Town Forest Committee

– Photos of the future Monkton Town Forest taken in 2022 and 2023.

Below on this page:

• Latest Updates!
• About The Land
• Story of the Project
• Community Engagement
• More Information
• Meetings, Members, and Contact Info

Latest Updates! (as of December 19th, 2024)

About The Land

Monkton has acquired a 450-acre parcel of forestland and wetlands from the A. Johnson Co. LLC and established the Monkton Town Forest!

The property has significant conservation values and opportunities for access to nature, outdoor recreation, sustainable forestry practices, protection of a large block of intact wildlife habitat, water quality protection, and outdoor education. It is also adjacent to the nearly 1,000 conserved acres of the Watershed Center in Bristol. The land has uncommon natural communities and species, multiple beaver ponds, wetlands, vernal pools, and headwater streams for the Pond Brook and Little Otter Creek watersheds. There are existing woods roads and a variety of topography (map of the property).

On May 8th, 2024, a group of seven field naturalist graduate students with UVM’s 2024 Landscape Inventory and Assessment class presented the results of their semester of work at the future Monkton Town Forest, providing the community with a wealth of information about the human history of the parcel alongside the wildlife and plants that inhabit it today. Their recommendations and guidance on where the land can best sustain human activities will be very helpful as the community creates a Management Plan for the Town Forest in Winter 2024/2025.

The land is conserved through the Vermont Land Trust with support from the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board. For more on what that means and what human uses are protected, permitted or restricted by the Conservation Easement see the Conservation Easement.

Story of the Project

The Monkton Town Forest Committee (MTFC) was formed on March 11, 2019 when the Monkton Selectboard voted to “create a 5-member Town Forest Committee to explore creating a Town Forest in Monkton”. This was a few days after a new 2020-2028 Town Plan was approved by the voters that renewed the recommendation to “Create a town forest that can serve education and recreation needs of residents”.

The committee has been working toward this goal since then, including researching the steps involved in establishing a town forest, seeking community input on what we would collectively value about a town forest, and engaging with the landowner of a suitable forest parcel to initiate conversation about a potential sale. The committee has enjoyed a strong working relationship with the Vermont Land Trust (VLT) throughout the project and has been able to leverage their extensive experience and leadership working with towns to establish town forests. 

By February 2023 VLT and Town of Monkton had entered into an Option To Purchase 450 acres of forestland from the A. Johnson Co. LLC. VLT and Monkton quickly moved to apply for federal and state grants to cover the bulk of the $1.116 million project. In May 2023 a $371,000 grant from the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board was awarded. In July the federal Community Forest and Open Space Program awarded us $400,000. The A. Johnson Co. had already reduced the purchase price $100,000 below the appraised value, to support the project. Taken together these made up 78% of the project budget!

What about the last 23% of the funds needed? With the goal of reaching as many voters as possible, the Town Forest Committee worked with VLT on a mailing and postcard survey that was sent to registered voters in June 2023 and held a number of events to engage with residents. The question was whether the community supported the project and the spending of some Monkton ARPA and ANAC funds to make it happen. The survey had a very strong 25% response with many written comments and the following results to the main question asked:

Do you support the Town acquisition of 445 acres from the A. Johnson Co. to create a Monkton Town Forest using $150,000 of existing Monkton ARPA funds, up to $45,000 of existing Monkton Agricultural and Natural Area Funds, and other grants?  YES    NO    Unsure/Need to know more.

SURVEY RESULTS:  Yes: 341 (75.1%)     No: 93 (20.5%)     Unsure: 17 (3.7%) Blank: 3 (0.7%)     Total: 454

The full report on the survey, including the hundreds of comments (de-identified), are included in the committee’s progress report from July 7th, 2023. The committee also heard in other ways (in-person, email, a petition, and online) from a total of 32% of the voters and with an overall 71% of them in favor.

On the strength of this 3-to-1 overall support for the project and use of funds the Select Board approved the use of ARPA and ANAC funds to make up an additional 17% of the project budget, without drawing any new funds from taxpayers.

