page_title: Metacomet Ridge
section_title: Conservation
hierarchical_section_title: Metacomet Ridge / Conservation
caption_attribution_description: English: Round Mountain traprock quarry. The Holyoke Range, Amherst and Granby, Massachusetts. 1989. Photo by Paul Gagnon. For articles Metacomet Ridge and Holyoke Range
context_page_description: The Metacomet Ridge, Metacomet Ridge Mountains, or Metacomet Range of southern New England is a narrow and steep fault-block mountain ridge known for its extensive cliff faces, scenic vistas, microclimate ecosystems, and rare or endangered plants. The ridge is an important recreation resource located within 10 miles of more than 1.5 million people, offering four long-distance hiking trails and over a dozen parks and recreation areas, including several historic sites. It has been the focus of ongoing conservation efforts because of its natural, historic, and recreational value, involving municipal, state, and national agencies and nearly two dozen non-profit organizations.
  The Metacomet Ridge extends from Branford, Connecticut on Long Island Sound, through the Connecticut River Valley region of Massachusetts, to northern Franklin County, Massachusetts, 2 miles short of the Vermont and New Hampshire borders for a distance of 100 miles. It is geologically distinct from the nearby Appalachian Mountains and surrounding uplands, and is composed of volcanic basalt and sedimentary rock in faulted and tilted layers many hundreds of feet thick.
context_section_description: Because of its narrowness, proximity to urban areas, and fragile ecosystems, the Metacomet Ridge is most endangered by encroaching suburban sprawl. Quarry operations, also a threat, have obliterated several square miles of traprock ridgeline in both Massachusetts and Connecticut. Ridges and mountains affected include Trimountain, Bradley Mountain, Totoket Mountain, Chauncey Peak, Rattlesnake Mountain, East Mountain, Pocumtuck Ridge, and the former Round Mountain of the Holyoke Range. The gigantic man-like profile of the Sleeping Giant, a traprock massif visible for more than 30 miles (50 km) in south central Connecticut, bears quarrying scars on its "head". Mining there was halted by the efforts of local citizens and the Sleeping Giant Park Association.
  Development and quarrying threats to the Metacomet Ridge have resulted in public open space acquisition efforts through collective purchasing and fundraising, active solicitation of land donations, securing of conservation easements, protective and restrictive legislation agreements limiting development, and, in a few cases, land taking by eminent domain.  Recent conservation milestones include the acquisition of a defunct ski area on Mount Tom, the purchase of the ledges and summits of Ragged Mountain through the efforts of a local rock climbing club and the Nature Conservancy, and the inclusion of the ridgeline from North Branford, Connecticut, to Belchertown, Massachusetts, in a study by the National Park Service for a new National Scenic Trail now tentatively called the New England National Scenic Trail.
caption: Obliteration of Round Mountain by quarrying. 1989 photo; significantly more rock has been removed since then.
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