Mission: To foster enhanced appreciation, stewardship, and appropriate locally-led expansion of Vermont's town forests

Project Elements:

1) Build Cultural and Educational Connections: Foster town forest activities that deepen Vermonters' connections to their forests and communities

2) Enhance Stewardship: Help Vermont's towns develop and implement strong stewardship plans and monitoring programs for their town forests

3) Town Forest Acquisition: Support town-led establishment or expansion of town forests

Project Overview

The Vermont Town Forest Project is working to advance forest stewardship and conservation in Vermont through partnerships with communities to more deeply engage Vermonters with their town forests. The Vermont Town Forest Project helps communities more fully use and celebrate their town forests as community assets, thereby reminding Vermonters of the deep common bond we all share through our forests and the Vermont way of life.

The Vermont Town Forest Project is being implemented in close collaboration with our growing list of partner towns through three integrated campaign components: 1) strengthening cultural and educational connections to our town forests; 2) enhancing stewardship of town forests; and 3) assisting towns that are interested in establishing or expanding a town forest. The more than twenty partner organizations in the Vermont Town Forest Project would like the opportunity to work with your town to help create foster these new activities and experiences in your community!

Build Cultural and Educational Connections

Creating an Oral History and Expanding Youth Awareness

We can work with leaders in your community to help create your town forest oral history, drawing young people together to work with community elders. The oral history would explore history, use, and change in your town forest(s) and how forests have shaped the life of your town. This oral history should provide new insights into the ways Vermont and your community have changed, and also the ways in which our core values and connections to forests have not, inspiring new dialogue in your community about forests and helping to pass along our forest heritage between generations.

We can also work with your local schools to help your community access leading educational models for deepening young people's engagement with forests. These new activities might include GIS mapping of your town forestland, wildlife tracking, education about forestry, and other activities that students can pursue in your town forest to enhance their understanding of our forest heritage and stewardship responsibilities. Often these kinds of hands-on educational experiences culminate in a school essay project examining what the town forest means to each child and his or her hopes for the future use of these lands.

Fostering Community Conversations

We can also work with your town to foster a dialogue about town forests and forest resources. This might include activities like helping to facilitate a Town Forest Celebration, sharing the town forest oral history and student town forest essays with the community, and ongoing public education about stewardship and conservation opportunities for your town.  Project partners like the Orton Family Foundation and Vermont Natural Resources Council have tools and resources that can help enhance dialogue about your town's opportunities to enhance planning and resource conservation.

Your local town forest efforts will also feed into a larger statewide conversation about town forests, including through our annual Vermont Town Forest Summit that brings together interested towns from across the state to discuss their vision and goals for their town forests as well as learn about new opportunities for town forest activities.  Our first Summit at the Blueberry Hill Inn in Goshen last October drew representatives from more than thirty communities statewide.  We also hold an annual series of regional field workshops to showcase possible town forest activities, with the first event of 2006 scheduled for UVM’s Jericho Research Forest on April 22.

Enhance Stewardship

We are working with the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation, the University of Vermont's Green Forestry Education Initiative and leading towns and nonprofit organizations, including the Moosalamoo Association, to develop a Vermont Town Forest Stewardship Resource Guide and website that will include case studies of innovative management plans, stewardship activities, and recreational enhancements that have been implemented by different towns across Vermont. It is projected to be complete in the fall of 2006.

Through direct technical assistance and the stewardship guide and website, we can help your town enhance its town forest stewardship, including developing and implementing new management plans, engaging your community in stewardship of its town forest, and better use of resources that are available from our state government and private entities. State support for stewardship in years past has ranged from financial help and technical assistance in writing and implementing forest plans to financial grants to build trails, such as the interpretive trail in the Putney Town Forest.

In collaboration with the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation and the University of Vermont's Green Forestry Education Initiative, we are in the process of developing a new statewide forest health monitoring project that will train citizens to do important monitoring work on their town forests. The data that your town can help gather will contribute to the advancement of forest health science in Vermont and participating in the monitoring process will give Vermonters a more active role in maintaining forest health. 

Support Town Forest Acquisition

There is still much work that can be done to enhance Vermont's system of town forests. There are approximately 140 towns in Vermont-slightly more than half of the 251 in all-that currently have town forests.  The Vermont Town Forest Project can help deliver the needed financial and technical tools that your town might require to pursue a town forest acquisition project. Partner organizations with expertise in land conservation, such as the Vermont Land Trust and Trust for Public Land, can provide important technical assistance to help facilitate new town forest projects and to find the necessary public and private funding to support a town acquisition.

To Participate:

If your town might be interested in working with us in any of these areas, please contact Jad Daley of the Northern Forest Alliance at 253-8227 X13 or jdaley@nfainfo.org.  We would welcome the opportunity to engage with your town in this effort and to provide our resources to help realize your town's vision.

Vermont Town Forest Project Opportunities:

· Development of an oral history for your town forest

· Development of new town forest-based educational programs

· Enhanced dialogue around forest resource issues in your town

· Technical assistance and education in understanding other conservation tools for your town forest, including planning and monitoring

· Participation in statewide dialogue and forums on town forest activities and management

· Access to new stewardship models for your town forest

· Technical assistance and funding for management of your town forest

· Training for a citizen-led forest health monitoring project using your town forest

· Technical assistance in designing town forest acquisition projects

· Assistance in identifying funding strategies for town forest acquisition projects