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Vermont Family Forests
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Conserving The Health Of Our Local Forest Community

 

Forest Health Conservation Checklist

 The VFF Forest Health Conservation Checklist is the cornerstone of Vermont Family Forests’ ecoforestry program. It identifies 43 specific stewardship practices related to forest access and vegetation management, which, if followed, will go a long way toward conserving forest health.

Poor forestry practices decrease a forest’s capacity to keep itself healthy. But many landowners lack information about what ecologically sustainable forest practices look like. Without that knowledge—which empowers them to do their own ecologically sustainable forest work or hire a consultant (forester, logger) to do ecologically sustainable work for them—they can end up with a forest that looks like this:

 

How you don't want your access roads to look: A poorly designed and constructed access road drains nutrients and moisture from the forest and pollutes surface water.

 

In our August 2003 through Spring 2005 newsletters, we highlighted one of these conservation practices in each newsletter and discussed it in depth. Please visit our Publications page to read those past newsletter issues.

 

 Carefully installed culvert helps decrease erosion and maintain water quality.   Maintaining an undisturbed, forested buffer along streams helps conserve water quality.

Photo left: This carefully installed culvert along a forest access road helps prevent erosion and maintain water quality.

Photo right: VFF's Forest Health Conservation Checklist includes stewardship practices that maintain undisturbed, forested buffers along streams to maintain water quality.