Collaboration embarks on forest venture
Toolbox
By ED BARNA Herald Correspondent - Published: January 16, 2005
MONKTON - From one part of the Little Hogback Community Forest, it is possible to look down and see Bristol Pond.
It is also possible, with a different kind of vision, to see a new future for forestland ownership in Vermont.
The Community Forests Project, a collaboration between Vermont Family Forests, the Vermont Land Trust, the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund, the National Wildlife Federation and the Ford Foundation is using the Monkton tract as a pilot project for a new kind of relationship between the mountains and the valleys.
As the first step, a partnership between the Vermont Land Trust and Vermont Family Forests will make it possible for 16 investors to own 115 acres in Monkton as members of the Little Hogback Forest Community Forest Limited Liability Corporation.
Because there are covenants on the land preventing subdivision, housing development and large-scale timber cutting, each share will cost less than $3,000.
The goal is not simply preservation, though the land will be professionally managed to maintain forest health. The owners will be able to harvest firewood there and ultimately may benefit from selective timber sales - either by selling or using the logs for lumber, in addition to having the right to hike, picnic, camp and ski (no hunting or ATVs).
However, the ownership opportunity is not being presented simply in economic terms. As an announcement in December by Vermont Family Forests put it, this "would be an investment they could walk in, work with and be proud of."
"VFF expects the members to receive a modest return on their investment," the statement said. "But the most important returns are the right to enjoy the land and the satisfaction of knowing their piece of the earth is well cared for."
Since then, there have been public meetings in Middlebury and Bristol, attended by about 40 people, with another Bristol meeting planned for Jan. 20.
Enough people have signed statements of interest so that Deb Brighton, part-time executive director for Vermont Family Forests, said she is confident that enough investors will be found.
The new land ownership concept stems from the evolution of Vermont Family Forests, a nonprofit corporation which formed in 1995 through the work of Addison County state forester David Brynn.
There are now 45 member landowners, who own about 6,000 acres of forestland, mainly in Addison County but also in Windsor, Chittenden and Washington Counties, he said in a recent interview.
The idea of VFF, he said, has been to help improve the management of privately owned forests. Partly that has been done through educational programs on topics like mapping and logging practices, and partly by helping to arrange economic opportunities to make responsible forest management financially rewarding, he said.
To help meet these goals, VFF has developed a program to certify wood as having been produced under sound stewardship, Brynn said.
For example, any timber cutting must be done without leaving large clear-cut areas, without taking away the treetops that will renew soil nutrients, and without removing all the big rotting logs that are resources for biodiversity.
At the same time, VFF has helped to find markets for such certified wood.
One well-publicized case involved Middlebury College, which gave VFF a major boost by using members' lumber to help build their science center, library, and a student residential and dining complex, Brynn said.
In effect, he said, VFF is addressing environmentalist poet Wendell Berry's concern that two forces are doing most of the damage to the world's forests: ignorance and economic constraints.
Now the Community Forests Program is seeking to involve people who would otherwise not have an opportunity to own and manage forestland, Brynn said.
"It's just one more thing we're doing to promote healthy forests in Vermont," he said.
Rather than being the work of wide-eyed utopians, the Community Forest Program has benefited from experienced people's ideas on how to design workable contracts.
Starting from the legal concept that ownership is a bundle of rights rather than one absolute type of control, the program has gone on to set up the economic details in a way that the organizers hope will make involvement easy, make sure the operating costs are covered, and ensure the Hogback project's longevity.
Potential owners learn in a prospectus:
? The money paid to buy shares will go into a management reserve fund, as will the revenues from timber sales (every 10 years or so) unless they exceed the likely management costs. The idea is to gather "enough money to pay for property taxes, insurance and management without asking the members to contribute more," and "so that neither the LLC nor VFF will have to be collection agents."
? "The land will be managed according to a long-term management plan jointly approved by the LLC, the Vermont Land Trust and VFF. A manager, also jointly approved, will direct management activities."
? Specifically, would-be participants learn in the prospectus that in addition to the conservation easement held by the Vermont Land Trust on the land the Hogback corporation will buy, there is an affordability covenant held by Vermont Family Forests. Together these limit both the initial cost and the resale value in a way that is structured to make the land "perpetually affordable to community members who look at this purchase as a long-term investment." The investors can expect "a return on their investment that is roughly equivalent to what they would expect to get if they had kept the money in the bank."
? As part of the purchase price being subsidized, there is a limit on the income of members at the time of purchase: 150 percent of the county's median income (must be below $89,400).
? Also, a revolving loan fund has been set up so that seven of the 16 shares can go to households with less than the county's median income.
The 50 percent loans can be paid off at any time, but must be repaid if a share is sold.
One key decision (one vote per share) awaits the sale of the 16 shares:
"The LLC may be set up as an owner-managed company, with decisions made by the members. The LLC members may elect agents or committees to be authorized to do certain things, such as pay bills, file papers, work with the forest manager, coordinate firewood sales, or negotiate with the Vermont Land Trust about the management plan. Alternatively, it may be set up as a manager-managed company, with most decisions made by the manager, presumably Vermont Family Forests."
"I hope this will be successful so other people can try it in different communities and different situations," Brighton said.
There are already municipally owned forestlands, but it is difficult to reach consensus on how to manage them with so many people involved, she said. This way, Brighton said, a group of people with common goals and expectations can work together - an approach that might be useful for other types of commonly owned land than forests.
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