After several years of debate and review, the U.S. Forest Service has issued a plan for managing 72,000 acres of public and private land in the Green Mountains, near Rutland.
The agency is proposing to open roughly 11,000 acres to timber harvests, a move that’s proven controversial and sparked disagreement among environmentalists in the state.
At the heart of the disagreement is how the project defines and treats old forests, and how much land it proposes for logging.
Jamey Fidel, with the Vermont Natural Resources Council, said the organization supports the final plan.
“Close to half the overall acreage that will be treated will be trying out some different approaches, many of them that have a lighter touch on the land, that are designed to have more of a beneficial carbon outcome, to be bird-friendly, but also to enhance old forest conditions through harvesting,” he said.
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In a decision letter issued Monday, District Ranger Chris Mattrick said the final plan reflects more than 100 objections his staff received from members of the public, calling for stronger protections for mature and old growth forests.
“This project will provide sustainable high-quality saw timber and improved public access on a safe and sustainable road and trail network,” Mattrick said by email Monday. “The project also addresses serious threats to forest health resulting from insects and disease, invasive species and declining tree growth.”
The Forest Service initially proposed 12,000 acres of commercial timber harvests in Telephone Gap. Fidel and other environmental advocates were critical of this earlier plan, and say it did not go far enough to protect older trees or prepare the forest for a changing climate.
Audubon Vermont, Vermont Natural Resources Council and William Keeton, an old forest and carbon expert at the University of Vermont, asked the forest service to incorporate principles of ecological forestry — taking a lighter touch on the landscape.
This final plan approves harvests on some 11,000 acres — a modest reduction — but proponents including Fidel with VNRC and researchers at the UVM’s Rubenstein School say it significantly changes the kind of logging that will take place.
Additionally, the final plan defers logging on a stretch of land that is considered old forest by Vermont’s state standards. It also shifts where the harvests will occur, and forest service scientists will be ground-truthing the age of trees in areas slated for harvest, to see if they are mature and should be protected.
The Forest Service says roughly 3,000 acres of forest will be harvested to thin and diversify aging stands of trees so they can grow bigger and older more successfully. Of those harvests, trees on almost 500 acres will be left on the forest floor, to decompose slowly and simulate old growth conditions.
On top of that, the plan proposes up to 1,000 acres of prescribed burning to create habitat for oak, a family of trees that are expected to fare increasingly well in Vermont forests in the face of human-caused climate change.
But not all environmental groups in the state are supportive of the plan. Zack Porter, with the nonprofit Standing Trees, which opposes logging on public lands, warns it will build roads into remote areas of forest and release too much carbon.
Over the next 15 years, the logging in the plan would release some 254,500 metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere — the equivalent of burning about 28 million gallons of gasoline, according to the Forest Service’s environmental assessment.
Porter also takes issue with the criteria proposed for protecting mature forests and says it’s too loose.
“They're using criteria that are so stringent that it's very likely, you know, no area within the Telephone Gap landscape will even meet those criteria,” Porter said. “It’s just lip service to protecting mature and old growth forests.”
Porter says Standing Trees asked the Forest Service to defer logging in major roadless areas of the forest and to use a stricter definition of old growth, but didn’t ultimately get what they wanted. He says the group will be reviewing the final plan with its lawyers and considering future litigation.
Among the benefits of the plan, the Forest Service says it will support Vermont’s dwindling timber products industry, by providing some 50,000 cubic feet of timber over the next 15 years.
The plan goes into effect immediately and will govern work in the Telephone Gap area through 2030. Among other projects, it allows for a backcountry hut that previously burned down to be rebuilt, and authorizes changes to trails for mountain biking, hiking and snowmobiling.
