Northern Forest Canoe Trail
PO Box 565, Waitsfield, VT 05673
802-496-2285
info@northernforestcanoetrail.org
www.northernforestcanoetrail.org

Trail Overview:
Incorporated in 2000, the Northern Forest Canoe Trail is a non-profit, membership organization whose mission is to celebrate the rich human heritage and diverse natural environment of the Northern Forest by establishing and stewarding a water trail tracing historic Native American travel routes across New York, Vermont, Québec, New Hampshire, and Maine.

The idea for the Trail was born in the 1990’s when Native Trails, Inc. researched the traditional east-west water routes used by Native Americans and early settlers in the Northern Forest Region. The Northern Forest Canoe Trail organization was formed as a way to translate this route research into a recreational, community, and regional resource. From the outset, the Northern Forest Canoe Trail has distinguished itself as a can-do, action-oriented non-profit, committed to making the Trail accessible for recreation, expressive of regional culture and heritage, and meaningful in very concrete ways to the local communities through which it passes.

2006 was a milestone year for NFCT, with the completion of our map series, the publication of our first book, and a wonderful burst of media attention, including a Sunday New York Times article (9/10/06) that observed that the Trail “may be the most important thing to happen to the northern eco-tourism trade since the invention of gorp.”

In 2007, our focus is on effective delivery of our mission. We have designed three program areas that our small staff coordinates with more than 300 volunteers along the length of the Trail: