Open Lands, Forest, Wetlands, Cemeteries
WHY IT MATTERS
Open lands, whether fields, forests, or wetlands, can provide both benefits and challenges to communities depending on how the lands are managed. For example, poorly managed forests can cause soils to erode, reduce habitat, lower future productivity, and eliminate options for traditional uses. Well managed forests can provide ecological benefits such as flood control, air filtering, carbon sequestration, and water source protection; economic benefits such as timber harvesting, firewood provision, and paid recreational opportunities; and social benefits through aesthetics, formal and informal activities, and as educational resources. Some communities are even beginning to use their town forests as cemeteries, with trails leading off from the gravesites. However, all forests are not equally suited to provide each type of benefit. A similar scenario applies to agricultural lands, wetlands, and other lands that are not in active production.
Green Community Technologies® can help your community recognize the multiple values of open lands, determine which values are best realized where, and discover how owners, both public and private, can be encouraged to adjust current practices to capture greater benefits from open lands.
Solutions That Work!
Forested land, Litchfield, Maine
Through the Green Community Technologies® inventory and assessment process, the Town of Litchfield, Maine gained a better understanding of the distribution and extent of its forested land. Yellow Wood identified opportunities to improve and expand Litchfield’s forest management planning efforts along with opportunities to manage undeveloped land for profit and conservation value.
Town forests, Thetford, Vermont
Yellow Wood Associates worked with the Town of Thetford, Vermont to prepare an inventory and assessment of its municipal infrastructure, including town forests. The condition of Thetford’s municipally owned forest land was found to be very good, though none of the lands had management plans. In order to ensure the continued health of Thetford’s town forests, Yellow Wood recommended a participatory planning process for developing management plans for each of its town-owned parcels as well as consideration of sustainable forestry certification.
See the Forest®
Yellow Wood Associates, Inc. worked with conservation commissions in Starksboro and Huntington, Vermont to develop a community-based education program designed to help communities appreciate forests as economic, environmental and social assets. The program provides a unique combination of factual information, group process skill development, and experience in the forest. The program, which includes five training modules, was developed as a pilot and funded by USDA’s Small Business Innovation in Research program and had also been used in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island.
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This all sounds good and I’m ready to START WORKING WITH GCT
