct name for a group of plants in North America that were formerly considered to be ...

'', generically known as white lettuce), bearberry willow (''

Salix uva-ursi ''Salix uva-ursi'', the bearberry willow, is a species of flowering plant in the family Salicaceae, native to subarctic and subalpine parts of northeastern North America and Greenland. A prostrate shrub, the extreme southern edge of its range is ...

''), lesser wintergreen (''

Pyrola minor ''Pyrola minor'', known by the common names snowline wintergreen, lesser wintergreen, and common wintergreen, is a plant species of the genus ''Pyrola ''Pyrola'' is a genus of evergreen herbaceous plants in the family Ericaceae. Under the ol ...

''), alpine sweetgrass (''

Anthoxanthum monticola ''Anthoxanthum'' (Latinised Greek for "yellow blossom"), commonly known as hornworts, vernal grasses, or vernalgrasses, is a genus of plants in the grass family. The generic name means 'Yellow flower' in Botanical Latin, referring to the colour ...

]''), and squashberry (''

Viburnum edule ''Viburnum edule'', the squashberry, mooseberry, moosomin, moosewood viburnum, pembina, pimina, highbush cranberry, or lowbush cranberry is a species of shrub native to Canada and the northern parts of the US. It stands roughly 2 m (6.5 ft) tall w ...

'').

History

In 1911,

Joseph Battell Joseph Battell (July 15, 1839 – February 23, 1915) was a publisher and philanthropist from Middlebury, Vermont. Battell is credited with preserving Vermont forest land including the land for Camel's Hump State Park. The Joseph Batt ...

, a publisher, environmentalist, and philanthropist from Middlebury, donated of forest land surrounding Camel's Hump to the State of Vermont. The deed declared that the "trees growing on the land herein conveyed are not to be cut...and the whole forest is to be preserved in a primeval state." A half century later, in 1965, the state created Camel's Hump Natural Area, a protected area that included a portion of the Battell lands within its boundary. In 1969, as a by-product of creating Camel's Hump State Park, the State of Vermont designated an ecological area that included all state lands in Camel's Hump Forest Reserve above plus all land in the Gleason Brook watershed above . The ecological area, which was meant "to protect scarce and rare plants, to preserve the natural habitat, and to maintain the wilderness aspect" of the land, expanded Camel's Hump Natural Area to . In 1995, the State of Vermont acquired the Phen Basin parcel in Fayston. Approximately 80% of the parcel was designated as an Ecological Protection Zone intended to foster the conservation of wildlife, habitats, forestry values, public recreational opportunities, and scenic resources. With the addition of the Ecological Protection Zone, Camel's Hump Natural Area grew to its current size of .

Bibliography

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References

{{authority control Vermont natural areas Protected areas of Chittenden County, Vermont Protected areas of Washington County, Vermont Duxbury, Vermont Huntington, Vermont Fayston, Vermont Bolton, Vermont Buels Gore, Vermont 1965 establishments in Vermont Protected areas established in 1965