Wildlands and Woodlands: Woodland Council Examples

The Wildlands and Woodlands Vision calls for the formation of Woodland Councils to promote the protection and sustainable management of woodlands. More important than the creation of new organizations is the provision of certain woodland council functions, some of which may already be provided in different places by existing groups. Reinvention of the wheel is not the intent of the Wildlands and Woodlands vision - rather, placing a focus on the dual and complementary functions of information resource and project catalyst will improve outreach to thousands of private woodland owners and others who have an interest in woodland, but have not found the more conventional approaches to outreach (e.g., chapter 61 current use property taxation, cost-sharing of management plans or practices) effective or appealing. Unprotected woodland is being lost to unplanned development, and using new means to reach woodland owners and others is vitally important to achieve the Wildlands and Woodlands vision.

We know of no singular example of a functional Woodland Council operating in all the ways we suggest. Nor are all functions necessarily appropriate for all circumstances. The point is to make new, stimulating investment of human and financial capital into these functions, either enabling existing groups to more fully focus on them, or in the absence of an existing group or mechanism, providing opportunities to start such groups. We are aware of several existing groups or approaches that engage in some of the important functions characteristic of Woodland Councils, including:

Outreach and education to private forest owners at a community or regional level as exemplified by:

A Cooperative Resource Network - ACORN in Massachusetts: http://massacorn.net/index.html
A Cooperative Resource Network - ACORN in Vermont: http://forest.fnr.umass.edu/acorn/
New England Forestry Foundation's North Quabbin Woods Community Forestry project www.newenglandforestry.org
Nashua River Watershed Association http://www.nashuariverwatershed.org/
Eastern Connecticut Forest Landowner's Association http://www.ecfla.org/index.html
Windham County (VT) Woodland Owners association
Millers River Environmental Center http://www.millersriver.net/
Vermont Coverts http://www.vtcoverts.org/
The Trustees of Reservations Highland Communities Initiative http://hci.thetrustees.org/
Catskill Forestry Association http://www.catskillforest.org/Home.html
Small Woodland Owners Association of Maine (SWOAM): http://www.swoam.com/
Green Valley Institute http://thelastgreenvalley.org/gvi/

Information on wood marketing for a network of private woodland owners or wood-based manufacturers accomplished through groups like:

Massachusetts Woodlands Cooperative http://www.masswoodlands.coop/
Vermont Family Forests http://www.familyforests.org/
Athol Forestry Cooperative, Ltd. http://www.atholforestry.com/
Southern New Brunswick Wood Cooperative, http://www.snbwoodcoop.com/
Maine Woodnet http://www.mainewoodnet.org/index.htm

Land protection activities at the local level and holding / monitoring of easements on woodlands, such as the work of:

Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust http://www.mountgrace.org/
New England Forestry Foundation http://www.neforestry.org/
Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests http://www.spnhf.org/
Forest Society of Maine http://www.fsmaine.org/index.htm
The Franklin Land Trust http://www.franklinlandtrust.org/
Massachusetts Audubon Society http://www.massaudubon.org/index.php
The Nature Conservancy http://nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/massachusetts/
Vermont Land Trust http://www.vlt.org/

Coordination / Facilitation of regional land protection activities among organizations, such as the:

North Quabbin regional landscape partnership http://www.mountgrace.org/accs/Tully_Initiative.pdf
The Quabbin-to-Cardigan initiative http://www.spnhf.org/landconservation/q2c.asp
Green Valley Institute http://thelastgreenvalley.org/gvi/

Networking of stakeholders (e.g., private woodland owners, industrial owners, citizens, environmental groups), sharing spatial information, and developing a shared vision for the forest in their region, such as the role played by:

The Fundy Model Forest http://www.fundymodelforest.net/
Eastern Ontario Model Forest http://www.eomf.on.ca/
Nova Forest Alliance http://www.novaforestalliance.com/
Highland Community Initiative, of the Trustees of Reservations http://hci.thetrustees.org/index.cfm
Green Valley Institute http://thelastgreenvalley.org/gvi/

Production of wood and agricultural products from community land, and involvement of schoolchildren in management activities for purposes of environmental education, such as:

Land's Sake in Weston, Massachusetts http://www.landssake.org/

Facilitating local environmental restoration activities between private owners and environmentally concerned citizens, such as the accomplishments of:

LandCare groups in Australia http://www.landcareaustralia.com.au/
LandCare in the United States http://www.landcareus.org/index.asp
Woodland Trust in England http://www.woodland-trust.org.uk/
Cows and Fish in Alberta http://www.cowsandfish.org/index.html

Land protection activities at the local level and holding / monitoring of easements on wildlands, such as the work of:

Massachusetts Audubon Society http://www.massaudubon.org/index.php
Sweetwater Trust http://www.sweetwatertrust.org/
Northeast Wilderness Trust http://www.newildernesstrust.org/article/articleview/2335
The Nature Conservancy http://nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/massachusetts/

Environmental monitoring using professional staff or local volunteers, generating both useful data and heightened awareness and activity. Local terrestrial / forest monitoring (e.g., interior-forest bird surveys, invasive plant surveys) could be modeled on successful aquatic examples, such as:

Westport River Watershed Alliance: http://www.wrwa.com/wrwawqm.htm
Nashua River Watershed Association: http://www.nashuariverwatershed.org/
Deerfield River Watershed Association: http://www.deerfieldriver.org/waterquality.html
Millers River Watershed Council: http://www.millersriver.net/mrwc/projects.html