Later in 2023 a group of volunteers began outreach to raise the last 5% ($50k) of the $1.116 million dollar project through smaller grants and individual contributions. This effort was very successful, with many contributions received from individuals through Spring 2024, along with grants from NorthCountry Federal Credit Union and the Davis Conservation Fund!

By this past spring the committee was delighted to announce that thanks to generous community members, federal, state, foundation, town, and local grants, we had indeed raised the full $1.116 million to enable the Town to acquire and permanently protect the 450-acre forestland and wetlands of the future Monkton Town Forest!

In the Fall of 2024 a survey of the community and a series of community meetings explored topics important to the development of a management plan for the upcoming Monkton Town Forest.

On Friday, November 22nd, 2024 the Monkton Town Forest was established and conserved.

Community Engagement

The community has been very engaged in the project! The Town Forest Committee organized many community engagement opportunities in 2023, including speaking at Town Meeting, several site walks at the future Town Forest land (with about 43 residents participating), three informational sessions at Town Hall/Zoom, four tabling events (Recycling Center, Strawberry Festival, Town Meeting), an article and a mention in the Addison Independent, signs/posters around Town, maintaining a website with Frequently Asked Questions and other information, a display at Town Hall, numerous Front Porch Forum and Facebook posts, and last but not least…a mailing and return postcard survey (described above) to gauge support for the project that got a very strong 25% response rate. The Committee also heard from residents in-person, via email, and online. In all 32% of voters made their voices heard!

This engagement has continued in Fall 2024 with the development of a Management Plan for the Town Forest. The Management Plan describes the land, its ecology, and the community’s priorities for it in the context of what uses are protected, permitted, or restricted by the Conservation Easement. It is the guiding document for how the land will change (or not) as it becomes a community forest and how the uses the community values can be integrated and balanced.

This process of understanding what the community values and prioritizes for our new shared public resource began with a survey in Fall 2024 (thank you for participating!) and a well-attended Management Plan Workshop on September 19th followed by a series of special topic meetings on uses that are protected by the conservation easement, but may be limited in certain ways, like hunting and on uses that are up to the community to decide on, such as snowmobiles, horses, dogs, and mountain bikes. This process of building the management plan and gathering community feedback will continue over the Winter. The special topics were:

1. Animals (Dog walking & Horseback riding)
2. Hunting & Trapping
3. Mechanized recreation (mountain/fat biking, snowmobiling, and races/fitness events).
4. Extraction (Timber harvests, Maple sugaring, Foraging)
5. Visual/Aesthetic (Art/sculpture, Interpretive trails, Signage)

We encourage residents to share your thoughts, questions, concerns, and support at any time with the Town Forest Committee (townforest@monktonvt.com) and/or the Selectboard (selectboard@monktonvt.com).

Our goal is that we can all listen to one another’s thoughts and work together as a community to create a vision for enjoying and stewarding this piece of land for current and future generations to come.

More information:

Project Overview (from 2023 – contains dated info on closing date and the total acreage)

Map of the Monkton Town Forest

Interim Management Plan – this plan and the Interim Plan Map are in effect as of November 22nd, 2024 and governs management and use of the town forest until the long-term Management Plan is finished (Spring/Summer 2025). This is a placeholder while more community input is gathered and the full long-term Plan is developed.

Conservation Easement and Map (more info on what is permitted/protected/restricted by the Conservation Easement)

Frequently Asked Questions (updated August 21st, 2024)

Annual Report update (2023) from the Monkton Town Forest Committee

Project Budget

Meetings, Members, and Contact Info

Town Forest Committee meetings are held at Town Hall and via Zoom/phone. The date/times and Zoom info will be posted on the calendar at the Monkton Town website and on the bulletin boards at Town Hall and the Post Office.

Meeting agendas and minutes can be found at these links.

Members of the Monkton Town Forest Committee:

• Callie Brynn (Chair)
• Jaime Schulte (Vice-Chair)
• John McNerney
• Peter Dufault
• Molly Parren
• CJ Buzzy
• Jessica Demeritt

The Town Forest Committee can be reached via email: townforest@monktonvt.com

– The future Monkton Town Forest in October 2022.