Loading...
Master's Project: The Vermont Town Forest Census: Building a New Inventory of Municipal Forests with Perspectives on their Stewardship
Frost, Julie
Frost, Julie
Citations
Altmetric:
License
Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States
Abstract
Town forests play a special role in forest conservation in the Northern Forest region because they are publicly managed forest parcels that contribute to forest
integrity, ecosystem services, and community well-being. As generally small, forested parcels owned by local units of government, these municipal forests can also serve as models for private forest owners to conduct sustainable forest management to achieve diverse management goals. Many communities, however, find that managing these parcels can also bring special challenges as they seek to provide for diverse public demands with limited resources, often through volunteer stewardship committees.
Contributing to the Vermont Town Forest Census, my project focused on developing the strategies for deploying the first state-wide Census of municipal forests, executing the first phase of the Census, and assessing initial responses and themes. My work laid the framework for and initiated the updating of an inventory of municipal forests, last revised in 2015 indicating 352 forests totaling approximately 68,000 acres. Together with a core research team and an Advisory Committee of diverse experts, we developed a survey for municipal forest stewards asking key questions to understand and illuminate the trends, challenges, and learnings that town forest stewards are experiencing as they navigate the myriad pressures from climate change, outdoor recreation, development, economic concerns, and loss of habitat. I have compiled an inventory of 186 municipal forests across 85 towns, and determined that 56 towns indicate no ownership of municipal forest lands. Completed Census responses from 112 forest stewards have been recorded in a technical report to be shared with partners and stakeholders across disciplines.
Initial findings indicate a wide heterogeneity of municipal forests across sizes, governance structure, management objectives and community engagement. While there continues to be a significant number of forests that are not well known or report a lack of robust management, there are many examples of flourishing municipal forests with various management objectives to deliver combinations of ecosystem services. I present a review of the academic literature of scientific surveys to better understand barriers and factors for high response rates and suggest some key adjustments for the project strategies moving forward. To support the future efforts of the project team, I produced a detailed manual to facilitate continued use of the many systems and tools developed thus far. This body of work, as the foundation for a continuing effort between researchers and practitioners, aims to provide critical insights to state, local, and nonprofit agencies partnering with cities and towns on their land management objectives. More about the project can be found at the Vermont Town Forest Census website.
Description
Date
2025-12-07
Student Status
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Type of presentation
Files
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Citation
DOI
Advisor(s)
Department
Natural Resources