Vermont has a long and proud tradition of town-owned and managed forests. Over 168 municipalities own over 67,000 acres of forestland, all open for public benefit. The values of these town forests are diverse, including watershed protection, wildlife habitat, forest products, outdoor classrooms, and neighborhood gathering places. Outdoor forest-based recreation is both a great opportunity and a growing challenge. Recognition of the economic and community benefits of forest-based recreation is on the rise. Concurrently, increased pressure from multiple recreation groups accentuate the need for planning assistance to balance the growing recreation interests and the health of the forest. In response, the Vermont Urban & Community Forestry Program and its partners received a grant from the US Forest Service to provide recreation planning assistance to ten diverse Vermont communities, and ours was one of those selected!
Over the next year, we will be working with a consulting firm specializing in community planning, SE Group, to develop an action-based town forest recreation plan. The innovative and robust planning process includes a series of public workshops, a needs assessment and site analysis, and a final plan that provides actionable strategies to assist our community in taking the next steps.
This survey is all about understanding YOUR vision for our town forest. It dovetails with the first public visioning workshop, asking many of the same questions asked of the public at that event. At this point in the process we want to encourage you to think expansively about our town forest and your vision for forest-based recreation in our community. This is a time to express all your wants and desires and to get everything on the table. Try not to be bogged down in constraints on the site or current realities that might restrict what you think is possible in our town forest—we will grapple with what is possible on the site and the best ways to achieve our vision in the next phase of the project.
Our next public meeting to review the results of the visioning workshop and survey will occur in June/July. Please provide your email to stay tuned for project updates and meeting announcements.
Thanks for taking the survey!