Land Ownership and Conservation
Vermonters value all types of forest land‹including working forests,
large unbroken forest tracts, and urban and community forests‹and the
uses they support. Large forest tracts are encouraged through programs
and policies that foster responsible, long-term private ownership and
assist forest landowners in realizing their forest management goals. Public
forest lands are managed to provide sustainable ecosystems, protect unique
and fragile areas, showcase sound forest management, and provide recreational
opportunities for all citizens to enjoy. Urban and community forests are
managed to enhance the quality of life in Vermont communities.
Percent and Acres by Ownership
Vermont, with a total land area of a little over 5.0 million acres, is
the eighth smallest state in the country. Over 78 percent of the state
is considered to be forested, ranking it third in percent of forest land.
Vermont has a varied forest ownership pattern that is the result of many
factors including physical constraints, human settlement, and land use.
Approximately 83 percent of Vermont's forest land is in private ownership.
This category includes forest industry, corporate ownership, individuals,
partnerships, and trusts. The goals of these forest landowners are as
varied and diverse as the resource itself.
The data on the breakdown of private ownership by type, number of owners,
and acres owned, are collected periodically by the USDA Forest Service.
Ownership data collected in conjunction with the 1997 FIA is preliminary
at this time. Those figures report 75.8 percent of total forested acres
of nonindustrial private ownership and 4.9 percent of forest land in industrial
ownership. The last published statewide data, collected in 1983, reported
that private individuals owned 3,092,600 acres of timberland, 79 percent
of Vermont's private timberland1.
Forest industry accounted for 9 percent of the privately owned timberland,
and the remainder was divided between corporations, partnerships, and
trusts. Forest industry holdings, divided between less than 100 companies,
tend to be larger acreage than other private holdings.
All together, there were an estimated 61,900 private owners of timberland
in Vermont in 19831.
Average parcel size varied from one region of the state to another. In
the less populated northeast region of the state, average acreage per
owner was 80 acres, while in the south the average was 38 acres. Subdivision
and development, resulting in fragmentation, poor investment returns,
and increased tax burdens, are expected to affect the number of private
owners when the new data is reported, possibly increasing the figure to
over 80,000 individuals. Forest fragmentation is an important issue throughout
New England, as it affects forest health, biodiversity, and forest productivity.
Acreage breakdowns are an analytical product of FIA, which follows after
the release of the data sets. When acreage breakdowns are made available
from the USFS sometime in 2000, the department will have a clearer picture
of the trends in Vermont.
A study of forest landowners in the northern United States was conducted
by the USFS in 1993 at the request of the National Association of State
Foresters, and data was provided at a regional and state level. Information
was collected by a sampling of FIA plots throughout the region accompanied
by a landowner questionnaire. Table 3 provides
an estimate of forest landowners by size class. These figures back up
the current projections of over 80,000 landowners with average parcel
size continuing to decrease.
Evaluating landowner attitudes is important because these owners have
legal rights and responsibilities relating to forest land. Their rights
include decisions on how land will be used, the type and level of investment,
and whether or not to sell. With these rights come responsibilities subject
to the rules and regulations established within society to avoid infringement
upon the rights, safety, health, and welfare of others.
As reported in 1983, 70 percent of the private owners have harvested
trees from their land1. They tend to
be owners of larger parcels, accounting for 81 percent of the total private
forest land acreage. Although harvesting does take place, benefits other
than timber production are most important to a majority of Vermont landowners.
Eighty-eight percent of the private timberland acreage is owned by those
who gave reasons other than timber production as their primary reason
for owning forest land. Aesthetic enjoyment, recreation, and forest land
as part of a residence were the most commonly reported reasons. These
owners, however, recognize that their forest land can be a source of income,
fuel, and other non-timber benefits.
The Forest Resource Advisory Committee (FRAC) conducted a landowner survey
in 1996. When asked to describe their largest contiguous woodlot, the
respondents indicated that better than 80 percent of the parcels were
at least 70 percent forested, and that in 64 percent of the cases the
majority of the parcels were either not zoned or zoned for agricultural/forest.
Nearly a quarter of the woodlots seemed to have access concerns because
there was no public road frontage. In better than 55 percent of the cases,
the respondent's primary residence was either on or immediately adjacent
to the parcel. Since acquiring their woodlots, 12 percent of the respondents
have subdivided the parcel and have successfully sold or disposed of some
of the lots. Nearly 70 percent of the respondents have harvested timber
from the parcel for other than personal use. The financial realities of
ownership were obvious as nearly 30 percent of the respondents said one
of the primary reasons for the harvest was to generate revenue to pay
for the parcel's property taxes. When asked about future plans to harvest,
better than half of all the respondents indicated an intent to do so within
10 years. Nearly 60 percent of the respondents indicated they currently
had a forest management plan that detailed what was to be done on the
woodlot. Not surprisingly, a greater percent of the larger parcels have
management plans than do the small ones3.
The department should continue to promote forest management for all landowners.
Public/Conservation Lands
The role of public ownership has and will continue to change. Increases
in population, changes in recreational interests, and fragmentation of
forest land have placed a greater emphasis on the many values and uses
of public land. The department, in cooperation with state agencies, will
continue to manage over 300,000 acres of state-owned land. The conservation
or purchase of forest land determined to be in the state's interest will
continue through a variety of programs. Guiding principles in public ownership
are to monitor and protect the land, maintain and enhance the state's
ecological resources and biodiversity, provide areas for resource-related
research, demonstrate sustainable forest management while providing raw
materials for the wood products industry, protect historic and cultural
sites, and provide compatible recreation opportunities. Large areas of
remote forest land will be maintained where wilderness values and back-country
conditions and natural systems are maintained.
Public land or land with conservation easements include Agency of Natural
Resources lands, USDA Forest Service lands, municipal lands, Army Corps
of Engineers lands, National Park Service lands, and lands owned or having
conservation restrictions by conservation groups such as The Nature Conservancy
and Vermont Land Trust. The following database (Table
4) was developed and is currently maintained by the School of Natural
Resources at the University of Vermont. It is organized by biophysical
regions into four general categories: state lands, federal lands, conservation
lands, and private lands. It should be noted that these acreage figures
differed from those reported in the 1997 FIA data and were adjusted to
fit within the gross acreage figures for public and private forest land
acreage. Therefore, it is only a representation of public/conservation
lands. This information is useful, however, as it shows the distribution
of land ownership throughout the state in a land classification system
that will be utilized in long-range management planning of state owned
properties.
Natural Heritage Site Data
The Non-Game and Natural Heritage Program (NNHP) of the Department of
Fish and Wildlife maintains an inventory of threatened and endangered
species, and natural communities. The program continually updates its
biological database and is involved in regulatory review proceedings dealing
with rare and endangered species. The Vermont Natural Heritage data (Tables
5 and 6), when overlaid with the data in
Table 4, provides information on the number and
general locations of existing mapped sites, and the number of sites presently
located on public and conservation lands (and therefore theoretically
protected). Presented as a snapshot in time, this data serves as a baseline
to be reviewed in the future to see if we are getting better at identifying
and protecting natural heritage sites. It should be noted that this information
was obtained from several sources, from the NNHP and the Spatial Analysis
Laboratory at the University of Vermont, and was analyzed and reported
by the School of Natural Resources4.
Numbers presented in these tables are of a preliminary nature only and
are subject to change. Acreage figures are approximate, reflecting inaccuracies
in the GIS databases used in the analysis.
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