Wild Branch Wildlife Management Area (WMA) is located in the north central Vermont town of Eden along the Craftsbury town line. The WMA is 410 acres in size and is owned by the State of Vermont and managed by the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department.
Access to the WMA can be gained from the southeast via Route 14 and the Wild Branch Road in Craftsbury, then onto Collinsville Road to the road that leads to the Eden Mountain Ski Lodge. This road (a.k.a. Albany Road) continues northward bisecting the western portion of the WMA, and eventually enters the Village of Albany. The WMA can be accessed from the northeast via Route 14 in Albany Village. The western portion of the WMA can be accessed from a developed parking lot on Albany Road where a large maintained field is located. A second trail accesses the eastern end of the WMA beginning in the southeast corner of the field. This trail is gated.
The WMA lies on the divide between the Wild Branch of the Lamoille River watershed and the Seaver Branch of the Black River watershed. It also lies on the southeastern flank of the Lowell Mountain Range, having an aspect that is generally southeasterly. Elevations range from 2,185 feet in the northwest corner to 1,496 feet in the southeast corner. It is mostly forested with red and sugar maple, yellow and white birch and beech, as well as areas of softwoods containing hemlock, red spruce and balsam fir. There are approximately eight acres of field, east and west of the developed parking lot, maintained by the Department by brush hogging. There are apple trees in the fields that are maintained by release cuttings.
The Wild Branch parallels the Albany Road to the east, and a tributary of the Wild Branch flows through the western portion to the WMA, where a beaver-influenced wetland can be found. Another large (50-acre) wetland exists in the northeast portion of the WMA that is a State- significant natural community classified as a calcareous red maple-tamarack swamp-hemlock swamp. The are two beech stands, one in each extremity of the WMA, that are known to be critical fall feeding areas for black bear.
