Times Ink Article on ACF - 7/8/20
The
Andrews Community Forest:
Forest
Management to Begin This Year
By
Ethan Tapper
Many of the readers of this article have probably heard of the Andrews Community Forest (ACF) in one way or another. This 428-acre parcel is one of Vermont’s newest Town Forests, acquired by Richmond and protected with a conservation easement held by the Vermont Land Trust and the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board in 2018. A “Management Plan (MP),” detailing broad goals and objectives, was drafted with a public process and adopted by the Richmond Selectboard in 2018. This was followed by a “Forest Management Plan (FMP),” with specific forest management recommendations, drafted by myself and the new Richmond Town Forest Committee and adopted as an addendum to the MP in 2019. As part of the recommendations in this FMP, forest management at the ACF will be beginning this summer.
Between the ACF’s conservation easement, MP and FMP, there are lots of protections in place to safeguard the health of ecosystems and wildlife on the property. These include special protections for unusual and sensitive natural communities and two vernal pools. Streams are protected with buffers, and no management work is allowed between April 1 and August 1 to avoid bird breeding season. Additionally, the ACF is divided into three “Management Intensity Zones,” each covering about 1/3 of the property. Each of these Zones will be managed in different ways, with a goal of providing a diversity of different forest types and conditions and the ecological and wildlife benefits that come with them. This includes one Zone that will be kept unmanaged.
Within Zone 2, (in the east of the property) forest management is prescribed for 2020-2021. Initial planning/layout for this management is underway this summer, and it is likely that the project will begin in earnest by late August or early September. The joint goals of the project are to increase diversity, resilience and overall health of the ACF’s forests and to demonstrate responsible forest management. This project will showcase “ecological forestry,” which uses the harvesting of trees to mimic natural disturbances and encourage the development of complex, diverse forests. This holistic approach to forest management seeks to create great habitat for all of Vermont’s native flora and fauna, help forests be more resilient and adaptive in a changing climate, and help our relatively young forests become more like old growth forests.
Another major objective of the project is to provide
opportunities for everyone to learn about forest management in an open, transparent and
inclusive way. While COVID-19 means that our events this year will be largely virtual,
numerous
opportunities will be provided for you to learn about this project, and we will resume
in-person events as soon as it is safe to do so:
·
There are already two virtual learning opportunities scheduled; a webinar on “ecological forestry” on
7/23 at 7:00 PM and a virtual question-and-answer session on 8/24 at 7:00 PM.
More learning opportunities like this will follow in the fall and winter.
·
From mid-July to mid-August, the public will have a chance to
walk through the planned management area and ask questions about the trees
marked to be cut. This area will be depicted on a PDF “marking map” that the
public can navigate on using the free app “Avenza” on a normal smart phone. The
map and instructions can be found on the Richmond Town Forest Committee’s page of the Town’s
website (see link below).
·
You can follow along with the progress of the job by watching
regular short videos updating the public on the progress of the project, via
the “Andrews Community Forest” Playlist on my YouTube channel (search “Chittenden County Forester” on YouTube).
·
There will be other efforts to show the progress of the project of the time, including
capturing periodic aerial photos and videos of the job in progress
and establishing “photo posts” where you can take pictures of an area from a
common vantage point to see how it changes over time.
Our approach to outreach and education will be modeled after a similar project at the Hinesburg Town Forest over the last two years, focusing on a wide range of topics, engaging many other natural resource experts and partnering with numerous other organizations, from Vermont Woodlands Association and Audubon Vermont to Pride Center of Vermont and City Market Co-op.
This project will also showcase Vermont’s working landscape and the sustainable production of local, renewable resources (wood). Income from the project will be used to improve the ACF’s recreational and educational offerings and pay for important stewardship activities like controlling invasive exotic plants. The Richmond Town Forest Committee is also considering how to use some of the wood to directly benefit the local community. This could take several forms – some towns have established “firewood banks,” which provide firewood to community members in need. Other towns – like Hinesburg – have used wood harvested from their Town Forest in municipal building projects. If you have an idea for a project like this, please let the Richmond Town Forest Committee know (email richmondtownforest@gmail.com)! While generating income and resources is not the main goal of the project, producing income and local, renewable resources in the course of high-quality forest management is something that we can be proud of, and that can be positive for our forest, our communities and our world.
Finally, this project will seek opportunities to partner with other adjacent, conserved properties, in particular those owned by Prelco and VYCC. This partnership may include outreach, education, extending the harvest area to portions of these landowners’ properties and providing learning opportunities for VYCC’s new forestry program and area Tech Centers.
One of the challenges and the opportunities
offered by this work at the ACF, and other similar projects in Town Forests, is
to engage in a frank and open conversation about the role of forests and forest
management on Vermont’s landscape. While I also strongly believe in the value
of unmanaged forests, this project will shed light on the potential of forest
management to be regenerative, to make our forests healthier and more resilient,
to support our landscape and our world, and to aid in the ongoing struggle for
equity and justice in our communities. While some aspects of this project may
be challenging, I would ask that we all engage with the bigger picture and the
nuances of this work, and take this opportunity to learn. My hope is that this
project will be something we can all be proud of, and that it will help us
build a culture of understanding of how forests work, our role in them, and how
forest management can help us build a better world.
The ACF’s Management Plan and Forest Management Plan can both be read on the Town of Richmond’s Website at: http://www.richmondvt.gov/boards-minutes/conservation-commission/richmond-town-forest/
To learn more about the project at the ACF and these
and future events, contact Ethan Tapper at ethan.tapper@vermont.gov or 802-585-9099 or the Richmond Town Forest Committee at the email
address above.
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