Walk with Ethan Tapper, Chittenden County Forester, to learn about "Managing Young Forests to be like Old Forests" Saturday, January 21 1:00 – 3:00 PM at the Hinesburg Town Forest.

The vast majority of Vermont's forests are young, having been cleared within the last 200 years. While old forests once dominated Vermont's landscape, they are now extremely uncommon: accounting for less than 1% of the forests in our state. Besides being rare, old forests are also unique: diverse and resilient, providing important habitat opportunities for wildlife. While allowing some forests to develop into old forests naturally is important, it is also possible to use forest management to make Vermont's relatively young forests more like old forests, creating many of the unique conditions and habitats found in old forests centuries sooner than they would naturally occur.

Join Ethan Tapper, the Chittenden County Forester, and Allaire Diamond, ecologist with the Vermont Land Trust, for a visit of a forest management project at the Hinesburg Town Forest which aspires to use forest management as a tool to make a relatively young forest more like an old forest while also creating diverse wildlife habitat, protecting biodiversity, and increasing the forest's health and its resilience in a changing climate.

To join the walk, meet at 1:00pm on Saturday, January 21 at the HTF trailhead on Hayden Hill Road East, 0.3 miles from the intersection with Texas Hill Road. Please note that the Hayden Hill Road East trailhead is not accessible from Hayden Hill Road West, and that if you put "Hinesburg Town Forest" into your GPS it will send you to the incorrect trailhead. Please come prepared to spend two hours out in the elements, including some walking over slippery and uneven surfaces.

Register here: https://vlt.org/events/managing-young-forests/

May 13, 2024, 5:30 to 6:30 PM

May 14, 2024, 9 to 10 AM

May 18, 2024, 10 AM