SHO Farm & Living Future Foundation Forest Management Plan

living future foundation’s 2015-30 plan to manage forests for wildlife habitat, carbon sequestration, and medicinal & edible mushrooms… alongside timber and firewood. ”The forest is the farm”, wild & working.

LivingFuture Foundation owns 1,296.1 acres in Huntington, Vermont, of which approximately 85% is forested. All but 14 acres are enrolled in Vermont’s Use Value Appraisal Program, more commonly known as Current Use, which enables eligible private landowners who practice long-term forestry or agriculture to enroll their land and have it assessed for property taxation purposes based on the property’s value as working forestland, farmland, farm buildings, or conserved land (meeting very specific requirements) — its “working land use value” as opposed to its residential or commercial value. The property tax savings are significant for large landowners, and we are thankful for the opportunity to be a part of this important program.

Due to the majority of our land being forested, our enrollment falls into the forestland category. There are different Current Use compliance requirements for forestland than for farmland, rather notable in fact. For one thing, our enrolled acreage must be “managed” according to an approved (by the County Forester, an employee of the VT Dept of Forest, Parks and Recreation) forest management plan (FMP) and according to state standards; strangely, and sadly, there is no management plan requirement for agricultural land — hopefully that will change given the great impact agricultural land use has on ecosystem health. FMP’s have a 10-year lifespan, and then must be “updated” to continue in the program. Accompanying the FMP is a Forest Management Map. Most private landowners hire professional foresters to help with the preparation of both the FMP and FMP Map.

In 2015, LFF’s 10-year “update” plan was due. We took the opportunity to expand the scope of a typical FMP, and integrate in a more detailed and full-spectrum manner than most landowners our land conservation mission, as well as our wildlife refuge goals and wildcrafting aspirations. We wanted to show the state that the forest was more than just traditional forest products, and that in the face of ethical land stewardship, climate change, and a need to prepare Vermont’s working landscape for shifting economies we needed to advance the stewardship and collection of our forest’s non-timber forest products and the benefits of stewarding for ecological benefits like water and soil conservation, carbon sequestration, and wildlife habitat diversification for biodiversity protection.

We invited our wildlife ecologist, who is also a forester but did not act in that capacity for the preparation of this FMP update, Susan Morse, to author a core segment of our FMP — forest management for wildlife. Her contribution elevates the impact potential of our work on the ground, for the animals and for the ecosystem far into the future.

We are proud and pleased to share this 10-year update FMP and FMP Map with you. We will begin our work on our next 10-year update shortly. How quickly 10 years go by when you’re having fun!

Read our full management plan HERE.

View the accompanying map in ISSU HERE