1 00:00:06,685 --> 00:00:07,950 Well, hi everybody. 2 00:00:07,950 --> 00:00:09,360 I'm Monica Przyperhart. 3 00:00:09,360 --> 00:00:12,660 I'm the Program Director with Cold Hollow to Canada. 4 00:00:12,660 --> 00:00:16,110 And so today's session, it's a working session, 5 00:00:16,110 --> 00:00:17,370 so it's gonna be a little different 6 00:00:17,370 --> 00:00:18,600 from the earlier sessions. 7 00:00:18,600 --> 00:00:19,600 Come on in, welcome. 8 00:00:22,257 --> 00:00:24,420 And we're gonna move from a lot of the sessions 9 00:00:24,420 --> 00:00:25,740 that I've been to have really been 10 00:00:25,740 --> 00:00:28,620 about the research and monitoring side, 11 00:00:28,620 --> 00:00:31,530 this is moving from that research and monitoring 12 00:00:31,530 --> 00:00:34,020 into how do we actually communicate 13 00:00:34,020 --> 00:00:36,150 those messages and that research 14 00:00:36,150 --> 00:00:38,310 with landowners in our community 15 00:00:38,310 --> 00:00:40,710 who can learn from it and do something with it. 16 00:00:40,710 --> 00:00:42,813 So, that's going to be our focus. 17 00:00:44,820 --> 00:00:45,930 In today's workshop, 18 00:00:45,930 --> 00:00:49,140 I see this as being divided into three sections. 19 00:00:49,140 --> 00:00:51,570 I'll start out by giving a bit of a presentation 20 00:00:51,570 --> 00:00:54,780 about the Woodlots Program at Cold Hollow to Canada. 21 00:00:54,780 --> 00:00:56,250 What is it, how does it work? 22 00:00:56,250 --> 00:00:58,170 You get to see some nice pictures 23 00:00:58,170 --> 00:01:01,350 so you can really visualize what it looks like. 24 00:01:01,350 --> 00:01:02,820 The second part is going into 25 00:01:02,820 --> 00:01:04,980 a toolkit that we've developed. 26 00:01:04,980 --> 00:01:06,870 This is not the first time we've presented 27 00:01:06,870 --> 00:01:10,140 about this program to other groups, 28 00:01:10,140 --> 00:01:12,300 and we've had a lot of feedback from other people 29 00:01:12,300 --> 00:01:15,000 saying, "We kinda like the idea of this. 30 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:17,340 How do we do this in our own community?" 31 00:01:17,340 --> 00:01:19,950 So the second part is presenting a toolkit 32 00:01:19,950 --> 00:01:21,150 that we have developed. 33 00:01:21,150 --> 00:01:23,550 It's online, you can access it at home. 34 00:01:23,550 --> 00:01:24,420 You can go through it, 35 00:01:24,420 --> 00:01:27,690 you can replicate any aspect of this program 36 00:01:27,690 --> 00:01:29,100 that you would like. 37 00:01:29,100 --> 00:01:30,900 And the third part is really 38 00:01:30,900 --> 00:01:33,120 where we will workshop it with you all 39 00:01:33,120 --> 00:01:35,280 thinking about problems that you've seen 40 00:01:35,280 --> 00:01:38,040 or communities that you think could benefit 41 00:01:38,040 --> 00:01:39,480 from a program like this. 42 00:01:39,480 --> 00:01:42,360 And really digging into how do we adapt 43 00:01:42,360 --> 00:01:45,450 what Cold Hollow to Canada has done for a different setting, 44 00:01:45,450 --> 00:01:48,270 with a different audience, in a different location. 45 00:01:48,270 --> 00:01:49,560 Sound good? 46 00:01:49,560 --> 00:01:50,550 All right. 47 00:01:50,550 --> 00:01:52,410 Since we do have an hour and a half together, 48 00:01:52,410 --> 00:01:55,410 I would love to introduce everybody here. 49 00:01:55,410 --> 00:01:56,760 I don't wanna take... 50 00:01:56,760 --> 00:01:57,720 There are a lot of people, 51 00:01:57,720 --> 00:01:59,070 I don't wanna take too much time, 52 00:01:59,070 --> 00:02:01,893 but I'd also really like to just know who's in the room. 53 00:02:02,850 --> 00:02:04,590 So I mentioned, I'm Monica Przyperhart. 54 00:02:04,590 --> 00:02:08,550 I do work with Cold Hollow to Canada. 55 00:02:08,550 --> 00:02:11,430 I have been running the Woodlots Program, 56 00:02:11,430 --> 00:02:13,320 in conjunction with some other people, 57 00:02:13,320 --> 00:02:15,273 our board members, for a while now. 58 00:02:16,380 --> 00:02:19,233 I also live down in Addison County in Middlebury, 59 00:02:20,070 --> 00:02:23,223 and so I have a few hats here. 60 00:02:24,159 --> 00:02:26,040 As we go around the room, though, 61 00:02:26,040 --> 00:02:28,680 I'd love to hear who you are, 62 00:02:28,680 --> 00:02:32,010 a location, a place that is important to you, 63 00:02:32,010 --> 00:02:33,780 perhaps where you work, 64 00:02:33,780 --> 00:02:36,330 and maybe some kind of a challenge 65 00:02:36,330 --> 00:02:38,100 that a forest is having 66 00:02:38,100 --> 00:02:41,790 that you think could involve landowners in the solution. 67 00:02:41,790 --> 00:02:44,040 I'm going to actually ask you to think about this. 68 00:02:44,040 --> 00:02:45,463 Sound good? 69 00:02:45,463 --> 00:02:46,690 A place that's meaningful to you, 70 00:02:46,690 --> 00:02:49,074 and a really quick, like, 71 00:02:49,074 --> 00:02:52,443 what is a problem that involves landowners? 72 00:02:53,611 --> 00:02:54,444 You ready, go ahead. 73 00:02:54,444 --> 00:02:56,370 I'm gonna close this just 'cause it's finished, yeah. 74 00:02:56,370 --> 00:02:57,660 Hi everybody, I'm Gus Goodwin. 