For the past several years, VNRC, in partnership with Audubon Vermont and Dr. William Keeton of the University of Vermont, has been advocating for the Forest Service to try a new approach to forest management on the Telephone Gap Integrated Resource Project. 

The Telephone Gap Integrated Resource Project area, which covers a project area of 72,250 acres, is located on the Green Mountain National Forest, Rochester and Middlebury Ranger Districts within Rutland, Windsor, and Addison Counties, Vermont including the towns of Brandon, Chittenden, Goshen, Killington, Mendon, Pittsfield, Pittsford, and Stockbridge. The project proposal includes management activities on National Forest System lands to achieve multiple resource benefits as provided by direction in the 2006 Green Mountain National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan.

The Goal

Our goal was to promote diverse wildlife habitat and forest management that included a model approach to advance old forest and old growth conservation and innovative ecological forestry practices to enhance and accelerate old forest conditions, The Telephone Gap final decision was recently adopted and so rings in a new opportunity to advance climate smart, ecological forestry on public land. 

Innovative aspects of the project include:

• Additional protections for old growth forest. In addition to protecting stands that are identified as “old forest” according to the Vermont Fish and Wildlife, based on our advocacy, the Forest Service will conduct field inventories and protect additional old-growth stands based on benchmarks and criteria specifically applicable to Vermont’s northern hardwood and northern hardwood-conifer forests.
  
• The Forest Service will protect legacy trees that are over 150 years of age, and resample all mapped stands that are over 150 years of age to see if they meet the state’s “old forest” definition for old growth protection.
  
• Based on our advocacy, Alternative C specifically reduces harvesting in mature stands, removing 661 acres from harvest that were identified as having exemplary “late-successional” characteristics (i.e. large trees, complex forest structure, etc.).
  
• Furthermore, the Forest Service will practice “climate smart” ecological forestry principles that we advocated for on almost half the acreage being harvested. Now, 3,631 acres will receive late successional enhancements that will accelerate old forest conditions and align with the principles of managing forests for increased ecological function. 
  

Additional elements of the project include:

• Creates pathways for improving diverse wildlife habitat

• Sustains a network of roads and trails, increased recreation opportunities, and timber harvesting to provide wood products for the local and regional economy while enhancing forest health and diversity 

How this transpired: 

On June 13, 2025, the U.S. Forest Service signed and approved its final decision on the Telephone Gap Integrated Resource Project in the Green Mountain National Forest (GMNF). The final decision can be found here.

For five years Forest Service staff conducted a field inventory and resource analysis to be able to inform the management plan. Multiple alternatives were developed, but in the end, Alternative C was chosen as the best course of action. Alternative C includes innovative approaches that we recommended to the Forest Service.

The Forest Service’s original proposal for the project, which was different from Alternative C, would have harvested 8,205 acres out of close to 12,000 stand acres, including areas that had old forest conditions and characteristics. During the public comment period, Vermont Natural Resources Council, Audubon Vermont, and Dr. William Keeton with the University of Vermont, an expert on forest carbon management, ecologically-based silvicultural systems, old-growth forests, and sustainable forest management policy, submitted detailed comments encouraging the Forest Service to develop one or more alternatives to better promote ecological forestry and diverse forest health and wildlife habitat goals while protecting and expanding late-successional/old-growth forest characteristics.

We dedicated significant time, resources, and expertise to research and evaluate potential alternatives and their impact on forest health, carbon sequestration and storage, watershed health, wildlife habitat, ecosystem services, and economic and recreational opportunities.

What we developed:

We are pleased that our recommendations for implementing climate smart practices to conserve and promote late successional and old growth forests were incorporated into the Forest Service’s final decision. More specifically, our recommendations proposed a completely new model approach for (1) protecting existing old-growth stands, (2) supporting retention and active restoration and recruitment of additional old growth forests, and (3) promoting ecological forestry management practices on the GMNF, in addition to implementing water quality protection measures. As a result of our recommendations and input from the public, the Forest Service set aside 661 acres due to their old forest characteristics, and will now practice ecological forestry on almost half of the treated acres through methods that will enhance late successional, old forest conditions, and biodiversity conditions.

Bottom Line: 

Our understanding is that the Green Mountain National Forest is one of the first national forests in the country to operationalize an approach to promote climate smart, ecological forestry and build in old-growth protection measures based on local scientific benchmarks.

Further Reading :

VNRC submitted detailed comments to the Forest Service in the Spring of 2024 to promote the recommendations mentioned above. As part of VNRC’s work, we engaged Dr. Bill Keeton, an expert on forest carbon management, ecologically-based silvicultural systems, old-growth forests, and sustainable forest management policy to help us provide recommendations to the Forest Service. You can read the full comments that we submitted on April 8th 2024 below.

VNRC’s Forests and Wildlife Program Director Jamey Fidel penned an article in the spring of 2025 about the need to collaborate and find common ground to address the many challenges facing our land. His article speaks to the same collaboration being exemplified by the Telephone Gap Resource Project Area.

The Forest Stewards Guild has developed helpful background about the stewardship of old forests and trees.

Read about recent news on Telephone Gap in this article published in Inside Climate News.