Program Introduction About the Program Forest Watershed Functions Portable Skidder Bridge Initiative AMP Program Heavy Cutting Law Assistance for AMP and Heavy Cutting Programs Water Links

Portable Skidder Bridge Loan and Education Program

This program was launched in 2008 and made possible by a grant to Northern Vermont Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) through the US Environmental Protection Agency. Through this program, loggers are entitled one free-loan event to use a portable skidder bridge. The goal of this program is to expose loggers to this technology, demonstrate the environmental and economic benefits of using portable skidder bridges and provide on-site instruction for installing and using the bridges.

Eight bridges were built by a Vermont sawmill owner and are available to loggers working in the northern Lake Champlain Basin. The bridges are being staged for loggers to pick up and return at the Burlington Electric wood chip yard facility in Swanton and Lamell Lumber in Essex. A project forester was hired to provide on-site technical assistance to loggers using the bridges to ensure that they are installed and used properly to protect water quality.  In 2009 grant funding through the Center for Clean and Clear has allowed this program to continue and expand to serve the entire Lake Champlain Basin area in Vermont. A third staging area at Canopy Timber Alternatives log yard in East Middlebury has been established to better serve loggers working in the lower Lake Champlain Basin area.

To learn more or to participate in this program contact Northern Vermont RC&D at (802) 828-4595 or the Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation at (802) 241-3672.