75 00:02:57,660 --> 00:03:01,230 I work at the Nature Conservancy based out of Montpelier. 76 00:03:01,230 --> 00:03:02,910 Hope I'm not setting a bad precedent 77 00:03:02,910 --> 00:03:05,040 by picking a favorite place that's outside of Vermont, but- 78 00:03:05,040 --> 00:03:06,600 [Monica] That's okay. 79 00:03:06,600 --> 00:03:08,220 Johnsburg Valley, Adirondack, 80 00:03:08,220 --> 00:03:09,990 it's my favorite place on Earth. 81 00:03:09,990 --> 00:03:12,180 And the challenge I'd love to see landowners 82 00:03:12,180 --> 00:03:15,300 be more engaged in is adding wood to small streams 83 00:03:15,300 --> 00:03:18,750 as part of routine forest maintenance and management. 84 00:03:18,750 --> 00:03:21,240 [Monica] Great, you wanna go next? 85 00:03:21,240 --> 00:03:23,550 Sure, hello, I'm Mary Perchlik. 86 00:03:23,550 --> 00:03:24,900 I'm an AmeriCorps member 87 00:03:24,900 --> 00:03:27,033 at Vermont Natural Resources Council. 88 00:03:28,679 --> 00:03:30,780 I'm from Marshfield, Vermont, 89 00:03:30,780 --> 00:03:32,823 so some of those woods are my favorite. 90 00:03:34,350 --> 00:03:39,350 One issue, I guess, would be erosion for water quality. 91 00:03:40,854 --> 00:03:42,844 (door knocking) 92 00:03:42,844 --> 00:03:45,436 (attendees murmuring) 93 00:03:45,436 --> 00:03:47,686 [Monica] It's kinda noisy, so we closed it. 94 00:03:49,634 --> 00:03:51,373 I'm Audrey, I'm also an AmeriCorps member, 95 00:03:51,373 --> 00:03:53,640 but I'm at the Middlebury Land Trust, 96 00:03:53,640 --> 00:03:55,500 or Middlebury Aerial Land Trust. 97 00:03:55,500 --> 00:03:57,750 And also a student at Middlebury College 98 00:03:57,750 --> 00:03:58,967 with Professor (indistinct). 99 00:04:01,532 --> 00:04:05,460 So I guess Middlebury area is important to me. 100 00:04:05,460 --> 00:04:10,460 And I guess just working in land conservation 101 00:04:11,400 --> 00:04:15,893 and management this year and private conservation easement 102 00:04:19,549 --> 00:04:22,983 and implementing those in the best way possible. 103 00:04:24,095 --> 00:04:24,928 Great, thank you. 104 00:04:24,928 --> 00:04:28,260 For those just coming in, we're quickly giving who you are, 105 00:04:28,260 --> 00:04:30,210 a place that's meaningful for you, 106 00:04:30,210 --> 00:04:33,780 and a problem in that place 107 00:04:33,780 --> 00:04:36,930 has to do with public or private land. 108 00:04:36,930 --> 00:04:38,587 Go ahead. 109 00:04:38,587 --> 00:04:39,420 [Nancy] I'm Nancy Borheiz, 110 00:04:39,420 --> 00:04:42,033 I'm with the FEMC, I'm the web and database developer. 111 00:04:43,680 --> 00:04:45,090 A place that's important to me 112 00:04:45,090 --> 00:04:49,800 is a piece of conservation land near me, 113 00:04:49,800 --> 00:04:51,570 like just a community lot. 114 00:04:51,570 --> 00:04:53,430 And the problem, I think, 115 00:04:53,430 --> 00:04:55,470 is that it's overused, like recreation. 116 00:04:55,470 --> 00:05:00,450 So I constantly want somebody to get some funding and build, 117 00:05:00,450 --> 00:05:04,200 shore up the trails and make it so it will last for longer. 118 00:05:04,200 --> 00:05:05,033 [Monica] Okay. 119 00:05:06,150 --> 00:05:07,140 [Carl] I'm Carl Hawkin. 120 00:05:07,140 --> 00:05:10,620 I am a ecosystem services staff officer, 121 00:05:10,620 --> 00:05:11,790 currently on the Green Mountain 122 00:05:11,790 --> 00:05:13,530 Finger Lakes National Forest. 123 00:05:13,530 --> 00:05:16,680 I'm on a detail there until the end of January. 124 00:05:16,680 --> 00:05:19,470 But my full-time job is with state and private forestry 125 00:05:19,470 --> 00:05:20,730 with the US Forest Service, 126 00:05:20,730 --> 00:05:22,560 where I'm a watershed forester, 127 00:05:22,560 --> 00:05:25,140 working on state and private lands 128 00:05:25,140 --> 00:05:26,460 across New England and New York 129 00:05:26,460 --> 00:05:27,963 to help improve water quality. 130 00:05:28,860 --> 00:05:32,520 The place that I really like to hang out at 131 00:05:32,520 --> 00:05:36,810 is a woodlot that I own in Central Maine up near Moxie Falls 132 00:05:36,810 --> 00:05:40,410 where I'm trying to encourage my neighboring landowners 133 00:05:40,410 --> 00:05:42,510 to actually do some civil cultural treatments. 134 00:05:42,510 --> 00:05:44,790 They're afraid of what it might look like 135 00:05:44,790 --> 00:05:45,960 if they do something. 136 00:05:45,960 --> 00:05:49,500 I'm talking 'em into maybe pooling our resources together, 137 00:05:49,500 --> 00:05:51,060 much like you do here, 138 00:05:51,060 --> 00:05:55,500 to get more value for an entry of civil cultural practice. 139 00:05:55,500 --> 00:05:57,900 [Monica] Great, sounds like we have a toolkit 140 00:05:57,900 --> 00:05:59,280 to help you out here! 141 00:05:59,280 --> 00:06:01,080 [Carl] Yeah, it's challenge. 142 00:06:01,080 --> 00:06:03,210 [Connie] Okay, my name is Connie Carpenter 143 00:06:03,210 --> 00:06:05,940 and I work in the US Forest Service 144 00:06:05,940 --> 00:06:07,980 out of Durham, New Hampshire. 145 00:06:07,980 --> 00:06:11,455 I'm the field representative, and along with Carl, 146 00:06:11,455 --> 00:06:15,600 we cover the six New England states and New York. 147 00:06:15,600 --> 00:06:20,600 And I've been trying to get people... 