Vermont Corridors and Commons Awards

The Vermont Urban and Community Forestry Council and the Vermont Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects announce a new awards program to recognize Vermont towns engaged in comprehensive efforts to expand the value and benefits of public open spaces by connecting and joining these important community places through carefully developed, publicly accessible corridors.

The program's goal is to:

...recognize communities that have developed creative, farsighted methods for linking existing open spaces such as parks, town commons, ponds or reservoirs, town forests, or wetlands with public corridors such as riparian zones along waterways, recreational trail systems or tree lined streets.

2008 Corridors and Commons Award Information and Application - PDF

Eligibility
Projects must be located in Vermont. Submission may range from mature projects in place to conceptual studies, plans, or incentives that encourage connecting open space commons with corridors. These corridors, or belts of open spaces, should be developed as part of broad, comprehensive, long-term efforts towards a network of greenspaces.

Planners, Landscape Architects, Municipal Officials, Professional Engineers, Individuals, Educational Institutions, Non-Profit Groups and Community Groups are encouraged to make submissions.

Criteria for Projects

• Corridors should establish circuits linking as many local public areas as possible, connecting community centers to surrounding countryside and, in the process, expanding opportunities for public recreation, and increasing the community value and ecosystem services of these public areas.
• The methods used to connect open spaces should, to the greatest extent possible, establish permanent public access to these corridors.
• The selection of corridors, whether location or type, is not restricted to any one method but should nevertheless utilize advantageous topography whenever possible, whether ridge lines, river valleys, abandoned railroad lines, existing roads, or other appropriate natural or cultural features.
• Projects should stimulate public awareness about the benefits of linking village centers or city neighborhoods with outlying natural areas devoted to conservation and recreation and, in the process, should help to draw those natural areas into urban and village environments.
• Projects should seek to advance the concept of urban and community forestry by integrating natural systems and greenspaces as part of the development planning process.

Submissions
Submissions must include a brief synopsis that outlines the local objective and explains how the project meets the criteria. The form of the submissions is left to the entrant with the following guidelines:

• A combination of photographs and text is highly recommended.
• A maximum of 10 photographs and/or drawings which should be cleared for publication.
• Text should be limited to 2 pages.

Submitted material will be returned on request.