The Forest Partnership letter of 11/28/24 gives the impression (thanks to the signatory organizations such as Audubon Vermont, The Nature Conservancy in Vermont and Northeast Wilderness Trust) that the Worcester Range Management Unit Long-Range Plan is a win for the environment. It is not.

If implemented, the plan will further degrade or destroy vital habitat, exacerbate flood dangers to downstream communities, and release tons of stored carbon into the atmosphere at a time when Vermont is already falling behind its very modest climate goals.

The plan purports to double “protected lands” in exchange for sustainable logging in other parts of the forest tracts. The reality is that the entire parcel has been de facto wilderness for years as it was allowed to re-wild through a period of benign neglect. The lands now being “protected” are largely unloggable anyway due to difficult terrain and/or existing use restrictions, while the newly-opened lands slated for harvesting include parcels within Elmore State Park and low-lying areas whose forest cover is significant for flood-prevention. In fact, hundreds of acres now slated for logging were only recently acquired as the Hunger Mountain Headwaters Project using Lake Champlain clean water funds. This is a slap in the face to those who worked hard to protect these lands and those who have lost so much in recent flood events.

The Forest Partnership letter is a classic example of greenwashing, pretending to benefit the environment by making token concessions, allowing corporate-friendly NGOs to fundraise off of their “successes,” all while actually doing much more harm than good. Please do not be fooled by flowery language and misleading statistics.

The Worcester Range is a gem of wild lands in the Green Mountains and should be preserved as such. There is more than enough private timberland in Vermont to provide our timber needs without further denuding the last remnants of public wild land in the Northeast.

Daniel Brett

Whiting