148 00:06:24,090 --> 00:06:27,480 I was heavily involved in ecological classification mapping, 149 00:06:27,480 --> 00:06:29,790 and one of the levels is a landscape level 150 00:06:29,790 --> 00:06:31,950 that I've always seen is key 151 00:06:31,950 --> 00:06:35,040 to getting people to understand 152 00:06:35,040 --> 00:06:37,350 that in common ecosystem types, 153 00:06:37,350 --> 00:06:39,990 there's common opportunities, and risks, 154 00:06:39,990 --> 00:06:44,220 and ways to protect the soil and the forest. 155 00:06:44,220 --> 00:06:46,890 And so I'm really excited to see this. 156 00:06:46,890 --> 00:06:51,890 I grew up on a farm, and we had wetlands, and woods, 157 00:06:52,380 --> 00:06:54,540 and farmland or whatever. 158 00:06:54,540 --> 00:06:59,540 And mom and dad's farm is still one of my favorite places. 159 00:06:59,704 --> 00:07:02,250 (Connie laughing) 160 00:07:02,250 --> 00:07:04,770 [Monica] Yeah, thank you, makes sense. 161 00:07:04,770 --> 00:07:06,030 [Andrew] My name is Andrew Hirsch. 162 00:07:06,030 --> 00:07:07,410 I'm a forestry specialist 163 00:07:07,410 --> 00:07:09,663 for Vermont Forest Parks and Recreation. 164 00:07:11,010 --> 00:07:12,990 So before I was in this position, 165 00:07:12,990 --> 00:07:14,370 I was actually doing consulting forestry 166 00:07:14,370 --> 00:07:15,990 up in Northern Vermont. 167 00:07:15,990 --> 00:07:20,160 And something that was of interest to me, 168 00:07:20,160 --> 00:07:22,380 I guess a special place in this instance, 169 00:07:22,380 --> 00:07:26,160 would be Lamoille County and the surrounding counties 170 00:07:26,160 --> 00:07:29,550 would be to get neighboring landowners 171 00:07:29,550 --> 00:07:34,550 to adopt their neighbors' management plans 172 00:07:34,650 --> 00:07:38,640 to be able to have that congruency across the landscape. 173 00:07:38,640 --> 00:07:41,733 And that was kinda what I was invested in thinking about. 174 00:07:43,498 --> 00:07:44,450 [Joel] My name is Joel Zavala. 175 00:07:44,450 --> 00:07:47,253 I work with Forest Parks and Recreation. 176 00:07:49,511 --> 00:07:50,610 An easement monitoring specialist. 177 00:07:50,610 --> 00:07:52,833 I work with Forest Legacy program. 178 00:07:53,917 --> 00:07:57,600 And right now, oh, favorite place, I don't know, 179 00:07:59,331 --> 00:08:02,730 I'm still trying to figure that out in the Vermont sense, 180 00:08:02,730 --> 00:08:06,783 but West Virginia always has a special place in my heart. 181 00:08:08,310 --> 00:08:11,820 Right now, I feel like my biggest challenge 182 00:08:11,820 --> 00:08:14,760 is trying to get everyone on the same page 183 00:08:14,760 --> 00:08:19,760 and having a clear process for management 184 00:08:20,940 --> 00:08:23,490 so that everyone has a clear understanding 185 00:08:23,490 --> 00:08:25,050 of what's going on. 186 00:08:25,050 --> 00:08:26,820 And then really interested 187 00:08:26,820 --> 00:08:30,333 in developing a recreation toolkit for private landowners. 188 00:08:32,182 --> 00:08:34,950 [Monica] All right, sounds good, great. 189 00:08:34,950 --> 00:08:35,940 [Nancy] I'm Nancy Patch, 190 00:08:35,940 --> 00:08:37,860 I'm co-founder of Cold Hollow to Canada, 191 00:08:37,860 --> 00:08:39,447 so we're here to talk about that. 192 00:08:39,447 --> 00:08:42,300 I'm also the Franklin Grand Isle County Forester 193 00:08:42,300 --> 00:08:44,580 for Vermont Department of Forest and Parks. 194 00:08:44,580 --> 00:08:48,455 My favorite place is there, Cold Hollow to Canada. 195 00:08:48,455 --> 00:08:49,470 (Nancy laughing) 196 00:08:49,470 --> 00:08:54,470 And our mission is to conserve 23,000 acres by 2030. 197 00:08:56,130 --> 00:09:00,120 And so that's where I'm finding the work 198 00:09:00,120 --> 00:09:02,340 that we're doing right now is the most important piece. 199 00:09:02,340 --> 00:09:04,140 And this is one way to get to there. 200 00:09:05,190 --> 00:09:07,704 [Monica] Yeah, go there in a minute. 201 00:09:07,704 --> 00:09:09,030 [Ethan] I'm Ethan Tapper. 202 00:09:09,030 --> 00:09:10,320 I'm the Chittenden County Forester 203 00:09:10,320 --> 00:09:12,720 for the Vermont Department of Forest Parks and Recreation. 204 00:09:12,720 --> 00:09:14,460 My favorite place is my land in Bolton, 205 00:09:14,460 --> 00:09:15,910 it's just called Bear Island. 206 00:09:18,095 --> 00:09:22,020 I deal with private landowners a lot, as does Nancy, 207 00:09:22,020 --> 00:09:24,057 as do many of us probably. 208 00:09:24,057 --> 00:09:26,490 I'm just interested in helping them build 209 00:09:26,490 --> 00:09:29,433 connected, protected landscapes. 210 00:09:31,080 --> 00:09:31,913 [Donna] I'm Donna Wolf. 211 00:09:31,913 --> 00:09:34,830 I'm a web and database developer with the MEMC. 212 00:09:34,830 --> 00:09:36,957 I live in the city right down the street, 213 00:09:36,957 --> 00:09:39,150 and my favorite place is Centennial Woods. 214 00:09:39,150 --> 00:09:42,060 I go every single day, I go around multiple times a day, 215 00:09:42,060 --> 00:09:44,280 and there has been a flood 216 00:09:44,280 --> 00:09:46,620 because of some beavers in the last few years. 