Vermont forests are under threat. This includes the plants and animals who call our forests home, as well as our communities that rely on healthy forests for clean drinking water, recreational opportunities, wood for our homes, and protection from future floods.
An estimated 12,000 acres of forestland are lost every year to development, while the proliferation of forest disease and non-native species are on the rise. Our forests are becoming increasingly fragmented and a changing climate is forcing species to move 11 miles northward and 36 feet upslope each decade.
To overcome this broad and complex range of challenges, we need science-based strategies to preserve the health of our forests and help our species and communities thrive. We need to follow best practices, using diverse approaches to managing our forests that blend both passive and active management. And we need to deploy these strategies across a landscape to maintain forest health, control for disease, and manage non-native species. This approach includes allowing for select, ecological harvesting in appropriate areas while allowing other areas to develop under natural processes where harvesting and other uses are restricted.
The recently completed Worcester Range Management Unit Long-Range Management Plan (“plan”) exemplifies this approach across 18,000 acres of Vermont’s publicly owned forests. Running adjacent to the spine of the Green Mountains in north-central Vermont, the Worcester range is a stunning fixture in our landscape. It includes a regionally significant wildlife corridor, many headwater streams, and noteworthy climate resilient features. This large, complex forest block provides irreplaceable space for species to adapt to climate change, and opportunities for forest managers to make meaningful contributions to enhance the ecological health and climate resilience of the forests in our region.
The Agency of Natural Resources’ (ANR’s) diverse approach to forest management in the plan over the next 20 years is one that prioritizes forest resilience. This is especially important in Vermont, given our history of heavy land clearing in the 1800s and subsequent regrowth. Today, many of our forests are still recovering; they do not have the diversity of tree species or the complex forest structure that would be present in older forests. Diverse and strategic management can help our forests transition to a healthier state, improving our collective resilience to climate change.
The Worcester plan balances a wide range of uses and functions that are consistent with statewide planning tools and goals for biodiversity protection. For example, it doubles the amount of acreage to remain in a natural state—ensuring that over half of the Worcester Range has the ability to generate old growth forest characteristics and enhance forest resilience.
The plan also offers an opportunity to showcase best practices in ecological forestry. Harvesting would be limited to only 10% of the 18,000 acres. The remaining lands, which were identified as suitable for harvesting, will not be touched in this 20-year plan period, meaning 90% of the area will be off limits to harvesting.
For the small amount of land that will be harvested, the plan focuses on strategies that will help accelerate conditions that would normally be found in older forests and that benefit biodiversity. While the final plan does not include all the strategies that we recommended, it does shift away from harvesting practices primarily focused on timber production and offers opportunities to showcase progressive, climate-informed forestry.
We appreciate the hard work of the ecologists, wildlife biologists, foresters, and planners with the Agency of Natural Resources who crafted this plan. More specifically, we appreciate their collaborative approach – giving time and attention to the public comments, and willingness to use stakeholder input to enhance the plan.
It is clear that forests matter a great deal to Vermonters – ecologically, societally, and economically. The Worcester plan balances the multiple values, uses, and needs that our forests support—marking a meaningful turning point in state-driven forest management as we adapt to an uncertain and climate-impacted future.
As members of the Forest Partnership, a collaboration of Vermont conservation organizations dedicated to advancing forest health, we applaud this plan and the long-term value it will provide.
Submitted on behalf of the Forest Partnership,
Vermont Natural Resources Council
Vermont Conservation Voters
Audubon Vermont
Northeast Wilderness Trust
The Nature Conservancy in Vermont
Trust for Public Land
Vermont Land Trust