Unified Report for All Regions Was Submitted to the USDA Forest Service by the Contract Closing Date
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Solid unbroken forest is all around me, stretching far beyond my vision, for hundreds of miles. It is one of the few such forests remaining in the world. The forest regulates the water flow from the frequent heavy rains. It prevents floods, providing steady runoff into the trout-filled streams. It used to support salmon runs. Such a forest is also the diffuse lung tissue of the earth to which we are irrevocably bound. It is not our “environment.” It is us. “The Trees in My Forest,” Bernd Heinrich, 1997 Acknowledgements Authors: Seth Jensen Lamoille County Planning Commission Melinda Scott Lamoille County Planning Commission Jackie Cassino Lamoille County Planning Commission Jim Sullivan Bennington County Planning Commission Emma Zavez Two Rivers -Ottauquechee Regional Planning Commission Kevin Behm Addison Regional Planning Commission Reviewers: Jim Henderson, Jim Sullivan, Kevin Behm, Emma Zavez, Bonnie Waninger, Ginger Anderson, Steve Sinclair, and Nancy Patch. Thanks to all the members of the Regional Steering Committees, who attended many nighttime meetings and worked tirelessly towards the completion of this project. Their vision was inspiring, their input and efforts were invaluable and helped to make this project successful. Thanks to the four Regional Planning Commissions – Addison, Bennington, Lamoille and Two Rivers- Ottauquechee – for their dedication and hard work on this pilot project. Through their efforts a solid foundation has been established for other regions to follow and expand on. Thanks to the State and Federal Partners on the Coordinating Committee for contributing their efforts to this project: Steve Sinclair, Ginger Anderson, Nancy Patch, Ray Toolan, Jon Bouton, Chris Olson, Chris Stone, Erik Engstrom, and Roger Monthey. The Vermont Natural Resources Council made valuable contributions to this project in consultations with the Regional Planning Commissions and by allowing us to use their Conservation Strategies Matrix in the regional reports. Finally, we would like to acknowledge the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service for their generous financial support of this project. 1 Table of Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................1 Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 4 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 6 Examples of Landscape Forest Planning ............................................................................................... 6 Forestland Evaluation and Site Assessment (FLESA) ....................................................................... 6 Forest Legacy Program and Assessment of Need (AON) ................................................................. 7 Shifting the Focus from Statewide to Regional ..................................................................................... 7 Methods ........................................................................................................................................................ 9 Regional Forest Stewardship Plans: Commonalities and Differences ........................................................ 15 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 15 General Physical Setting ...................................................................................................................... 15 Demographic Trends ........................................................................................................................... 16 Forest Landscapes ............................................................................................................................... 20 Forest Resource Values ....................................................................................................................... 23 Economic Values ............................................................................................................................ 23 Ecological Values ............................................................................................................................ 30 Recreational and Scenic Values ..................................................................................................... 33 Historic and Cultural Values ........................................................................................................... 35 Threats and Limitations to Forest Sustainability ................................................................................. 35 Environmental Threats................................................................................................................... 36 Incompatible Development and Fragmentation ........................................................................... 39 Tools for Sound Forest Stewardship and Conservation ...................................................................... 44 Public Conserved Lands ................................................................................................................. 44 Private Lands .................................................................................................................................. 47 Regional Plans ................................................................................................................................ 52 Local Plans and Land Use Regulations ........................................................................................... 53 Local Conservation Commissions and other Conservation Organizations .................................... 54 Forest Product Associations ........................................................................................................... 55 Private Landowner Associations .................................................................................................... 56 2 Advocacy Organizations and Associations ..................................................................................... 57 Additional Forest Stewardship Strategies ........................................................................................... 58 Regional Priority Issues and Strategies to Keep Forests as Forests ............................................................ 66 Evaluation of Landscape Stewardship Approach: Lessons Learned and Future Recommendations ......... 74 Future Recommendations ................................................................................................................... 81 Appendix A: Addison Region Maps of Forest Resources and Constraints Appendix B: Bennington Region Maps of Forest Resources and Constraints Appendix C: Lamoille Region Maps of Forest Resources and Constraints Appendix D: Two Rivers Ottauquechee Region Maps of Forest Resources and Constraints Appendix E: Vermont Natural Resources Council Conservation Strategies Matrix Appendix F: Analyzing Forest Change in Addison County 3 Executive Summary According to the Vermont Forest Resource Fact Sheet, more than 70-percent of Vermont’s 4.6 million acres of forest can be characterized as nonindustrial private forest land (NPIF). This land is divided among an estimated 88,000 landowners, independently managing their properties with unique private interests. 1 The fragmented nature of Vermont’s NPIF ownership means that forest resource planning occurs parcel by parcel, while more integrated planning would better address the State’s objective of keeping forest land intact to maintain habitat connectivity, forest health and productivity, ecosystem quality and strong forest products based economic activities. A landscape stewardship approach was identified as the most effective way to address these concerns and help communities and private landowners conserve forest resource values. Regional forest stewardship planning will help ensure Vermont’s public and privately owned forests are managed in an environmentally responsible way. This project, Landscape-Based Forest Stewardship Planning - A Regional Approach, developed a methodology for forest planning based on a landscape-scale analysis, in order to increase the scale and pace of sustainable management of private forest lands in Vermont, with the ultimate goal of keeping forests as forests. This project was a collaboration between the Vermont Division of Forests and four Vermont regional planning commissions to apply a single system – using geographic information system (GIS) technology and a stakeholder engagement process – to inventory and assess forest resources, identify specific forest landscape types, and produce strategies for each landscape type that will assist regions, municipalities, and forest landowners in the objective of keeping forests as forests. The Regional Planning Commissions involved in the project were Addison, Bennington, Lamoille and Two Rivers-Ottauquechee; Lamoille County Planning Commission was responsible for the overall coordination of the project. The 2010 Vermont State Assessment and Resource Strategies findings completed by the Division of Forests were combined with research conducted in Vermont utilizing forest block and ecological landscape unit analysis and existing GIS data to provide a consistent approach to a regional forest