217 00:09:46,620 --> 00:09:49,650 And the university uses that as a research forest, 218 00:09:49,650 --> 00:09:50,557 so they put a sign like, 219 00:09:50,557 --> 00:09:51,750 "Sorry, trail not maintained. 220 00:09:51,750 --> 00:09:53,071 Too bad, goodbye." 221 00:09:53,071 --> 00:09:55,020 And then the guy that kinda lives there 222 00:09:55,020 --> 00:09:57,990 has just been like hauling cinder blocks and bridges, 223 00:09:57,990 --> 00:10:00,450 and like, this guy out of the goodness of his heart, 224 00:10:00,450 --> 00:10:03,393 has kept the trails passable for us. 225 00:10:04,356 --> 00:10:06,180 So I don't know who's in charge of this stuff, 226 00:10:06,180 --> 00:10:07,653 but that's my concern. 227 00:10:08,580 --> 00:10:10,080 I would like to use my trails. 228 00:10:10,920 --> 00:10:12,446 [David] Well, I'm David Brynn, 229 00:10:12,446 --> 00:10:15,009 I'm the founder and director of Vermont in the Forest. 230 00:10:15,009 --> 00:10:17,610 We've been in the business for about 26 years. 231 00:10:17,610 --> 00:10:19,020 We have 200 landowners 232 00:10:19,020 --> 00:10:21,360 and about 20,000 acres that we work on. 233 00:10:21,360 --> 00:10:23,850 And we do a bunch of other stuff. 234 00:10:23,850 --> 00:10:26,610 And the biggest thing that I would like to accomplish, 235 00:10:26,610 --> 00:10:28,740 help our landowners accomplish, 236 00:10:28,740 --> 00:10:31,110 is get them to quit looking at us. 237 00:10:31,110 --> 00:10:33,430 We need to help them do certain things 238 00:10:34,473 --> 00:10:39,473 and get them to create value-adding forest products co-op. 239 00:10:42,750 --> 00:10:44,910 [Monica] Let's bring that one back in later. 240 00:10:44,910 --> 00:10:47,567 Sounds like a good workshop, go ahead. 241 00:10:47,567 --> 00:10:49,770 [Marie] Hi, I'm Marie Rhodes. 242 00:10:49,770 --> 00:10:54,770 I am with AmeriCorps working at Mass Audubon 243 00:10:57,420 --> 00:10:59,370 at the Arcadia Sanctuary. 244 00:10:59,370 --> 00:11:04,370 And I'm helping them to develop the... 245 00:11:09,060 --> 00:11:10,600 Just flew right outta my head. 246 00:11:12,090 --> 00:11:13,526 I'm nervous, I'm sorry. 247 00:11:13,526 --> 00:11:16,859 (participants laughing) 248 00:11:18,600 --> 00:11:20,910 Forest Resilience Monitoring program 249 00:11:20,910 --> 00:11:24,420 and that I guess would be like my biggest goal there 250 00:11:24,420 --> 00:11:27,730 is to help them develop the protocols for that 251 00:11:29,040 --> 00:11:32,797 before my 11th month is up there, so. 252 00:11:35,125 --> 00:11:36,310 [Andrew] I'm Andrew Randez, 253 00:11:36,310 --> 00:11:38,070 I'm a forest ecologist 254 00:11:38,070 --> 00:11:40,170 with the Audubon Climate Smart Forestry program. 255 00:11:40,170 --> 00:11:42,261 So working with Maria in part. 256 00:11:42,261 --> 00:11:45,210 And a special place to me, 257 00:11:45,210 --> 00:11:48,030 I did my master's work on the Shanko Ridge 258 00:11:48,030 --> 00:11:52,571 and Hudson Valley, New York, and Omaha Preserve. 259 00:11:52,571 --> 00:11:56,283 And so I'm always gonna love that place. 260 00:11:58,230 --> 00:11:59,730 But I guess more related to my work, 261 00:11:59,730 --> 00:12:02,493 I get a challenge with like private land owners. 262 00:12:03,630 --> 00:12:05,730 We're building this Forest Resilience program 263 00:12:05,730 --> 00:12:08,940 and we're piloting it in northwestern Massachusetts. 264 00:12:08,940 --> 00:12:13,110 And basically provide assistance and support 265 00:12:13,110 --> 00:12:14,460 around climate-smart forestry 266 00:12:14,460 --> 00:12:17,070 as well as incentive payments for that. 267 00:12:17,070 --> 00:12:20,160 And I guess a challenge 268 00:12:20,160 --> 00:12:22,260 when you talk about climate and forestry 269 00:12:22,260 --> 00:12:24,930 is like this carbon versus adaptation, 270 00:12:24,930 --> 00:12:27,690 and cutting trees, and ecosystem tradeoffs. 271 00:12:27,690 --> 00:12:30,979 And I guess an issue around that is just like trust 272 00:12:30,979 --> 00:12:34,500 and how to like foster that trust. 273 00:12:34,500 --> 00:12:36,630 So people are, you know... 274 00:12:38,432 --> 00:12:41,765 (participants laughing) 275 00:12:44,100 --> 00:12:44,933 [Sam] Sam Aaron. 276 00:12:44,933 --> 00:12:47,940 I'm a forester at the Northwood Stewardship Center 277 00:12:47,940 --> 00:12:49,860 based near Island on the Pond. 278 00:12:49,860 --> 00:12:51,600 That is a very special place to me. 279 00:12:51,600 --> 00:12:53,910 Another special place is Wilton State Forest 280 00:12:53,910 --> 00:12:55,320 near my home in Newark. 281 00:12:55,320 --> 00:12:57,750 We're talking private lands today. 282 00:12:57,750 --> 00:12:59,970 Northwoods does a lot of landowner outreach, 283 00:12:59,970 --> 00:13:02,040 very much following a Cold Hollow model. 284 00:13:02,040 --> 00:13:03,990 And in that I would say one of the challenges 285 00:13:03,990 --> 00:13:05,070 that's really interesting to me 286 00:13:05,070 --> 00:13:07,230 is the interaction with outdoor recreation, 287 00:13:07,230 --> 00:13:10,590 especially public recreation, with logical values. 