Research and Demonstration Projects
We have several exciting
research and demonstration projects under way, including the Family
Forest® Flooring Project and Community-Supported
Forestry Firewood Program. Learn more by visiting our
Current Projects page.
Since its inception, Vermont
Family Forest's role has been that of "friend of the forest",
promoting forest management that, first and foremost, preserves a
forest's capacity to maintain itself as a healthy, natural ecosystem.
When timber production is possible within this management context,
VFF seeks to encourage marketing strategies that economically reward
the land's stewards.
VFF conducts research and demonstration projects to test and build
upon these ideas. Each VFF demonstration project has imparted valuable
knowledge about how to make such community-based forestry work, economically
and ecologically.
Visit our Research
and Demonstration Archives for details
about our past projects.
Download our research report summarizing
learnings from our demonstration projects in 2001-2002: Conserving
our Forests and Our Communities: VFF Research and Demonstration Projects
2001-2002
Changing Attitudes
An important part of VFF’s work has been its collaboration with
architects to suggest alternative wood specifications that are both
aesthetically pleasing and ecologically sustainable for Vermont’s
forests.
More than a matter of taste: Ecology and architecture
The Architectural Woodwork Institute (AWI) ranks wood quality using
such criteria as color, grain pattern, and presence and size of knots.
AWI ranking requires uniformity of color and grain pattern in Grade
I wood, and allows more "flaws" and "characteristics"
in the wood as the grade ranking increases.
But clear-grained, evenly colored wood comes predominantly from large-diameter
trees, which have the most heartwood and the fewest knot-forming side
branches. Removing only large-diameter trees from a forest community
is called high-grading, a practice that has deprived large tracts of
Vermont's forests of their largest, most vigorous members, leaving the
smaller, weaker trees--those that lost the competition for space and
sunlight--behind and undermining the vigor and health of the forest
communities.
The Aesthetics of Character
One of VFF's goals is to educate both architects, woodworkers, and
consumers about the ecological implications of their aesthetic choices
and to show them that the "lower" grades of wood are neither
necessarily of lower quality nor of lesser beauty. Creating a market
for the woods of smaller diameter, more highly-charactered wood will
help make ecologically sound woodlot management financially viable.
There is no denying that clear-grained, Grade I lumber is structurally
stronger than Grade II or III wood. But the wood needed for Middlebury
College’s Bicentennial Hall, for example, was not being used for
structural, load-bearing purposes. Its job was to look beautiful. Architects
originally specified 125,000 board feet of clear-grained red oak for
Bi Hall’s interior. Because central Vermont’s forests could
not sustainably yield this wood, VFF not only recommended showcasing
7 hardwood species common to central Vermont’s forests, but also
suggested using charactered wood. Once College trustees and officials
had a chance to see samples of the wood, the beauty of its character
was obvious--not just tolerable, but worth featuring. And wood of the
finished Hall bears testament to that beauty, offering an unexpected,
eye-pleasing streak of creamy tan through the burnt sienna of cherry
wood, a splash of chocolate staining in honey-colored ash, a subtle
palette of pastel variations in a wall of red maple.
Carpenters on the project, used to handling Grade I lumber, were initially
taken aback by the variability in the lumber. But Mark McElroy, of Barr
and Barr, general contractors for Bicentennial Hall, says that attitudes
changed as carpenters got to know the wood. "By the end of the
process, they realized that it takes a better eye, more creativity,
and a higher level of craftsmanship to make the most of the wood, and
they came away with a sense of pride in what they had done."
