Success Stories

Since Keeping Track’s inception in 1994, we have trained nearly 1,300 volunteers representing almost 100 communities and watersheds across Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Arizona, California and Quebec.

• The Chittenden County Uplands Conservation Project (CCUCP) was inspired by Susan Morse's 30 years of work collecting habitat data at Wolfrun (the longest-running track and sign survey in the U.S.)  CCUCP is a grassroots initiative bringing together Keeping Track, local land trusts and conservation commissions, the Vermont Land Trust, The Nature Conservancy, and other state and private conservation organizations devoted to conserving more than 10,000 acres of unfragmented habitat in northwestern Vermont. In its three years of existence, CCUPC has conserved more than 2,500 acres.
• Since 1998, Keeping Track volunteers in Barnard, Vermont, are offering their skills to the Chateauguay - No Town Conservation Project, encompassing thousands of acres of wildlands in four towns. In particular, the tracking surveys have been central to identifying possible important wildlife crossing crossing points along major roads bordering the conservation area. This information will allow local officials to plan for maintaining connectivity between the core habitat in the conservation area and other key habitats in the region, thus helping to protect the long-term viability of wildlife populations.
• The Piscataquog Watershed (New Hampshire) Keeping Track volunteer team forced the relocation of a snowmobile trail and prevented the construction of a waste transfer station in prime bobcat habitat. Over the past several years these volunteers have brought landowners into the field to show them what is significant about their land, and these relationships have led directly to the protection of 1,500 acres of habitat.
• In the summer of 2002, the Mt. Tom and Holyoke Range Ecological Working Group in central Massachusetts discovered black bear sign in the Holyoke Range.  This appears to be the first scientifically gathered data showing the presence of black bears in the area.
• Keeping Track was asked to develop and lead a special training program for Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) and the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife, which resulted in a data gathering tool that VTrans applies in projects statewide.  Over the four years of training, VTrans officials say that Keeping Track has raised agency awareness of the importance of habitat connectivity and has resulted in a shared agenda and mutual understanding between the two state agencies. 
• Susan Morse and Keeping Track have been featured on National Public Radio's Morning Edition and in the following magazines: Adirondack Life, Amicus Journal, Audubon, Forest Magazine, Nature Conservancy, Orion Afield, Ranger Rick, Smithsonian, Vermont Life, Vermont Magazine, Vero Beach Magazine and Wild Earth.  Susan is the subject of the children's book The Woods Scientist by Steven Swinburne and is featured in Hope's Horizon: Three Visions for Healing the American Land by Chip Ward.  Another children's book, Bobcat: North America's Cat, is dedicated to Susan's work as a felid conservationist and showcases her photographs.  Her research and photography will also appear in Kevin Hanson's forthcoming book on bobcats, to be published by Oxford University Press.
• In 2001, Susan received the Franklin Fairbanks Award for her lifelong creative and dedicated service to enriching the awareness and understanding of the natural world among the residents of New England.
• In 2004, Susan and Keeping Track received the Maria Pirie Environmental Program Award from the New England Environmental Education Alliance.