288 00:13:10,590 --> 00:13:12,930 And then to me, the layer of making that work 289 00:13:12,930 --> 00:13:15,767 with current use is another challenge on top of it all. 290 00:13:18,479 --> 00:13:20,099 [Devin] I'm Devin Penner, 291 00:13:20,099 --> 00:13:22,250 I'm a forestry outreach coordinator at Northwoods. 292 00:13:22,250 --> 00:13:25,310 I work with Sam and yeah, work with landowners... 293 00:13:26,650 --> 00:13:29,641 (drowned out by airplane engine) 294 00:13:29,641 --> 00:13:31,391 The last one, a special place to me 295 00:13:32,270 --> 00:13:34,890 is near my home in like the Northern Green Mountains. 296 00:13:34,890 --> 00:13:36,393 Northern Oil County. 297 00:13:37,448 --> 00:13:38,281 I've been living there for about a year, 298 00:13:38,281 --> 00:13:41,500 so it's been cool to get to know it, see it and all. 299 00:13:43,017 --> 00:13:44,190 And really enjoying that. 300 00:13:44,190 --> 00:13:48,080 Coming from out west, I think the private land ownership 301 00:13:48,080 --> 00:13:51,330 of a state that is so largely comprised of forests, 302 00:13:51,330 --> 00:13:54,600 but it's, yeah, so many small parcels, 303 00:13:54,600 --> 00:13:58,353 and having more of my work history be on public lands, 304 00:13:59,370 --> 00:14:01,680 programs like this, don't think that's so much a challenge, 305 00:14:01,680 --> 00:14:04,330 but this is why I'm interested in this and being here 306 00:14:05,224 --> 00:14:06,900 is how do we create this is collaboration 307 00:14:06,900 --> 00:14:09,003 and get landowners on the same page. 308 00:14:11,297 --> 00:14:12,570 [Monica] Awesome, all right. 309 00:14:12,570 --> 00:14:13,403 [Kelly] I'm Kelly Gearman. 310 00:14:13,403 --> 00:14:14,670 I'm a conservation director 311 00:14:14,670 --> 00:14:17,070 for Farm and Wilderness Conservation. 312 00:14:17,070 --> 00:14:19,978 So we have about 4,800 acres private land owner, 313 00:14:19,978 --> 00:14:23,280 several conservation easements. 314 00:14:23,280 --> 00:14:25,350 Our sibling organization, Farm Wilderness, 315 00:14:25,350 --> 00:14:27,900 is a summer camp organization around for a long time. 316 00:14:27,900 --> 00:14:32,310 So I do everything from just general land management, 317 00:14:32,310 --> 00:14:36,780 admin and education, and outreach, data collection. 318 00:14:36,780 --> 00:14:38,253 So lots of different things. 319 00:14:39,540 --> 00:14:42,780 Favorite place is probably, or one of my favorite places, 320 00:14:42,780 --> 00:14:46,110 my own backyard, Modest Bend area. 321 00:14:46,110 --> 00:14:47,670 Right around there, all that town. 322 00:14:47,670 --> 00:14:49,717 -The outlet? -Yeah, are you- 323 00:14:51,510 --> 00:14:54,870 [Kelly] And I would say challenge right now is managing, 324 00:14:54,870 --> 00:14:58,350 very similar to other folks, stakeholder expectations, 325 00:14:58,350 --> 00:15:02,610 especially when developing recreational priorities 326 00:15:02,610 --> 00:15:05,550 and when they don't align with ecological... 327 00:15:05,550 --> 00:15:07,670 [Participant] No, I'm going upstairs. 328 00:15:08,889 --> 00:15:10,560 [Noelle] I'm Noelle, as well. 329 00:15:10,560 --> 00:15:12,983 I'm a conservation intern at Northwoods Conservation. 330 00:15:14,010 --> 00:15:17,918 So working on a lot of same things. 331 00:15:17,918 --> 00:15:22,050 Maybe more specific, (indistinct) mapping. 332 00:15:22,050 --> 00:15:23,673 Education regarding that. 333 00:15:24,840 --> 00:15:29,840 Community science and having to be more like... 334 00:15:30,147 --> 00:15:31,930 I think decently informed and yeah, 335 00:15:31,930 --> 00:15:35,673 and just special place probably be Plymouth, Vermont. 336 00:15:37,380 --> 00:15:38,520 [Monica] Thank you. 337 00:15:38,520 --> 00:15:39,780 [Fras] I'm Fras Renfrew. 338 00:15:39,780 --> 00:15:41,820 I'm with the Vermont Fish Wildlife Department. 339 00:15:41,820 --> 00:15:46,260 I'm the program manager of the Wildlife Diversity Program. 340 00:15:46,260 --> 00:15:48,330 My special place is actually a cliff in New Hampshire 341 00:15:48,330 --> 00:15:50,160 that I had an amazing summer. 342 00:15:50,160 --> 00:15:53,441 It represents a peaceful distance to me, 343 00:15:53,441 --> 00:15:54,993 but it was 30 years ago. 344 00:15:56,940 --> 00:15:59,210 And now my special place is anywhere 345 00:15:59,210 --> 00:16:01,751 in the Montpelier area, I guess. 346 00:16:01,751 --> 00:16:06,210 And I've heard a lot of ideas already 347 00:16:06,210 --> 00:16:08,130 that I was thinking of and I don't wanna repeat. 348 00:16:08,130 --> 00:16:09,360 I love what you said about trust. 349 00:16:09,360 --> 00:16:12,840 I think I give a lot to trust. 350 00:16:12,840 --> 00:16:14,070 But what's on my mind often 351 00:16:14,070 --> 00:16:19,070 is somehow a more coordinated approach to invasives 352 00:16:19,240 --> 00:16:24,187 at the community level that's effective and coordinated. 353 00:16:24,187 --> 00:16:27,900 [Monica] Okay, and final back row here. 354 00:16:27,900 --> 00:16:29,040 [Dan] I'm Dan Wright. 355 00:16:29,040 --> 00:16:31,958 I work for the Carbon Conservation Recreation Mess, 356 00:16:31,958 --> 00:16:35,400 I'm a research coordinator there. 