ACF Update 12/1/20

Not a whole lot of progress on the forest management project at the Andrews Community Forest has been made over the last few weeks due to wet weather. The main obstacle has been the main "skid trail" between the woods and the log landing, which has been consistently wet and muddy, even when conditions in the woods are dry. We are hoping to get some funding in the short-term (in the next couple weeks) to improve drainage on this trail -- doing some ditching, installing some culverts, adding some gravel and maybe some geotextile fabric in one short section. While there is only a short window to work in before this trail is frozen, we're concerned that if we have a mild winter that this section of trail will continue to be be a problem. Improving the drainage and general resilience of our "access infrastructure" (roads, trails and landings) is something that we in the forest management community are also recommending more broadly in light of climate change, when we expect to have increasingly mild winters and precipitation events of increased severity and frequency. If we want to continue to manage our forests and support our working landscape, this may mean investing in our access infrastructure so that we can work responsibly when conditions are not ideal. 

We're continuing to look for opportunities to share the work we're doing in innovative ways. You can watch short update videos on the project and recordings of the many ACF-related webinars and events that we've held since August on the Andrews Community Forest Playlist of the Chittenden County Forester YouTube Page. Follow along throughout the project on ACF's Facebook page!

Here's some related info

from some other Community Forests in the County:

Wildlife Habitat Management at the Catamount Community Forest The goal of this project is to create some "early successional" or "young forest" habitat, which is a habitat type that is underrepresented across our landscape, and to create habitat for the golden-winged warbler, a bird species of concern in Vermont. We'll be teaming up with US Fish and Wildlife Service, Audubon Vermont and VT Fish and Wildlife Dept. to do this work. You can check out a story map I made on this project, here. Hinesburg Town Forest Story Map I created a GIS “Story Map” celebrating the demonstration forest management project we led in Hinesburg from 2018-2020, which you can find here. This story map especially highlights our approach to outreach in Hinesburg, trying to create an open, transparent and inclusive process and engage new people. We're trying to do this same approach (but COVID-safe and with some new tools) at Andrews and Catamount.

Chittenden County Forester YouTube Page This is also a reminder than you can find recordings of most of the virtual events and webinars I've led and participated in on the Chittenden County Forester YouTube page.