Forest Conservation in Vermont

Last updated on May 3rd, 2018 at 04:19 pm

Vermont is the Green Mountain state and trust me, Vermonters are serious about forest conservation.  If you live in New York or Boston or another metropolitan area you might be surprised though to learn that we have to fight hard every day to keep our forests clean, green and intact.

Dennis and I were at a meeting of the Vermont Wood Manufacturer’s Association last week and as always, forest conservation was high on the list of topics for discussion.  Vermont furniture companies are working on creating a chain of custody for their furniture so customers will be able to trace it back from the furniture maker to the forest where it was sustainably harvested.

You may be thinking: “why do Vermonters think forest conservation is so important?”  Well it’s not just because the Green Mountain Forest makes a $1 billion contribution to our economy.  Or that the forest industry provides 9% of Vermont’s total manufacturing sales and employment for over 6000 Vermonters.  It’s also that Vermonters love the wildlife and recreation the forest provides.

We see how forests are being decimated in tropical countries like Brazil, the DR Congo and Indonesia and we’re determined to do what we can to conserve forests (both our temperate forests and rainforests) for future generations.  Here is  just a short list of Vermont organizations working on the mission of forest conservation:

• The Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation
• The Vermont Woodlands Association
• The Vermont Sierra Club
• The Vermont Land Trust
• The Vermont Working Landscape Partnership
• Vermont Family Forests
• Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department 

Another forest conservation group– one near to my heart, is the Vermont Center for Eco Studies. Researchers there are working to conserve habitat for our state’s migrating songbirds.  As such their conservation efforts span both our temperate Vermont forests and the rainforest of the Dominican Republic where our state bird the Bicknell’s Thrush winters.

Learn more about forest conservation and  how it fits into our mission at Vermont Woods Studios on our website.