357 00:16:35,400 --> 00:16:37,560 And I'm not sure how applicable 358 00:16:37,560 --> 00:16:40,740 this workshop is to my work responsibilities, 359 00:16:40,740 --> 00:16:44,730 but I greatly enjoy hunting out some private property. 360 00:16:44,730 --> 00:16:46,889 I'd like to get better at engaging 361 00:16:46,889 --> 00:16:50,420 (drowned out by murmuring) 362 00:16:50,420 --> 00:16:53,087 Working with private landowners. 363 00:16:54,259 --> 00:16:55,769 [Will] Hi, Will Elder, 364 00:16:55,769 --> 00:16:58,857 habitat biologist with Mount Fish and Wildlife Department. 365 00:16:58,857 --> 00:17:01,721 And yeah, I can't pick one special place in Vermont. 366 00:17:01,721 --> 00:17:02,971 I like 'em all. 367 00:17:04,557 --> 00:17:06,909 But I'm working with installation and land-based program 368 00:17:06,909 --> 00:17:08,413 to develop a streamlined program, 369 00:17:08,413 --> 00:17:10,140 which gets private landowners 370 00:17:10,140 --> 00:17:12,420 trying to encourage them to protect and restore 371 00:17:12,420 --> 00:17:13,890 forest and recreation areas. 372 00:17:13,890 --> 00:17:15,240 So there's a lot of overlap 373 00:17:15,240 --> 00:17:17,747 with what we're talking about here. 374 00:17:18,867 --> 00:17:21,834 [Monica] Great, thank you. 375 00:17:21,834 --> 00:17:23,043 [Joanne] Hi, I'm Joanne Garden. 376 00:17:23,043 --> 00:17:24,303 I am an affirmative forester 377 00:17:24,303 --> 00:17:27,243 with the Vermont Urban Forestry Program. 378 00:17:28,920 --> 00:17:32,185 And I do a lot of the technical community help 379 00:17:32,185 --> 00:17:34,773 with everyone all around the scene. 380 00:17:35,730 --> 00:17:38,880 Favorite place for me would probably be a part 381 00:17:38,880 --> 00:17:41,490 of the Callas Town Forest, Bliss Pond. 382 00:17:41,490 --> 00:17:43,500 And I actually don't know a lot about how it's managed 383 00:17:43,500 --> 00:17:45,990 or who manages it beyond the municipality, 384 00:17:45,990 --> 00:17:48,996 which is maybe why it's so relaxing to be there. 385 00:17:48,996 --> 00:17:50,909 (participants laughing) 386 00:17:50,909 --> 00:17:52,709 But I would definitely agree with... 387 00:17:54,420 --> 00:17:58,980 A sense of folks needing to manage a resource collectively, 388 00:17:58,980 --> 00:18:01,860 but they're being sometimes resistance 389 00:18:01,860 --> 00:18:03,690 to new people coming on board, 390 00:18:03,690 --> 00:18:05,697 changing the way things have been done 391 00:18:05,697 --> 00:18:07,890 and really working through that to understand 392 00:18:07,890 --> 00:18:10,920 that everyone's got a common vested interest. 393 00:18:10,920 --> 00:18:11,760 Great. 394 00:18:11,760 --> 00:18:12,960 Well thank you, everybody, 395 00:18:12,960 --> 00:18:15,300 for taking that time to share who you are 396 00:18:15,300 --> 00:18:19,367 and also these special places and challenges. 397 00:18:19,367 --> 00:18:21,090 I wanted to start that way, 398 00:18:21,090 --> 00:18:24,180 because my hope is that by the end of this time together, 399 00:18:24,180 --> 00:18:26,580 we can workshop some of those places 400 00:18:26,580 --> 00:18:29,730 and think about how to bring a program like this 401 00:18:29,730 --> 00:18:31,530 to some of those other places, 402 00:18:31,530 --> 00:18:33,870 or to address some of those other challenges, 403 00:18:33,870 --> 00:18:35,430 even if they're a little different. 404 00:18:35,430 --> 00:18:37,320 So I mentioned this to those who were here at the beginning, 405 00:18:37,320 --> 00:18:40,740 but I see this workshop as really being in three pieces. 406 00:18:40,740 --> 00:18:44,430 The first part I'll be describing the Woodlots Program 407 00:18:44,430 --> 00:18:46,923 as it exists in the Cold Hollow to Canada region. 408 00:18:47,790 --> 00:18:50,550 The second part is sharing this toolkit that we have 409 00:18:50,550 --> 00:18:53,253 for adapting this to other places 410 00:18:53,253 --> 00:18:57,390 that really goes into a lot of detail about how we did this, 411 00:18:57,390 --> 00:19:01,050 why we did it, and we really get into the mechanics of it. 412 00:19:01,050 --> 00:19:02,580 And then the third part we'll be thinking 413 00:19:02,580 --> 00:19:05,700 about how to bring it to some of these other challenges. 414 00:19:05,700 --> 00:19:07,890 So I'll start with the Woodlots Program itself. 415 00:19:07,890 --> 00:19:11,040 And actually, I'll start with Cold Hollow to Canada. 416 00:19:11,040 --> 00:19:13,305 We are a very small organization, 417 00:19:13,305 --> 00:19:18,150 but where we came from is really this map. 418 00:19:18,150 --> 00:19:20,640 So many of you have probably worked with or heard of 419 00:19:20,640 --> 00:19:22,860 the Staying Connected Initiative, 420 00:19:22,860 --> 00:19:25,620 or the efforts of Two Countries, One Forest, 421 00:19:25,620 --> 00:19:28,410 that has looked at the Northern Forest as a whole 422 00:19:28,410 --> 00:19:30,750 and identified the six places, 423 00:19:30,750 --> 00:19:33,900 in blue with the yellow arrows, 424 00:19:33,900 --> 00:19:36,180 as places to really focus our efforts 425 00:19:36,180 --> 00:19:39,510 in order to maintain the resilience of this forest. 