ACF Update 5/13/21

 Happy spring! 

We finally have some news to report on the forest management project at the Andrews Community Forest. In their meeting last week, the Andrews Community Forest Committee was faced with a tough decision: with the forest management project about 80% complete, they needed to decide if they would like to finish it up this late summer (sometime after August 1 to comply with restrictions in the ACF's Forest Management Plan to protect bird breeding season) or to call the work that has been done thus far "good enough" and to close-out the job. 

After a good discussion, the ACF Committee voted to choose the latter option. This means that we won't be doing any more significant forest management this year, and that our next step will be to stabilize our access infrastructure. The logger will return to Andrews with an excavator when conditions allow (probably in early June) to install waterbars in roads and trails, remove temporary stream crossings, and generally make sure that we have durable, resilient roads and trails going forward. As a result of this work we will have much more stable infrastructure, with a much lower chance of eroding, "washing-out," and contributing to the siltation of our waterways, than we did before this project. 

 While I would have loved to see the job 100% completed, we still have done a ton of great work at Andrews since last September, setting the forest on track to becoming more diverse, complex and resilient with great wildlife habitat while producing lots of beautiful local, renewable resources. Firewood from the project was donated to Wood for Good, a Jericho non-profit dedicated to providing heat for Vermonters in need, and hemlock logs from the project have been milled into boards to be used on the ACF's recreational trails. Income from the project will be used to fund trail projects, invasive plant control, and other ongoing stewardship of the ACF; helping make this amazing property a greater cultural, educational, ecological and recreational resource to Richmond and the region. 

I hope that the educational offerings associated with the project, from our many (16!) short YouTube videos and several (6!) webinars (all of which you can find at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWk3DKdWmNIb5VOql7MqxJ09GqXg0kPVl), to our blog (https://acfforestmanagement.blogspot.com/), interpretive signage and our virtual tour, have also helped people understand what high-quality forest management looks like, and the many ways that it supports things we care about as a community. Together these events and videos were attended and viewed by over 650 people. We also saw this project highlighted by several conservation partners, including Audubon Vermont, Vermont Fish and Wildlife and the Vermont Land Trust. 

Besides the close-out of our roads and trails, there are several other "next steps" we will take following the forest management project:

-  In conjunction with roads and trails being closed-out, we will be conducting some forest stand improvement, which will mostly consist of dropping non-commercial trees on the ground to release some of our healthiest trees, provide more light for regeneration, and to create more dead wood on the forest floor for habitat and its critical role in ecological function. 

- We hope to install educational signage in the forest management area, so that people that visit the area will have the tools and resources to understand the project and its many benefits.

- We will be working to create a strategy to manage invasive plants at the ACF -- both existing infestations and future ones. 

 

If you haven't already, I strongly recommend taking time to check out some of the many educational resources we've created on this project at https://linktr.ee/ACFForestManagement. As always, please do not hesitate to reach out to me with any thoughts, questions or concerns! 

Best, 

Ethan Tapper, Chittenden County Forester

ethan.tapper@vermont.gov

(802) 585-9099