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Abenaki and Town Forests: Good For The Local Economy and for Conservation

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Sunday, 30 October 2011

Abenaki and Town Forests: Good For The Local Economy and for Conservation by: Dave Van Deusen Thu Oct 27, 2011 An Op-Ed By Brigid Sullivan, Executive Committee Member of the Vermont Sierra Club October 27th, 2011, Vermont - Our forests and the outdoor traditions that depend on them are under threat. Pollution, climate change, and irresponsible vacation home development are creating new challenges that, left unchecked, will result in the degradation of our game populations, trees, and more. What the latest science tells us is that in order to combat these challenges, we must take action immediately by creating viable wildlife migration corridors linking our core habitat areas in the Green Mountains to the Northeast Kingdom. The science also says that we must expand these corridors to our borders in order to link Vermont's forests with those in surrounding states and provinces. In short, our woods are part of the larger eco-system known as the Great Northeastern Forest, and must be treated as a treasure for future generations.  The Vermont Sierra Club, in close partnership with the Northeast Kingdom's Nulhegan Abenaki Tribe, is responding to this challenge through the building of the Our Forests Our Future campaign. This campaign has the goal of creating these wildlife corridors through a mosaic of newly established community forests.  By community forests we are referring to town owned forests and Abenaki owned forests that serve as public assets. In other words, we maintain that Vermont lands should stay in Vermont hands. By our way of thinking, this is the Vermont way!    We also favor the creation of these new conservation oriented community forests because, in addition to helping with climate friendly carbon sequestration, such public lands will also bring economic and social benefits to the communities in which they are situated. They can: *Provide educational opportunities for local school children *Generate public or tribal revenue through sustainable logging *Help support sustainable logging jobs   *Be a source of free or affordable firewood for local elderly and low income people *Be a place for public hunting and fishing *Be a place for public recreation      The fact is, Vermonters support the local approach to conservation, and so do we. This is not conjecture. Thus far the Our Forests Our Future campaign is endorsed by the Nulhegan and Elnu Abenaki Tribes, the Vermont AFL-CIO, the Green Mountain Central Labor Council, the Workers Center, the Capital City Grange, the Global Justice Ecology Project, the Conservation Law Foundation, and 350 Vermont.  Together these partners represent 8% of Vermont's total workforce. The goals of this campaign were also supported by the recent Moving Planet rally in Montpelier. There, over 1500 Vermonters reaffirmed their support for conservation and community forests while Nulhegan Abenaki leader, Luke Willard, spoke to these ideas and values from the podium.     The historic struggle to preserve Vermont's forests and outdoor traditions through the establishment of new community forests will not be achieved overnight, but it has to start now. In order to achieve our common aims we must call on our Congressional Delegation to better fund and then capture resources from the federal Community Forest and Forest Legacy Programs. We must call on our Vermont Housing and Conservation Board to better focus their existing resources upon such projects. And we must call upon our state legislators and our Governor, Peter Shumlin, to support the establishment of a modest yet progressive fund for the sole purpose of building new community forests that meet the above goals. This is an environmental necessity, and should be an economic priority. We invite you, as a fellow Vermonter, to agree. http://www.greenmountaindaily.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=8132

 

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