426 00:19:39,510 --> 00:19:41,700 These are the linkage areas 427 00:19:41,700 --> 00:19:44,490 where they're kinda becoming more fragmented. 428 00:19:44,490 --> 00:19:46,380 And we really need to focus our efforts 429 00:19:46,380 --> 00:19:48,300 of protecting and maintaining 430 00:19:48,300 --> 00:19:50,523 the resilience of these forest areas. 431 00:19:51,780 --> 00:19:54,330 So our vision with Cold Hollow to Canada, 432 00:19:54,330 --> 00:19:55,890 and you can see our little logo here, 433 00:19:55,890 --> 00:19:58,647 we're just one little piece of that... 434 00:19:58,647 --> 00:20:00,807 It's the western side of the Green Mountains, 435 00:20:00,807 --> 00:20:02,433 the Northern Green Mountains. 436 00:20:03,510 --> 00:20:06,390 And our vision is to maintain a resilient 437 00:20:06,390 --> 00:20:09,690 and connected ecosystem across the Northern Forest, 438 00:20:09,690 --> 00:20:11,910 starting with our little bit. 439 00:20:11,910 --> 00:20:14,070 Which is just this seven town region. 440 00:20:14,070 --> 00:20:16,516 We're very small, like I mentioned, 441 00:20:16,516 --> 00:20:18,930 but we work in these towns. 442 00:20:18,930 --> 00:20:21,260 And Cold Hollow to Canada really sees ourselves 443 00:20:21,260 --> 00:20:25,350 as the nexus in this hourglass. 444 00:20:25,350 --> 00:20:27,720 We are the ones who take the resources 445 00:20:27,720 --> 00:20:29,760 available from state agencies, 446 00:20:29,760 --> 00:20:32,610 federal agencies, our partners. 447 00:20:32,610 --> 00:20:33,870 I'll go into more detail 448 00:20:33,870 --> 00:20:36,000 on who those partners are in a little bit. 449 00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:39,660 And we bring them to the people in these communities. 450 00:20:39,660 --> 00:20:42,450 So the towns themselves, the conservation commissions. 451 00:20:42,450 --> 00:20:44,100 And in the case with this program 452 00:20:44,100 --> 00:20:45,930 that I'm going to go into detail about, 453 00:20:45,930 --> 00:20:47,373 it's really the landowners. 454 00:20:49,020 --> 00:20:53,340 Now, the Woodlots Program really came out of this fact 455 00:20:53,340 --> 00:20:55,620 that more than two thirds of Vermont's forest land 456 00:20:55,620 --> 00:20:57,390 is privately owned. 457 00:20:57,390 --> 00:20:59,790 I think everybody in this room is well aware of this. 458 00:20:59,790 --> 00:21:04,790 But maintaining the health of our forests in this region 459 00:21:05,220 --> 00:21:10,140 is therefore really reliant on these many individuals 460 00:21:10,140 --> 00:21:13,200 who each steward just a tiny piece of land 461 00:21:13,200 --> 00:21:14,733 within this region. 462 00:21:15,600 --> 00:21:19,050 And the Woodlands Program really comes out of an idea 463 00:21:19,050 --> 00:21:23,100 of instead of just having everybody working individually, 464 00:21:23,100 --> 00:21:26,670 how can we work together to do more? 465 00:21:26,670 --> 00:21:29,370 How can the landowners themselves work together to do more, 466 00:21:29,370 --> 00:21:32,040 but how do we also keep from just having 467 00:21:32,040 --> 00:21:34,923 isolated efforts with landowners? 468 00:21:36,480 --> 00:21:37,860 What are our ultimate goals? 469 00:21:37,860 --> 00:21:38,910 One of our ultimate goals 470 00:21:38,910 --> 00:21:42,060 is land conservation within our region. 471 00:21:42,060 --> 00:21:44,010 We would really like to have 472 00:21:44,010 --> 00:21:48,330 permanent conservation easements on this land. 473 00:21:48,330 --> 00:21:49,173 It's one goal. 474 00:21:51,000 --> 00:21:55,110 Another goal is to enhance our forest stewardship. 475 00:21:55,110 --> 00:22:00,110 So in the management that landowners do, 476 00:22:00,450 --> 00:22:05,450 how can we implement better forest stewardship 477 00:22:05,670 --> 00:22:08,070 that keeps in mind with changing climate, 478 00:22:08,070 --> 00:22:12,013 that keeps in mind wildlife species and habitat, 479 00:22:12,013 --> 00:22:14,253 that keeps in mind forest resilience. 480 00:22:16,230 --> 00:22:18,900 Another pillar of the work of Cold Hollow to Canada 481 00:22:18,900 --> 00:22:21,030 is really this community empowerment piece. 482 00:22:21,030 --> 00:22:23,976 And the couple of you brought this up in our introductions. 483 00:22:23,976 --> 00:22:27,960 How can we not just get these things accomplished, 484 00:22:27,960 --> 00:22:31,710 but work with people who will then have the knowledge, 485 00:22:31,710 --> 00:22:34,560 and the skills, and the tools, and the resources, 486 00:22:34,560 --> 00:22:39,560 and the desire to implement these tools 487 00:22:39,990 --> 00:22:42,783 towards land conservation and stewardship. 488 00:22:44,460 --> 00:22:45,540 At Cold Hollow to Canada, 489 00:22:45,540 --> 00:22:47,490 there's a phrase that comes up a lot. 490 00:22:47,490 --> 00:22:48,660 If you know Nancy Patch, 491 00:22:48,660 --> 00:22:52,950 you probably have heard her say this before, right Nancy? 