The state of Vermont is taking public input as it crafts a strategic plan for its forests and forest economy.
The effort to develop the Vermont Forest Future Strategic Roadmap was authorized by legislation signed into law by Governor Phil Scott in 2022. Led by the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation, the project is meant to lay out a 10-year plan to strengthen, modernize, promote and protect Vermont’s forest products sector and the broader forest economy. The Department says Vermont’s forest products industry provides nearly 14,000 jobs and generates $2.1 billion in annual sales. Michael Snyder – then Commissioner of the Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation – told WAMC in August 2022 that the roadmap aims to address challenges facing the industry and forestland, both public and private.
“It's also threatened, threatened by climate change by globalization, the marketplace, the pandemic has certainly put a light on our vulnerabilities,” Snyder said. “And it shows us that this growing sense that if we’re really careful and we think about it, we can keep forests as forests by having a local intelligent, ecologically based approach to forest management and stewardship in an economic way that provides for outdoor recreation, tourism, clean water, flood resilience, carbon sequestration and storage, biodiversity, connectivity and habitat. So it's a really good deal. We're really benefiting from what forests provide in a place like Vermont, and this is forward looking to say, let's make sure that all continues. Do we have the legal, the economic, and the institutional frameworks in place to ensure forests continue. And we're betting that one of the best ways to keep forests forests well into the future is to have local economies based on the forest and a local intelligence of how to work with forests sustainably and conservatively.”
Snyder stepped down from his post at the end of 2022. Danielle Fitzko, the director of forests for the department, is serving as interim commissioner. During a recent community engagement session, Fitzko said as lawmakers were crafting the legislation to start the effort, they heard about some of the hurdles facing those working in the forest landscape.
“Some of the things that they heard during that summer, was that the forest product sector is struggling,” Fitzko said. “Not to say there aren't some bright spots along the supply chain. But they heard that there's some misunderstanding of forest management, that there's a lot of new landowners coming to Vermont that may not understand Vermont's land ethic and being wise and active stewards. That we're seeing forest land conversion to non-forest uses, that there's workforce challenges, that there's loss of in-state processing, that the cost of doing business in the forest product sector is high. There's regulatory barriers, and I think the lists go on.”
Taking input from a 22-member advisory panel, as well as stakeholders and industry leaders, the Department plans to deliver the roadmap to the General Assembly by January 2024. The department has hired the consultant firm Future iQ to help develop the roadmap. During the community engagement session, the company’s CEO and founder David Beurle detailed some of the survey data and trends collected so far and how that is shaping the strategic plan.
“We can't really understate the importance of future thinking because we're going into a period and we're really in a period where change is accelerating,” Beurle said. “The decade ahead of us has a lot have really profound shifts. You know, societal values are shifting rapidly, technology sort of really starting to bite in. You got climate change. We've got, you know, generational change occurring and so on. So taking this long-term foresight view, is really intended to try and set the industry up for the greatest success.”
Beyond providing economic output through wood products, Fitzko says the plan will also consider how Vermont’s forests can offer a service amid a changing climate.
“The sort of directive for us was to look at the forest product sector and one of the main reasons is it's recognizing that a strong forest products economy, forest economy helps support a forested landscape, which we really think is key, as we start to think about our climate resilience, adaptation and mitigation,” Fitzko said. “We need forests in Vermont. We’re 74% forested now, we're starting to see a decline there. Also thinking about how we manage forests so we can sequester more carbon, and also have products that are durable and store carbon. Recognizing that forest products are climate smart, renewable resource wood products, and so it kind of does absolutely tie in to climate change into the future. And I think our strategies for forest management, we'll be thinking about how do we manage them so we can sequester more carbon, and then also have embodied carbon in wood products.”
The roadmap is being designed as a living document to be reviewed and updated at least every 10 years.
An in-person community engagement session is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, March 2 at Montpelier City Hall followed by an online session from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Friday, March 3.
