Timber Sales

The Green Mountain and Finger Lakes National Forests support a small but active and growing timber management program that emphasizes community involvement and collaboration.  Each year since 2006, the Forests have sold between 3 and 5 million board feet / MMBF (6,000 to 8,000 hundred cubic feet/CCF).   Timber is harvested as a means to accomplishing the goals and objectives outlined in the 2006 Forest Plan.  Timber management projects on the Forests tend to emphasize the creation and improvement of wildlife habitat, maintenance of healthy and diverse natural communities (ecology) and the production of high value hardwood. 

Here are just a few of the ways that timber harvest on the National Forests supports healthy forests and communities:

• Harvest is used to maintain and restore wildlife habitat and natural communities including; upland open areas, regenerating aspen and birch forest, oak dominated and oak-pine forest, softwood and mixed-wood forests, as well as northern hardwoods.  Wildlife also benefits from management for trees and shrubs that produce nuts and fruit, such as hop hornbeam, black cherry, apple, hawthorn, shadbush, blueberry, oak, beech and hickory.  Timber harvest also allows us to increase diversity by maintaining a full range of age forest age classes from young to old, including late successional and multi-age forests.
• Forest management projects reduce hazardous fuels where needed to reduce the risks of wildfire, as well as risks to forest health resulting from wind damage, ice storm damage, or epidemic disease and insects.
• The Forests seek to provide a continuous and sustainable supply of forest products.   Harvest in many areas is designed to encourage growth of large high value trees to produce high quality sawtimber.  Timber provides raw material for local industries and jobs.  We provide a mix of mature northern hardwoods and softwoods that can be manufactured into high quality wood products by local facilities in neighboring communities.
• There is an active and growing interest in use of wood biomass from the forest as a fuel source and alternative to fossil fuels in and around the State of Vermont.  Approximately half of the wood harvested on the forest is pulpwood, much of which is also suitable for use as firewood or biomass that can be used to generate heat and/or power.
• Through coordination between programs, vegetation management can be used to accomplish a wide variety of objectives in silviculture, wildlife and fisheries, recreation, fire planning and heritage resource protection.

Stewardship Contracting

Timber volume is offered in contracts that vary in volume, value and complexity to provide opportunities to various businesses in the local forest products industry.  In recent years, the forest has increasingly been using stewardship contracting to achieve forest management goals.  Stewardship contracting emphasizes collaboration and community involvement through projects that combine timber harvest with restoration and enhancement opportunities.  These contracts bundle timber removal with service work intended to achieve other land management goals such as improving or maintaining soil and water quality, forest health, fish and wildlife habitat, watershed restoration and invasive plant control.    Revenue from the sale of timber on these contracts can then be used directly to accomplish additional restoration efforts on the ground through service contracts, partnerships and agreements. 

Integrated Resource Projects—Project Planning at the Landscape Scale

Most forest management activities on the Green Mountain National Forest are developed as part of larger Integrated Resource Projects (IRPs).  IRPs are a collaborative approach to landscape scale projects interrelated in their geographical location and ecological value. They involve specific analysis of National Forest, State, Town and private lands within a defined project area boundary at the watershed or sub-watershed level. Through the IRP process, a team of interdisciplinary specialists conduct analysis at the landscape scale to identify activities that meet the desired future conditions as outlined in the 2006 Forest Plan.  The Forest is currently preparing, offering and administering timber sales and stewardship contracts associated with three Integrated Resource Projects:  Nordic, Natural Turnpike and Upper White River. 

For more information about timber management on the Green Mountain National Forest, or to be added to our bidder’s list for timber sale and stewardship projects, please contact Jeff Tilley (802) 747-6700.