492 00:22:52,950 --> 00:22:54,870 That you only see what you know, 493 00:22:54,870 --> 00:22:56,850 you only love what you see, 494 00:22:56,850 --> 00:22:59,280 and you only protect what you love. 495 00:22:59,280 --> 00:23:01,710 And that's really at the heart of this idea, 496 00:23:01,710 --> 00:23:06,150 is how do we help the landowners in our region 497 00:23:06,150 --> 00:23:10,020 to start to see, and start to know, 498 00:23:10,020 --> 00:23:12,510 so that they start to see, and start to love, 499 00:23:12,510 --> 00:23:16,590 and start to protect and work towards that ultimate goal. 500 00:23:16,590 --> 00:23:20,644 So that's really where the Woodlots Program came from. 501 00:23:20,644 --> 00:23:24,480 Is this idea to work with the landowners in our region 502 00:23:24,480 --> 00:23:27,513 to just start helping everybody to see. 503 00:23:29,610 --> 00:23:31,680 The equation works something like this. 504 00:23:31,680 --> 00:23:33,865 We take forest landowners, 505 00:23:33,865 --> 00:23:38,550 and we provide them with peer-engagement opportunities, 506 00:23:38,550 --> 00:23:40,530 and technical assistance, 507 00:23:40,530 --> 00:23:43,590 and wherever possible funding opportunities, 508 00:23:43,590 --> 00:23:47,523 so that we get this conservation and stewardship out of it. 509 00:23:49,380 --> 00:23:52,590 So I'll break that equation down into little bits. 510 00:23:52,590 --> 00:23:55,860 The first part is that peer-engagement piece. 511 00:23:55,860 --> 00:23:57,780 And it works roughly like this. 512 00:23:57,780 --> 00:24:01,410 So we have a group of landowners, 513 00:24:01,410 --> 00:24:04,950 and four times a year, every season, quarterly, 514 00:24:04,950 --> 00:24:07,950 we convene and we have a gathering 515 00:24:07,950 --> 00:24:09,450 that starts with a woods walk. 516 00:24:10,350 --> 00:24:12,810 Now, these wood woods walks are sometimes led 517 00:24:12,810 --> 00:24:14,130 by people at CHC. 518 00:24:14,130 --> 00:24:17,190 So myself, or Nancy is our board member, 519 00:24:17,190 --> 00:24:20,636 and founder of this program and the organization. 520 00:24:20,636 --> 00:24:25,503 So we have some knowledge of forest or natural resources. 521 00:24:26,340 --> 00:24:28,320 So sometimes they're learning from us. 522 00:24:28,320 --> 00:24:30,480 Sometimes we invite in experts, 523 00:24:30,480 --> 00:24:32,730 like this is Bob Hop, who many of you know, 524 00:24:32,730 --> 00:24:34,923 a botanist with Vermont Fish and Wildlife, 525 00:24:35,850 --> 00:24:39,420 who came to one of our Woodlots Programs. 526 00:24:39,420 --> 00:24:41,790 But what I wanna emphasize here 527 00:24:41,790 --> 00:24:44,970 is that landowners are not only learning 528 00:24:44,970 --> 00:24:48,240 the knowledge and skills that we're giving them, 529 00:24:48,240 --> 00:24:50,193 they're also learning from each other. 530 00:24:51,450 --> 00:24:54,300 These programs are held on the lands 531 00:24:54,300 --> 00:24:58,110 of the participating landowners who are all neighbors. 532 00:24:58,110 --> 00:25:01,260 And so it's a chance where they can see the management 533 00:25:01,260 --> 00:25:03,600 and the stewardship that each other are doing. 534 00:25:03,600 --> 00:25:05,490 And so they're learning from us. 535 00:25:05,490 --> 00:25:08,070 There's often a topic of interest, 536 00:25:08,070 --> 00:25:10,110 and they're learning about that topic, 537 00:25:10,110 --> 00:25:11,970 but those casual conversations 538 00:25:11,970 --> 00:25:13,770 that they're having among themselves 539 00:25:13,770 --> 00:25:18,090 are every bit as important as the topic at hand. 540 00:25:18,090 --> 00:25:19,140 Does that make sense? 541 00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:23,340 We also, along with these gatherings, 542 00:25:23,340 --> 00:25:26,820 we almost always end it with a pot luck. 543 00:25:26,820 --> 00:25:29,700 Or if the host is not comfortable having a potluck, 544 00:25:29,700 --> 00:25:30,540 we do something. 545 00:25:30,540 --> 00:25:33,210 We might have a bring your own bag lunch, 546 00:25:33,210 --> 00:25:36,971 or at least end with tea and cookies or something like that. 547 00:25:36,971 --> 00:25:39,090 And this might sound like, eh, 548 00:25:39,090 --> 00:25:40,860 maybe it's just a little extra. 549 00:25:40,860 --> 00:25:43,958 But I really think that that is a key part 550 00:25:43,958 --> 00:25:48,958 of what builds the community around these gatherings. 551 00:25:49,410 --> 00:25:51,510 So groups of landowners. 552 00:25:51,510 --> 00:25:55,980 But that casual time together is when they, I think, 553 00:25:55,980 --> 00:25:57,900 really start to build the trust 554 00:25:57,900 --> 00:25:59,850 and those relationships that are crucial 555 00:25:59,850 --> 00:26:03,120 for the program to be successful. 556 00:26:03,120 --> 00:26:04,860 It's a casual time. 557 00:26:04,860 --> 00:26:06,180 They're sharing their stories. 558 00:26:06,180 --> 00:26:07,710 They're sharing not just 559 00:26:07,710 --> 00:26:10,290 what they're doing on their land, but why. 560 00:26:10,290 --> 00:26:13,953 It's when those personal connections start to be made. 561 00:26:15,893 --> 00:26:16,795 [Participant] I'm sorry I have to go early. 562 00:26:16,795 --> 00:26:18,570 No worries. 563 00:26:18,570 --> 00:26:22,050 The second part is the technical assistance piece. 564 00:26:22,050 --> 00:26:23,850 Now, by technical assistance, 565 00:26:23,850 --> 00:26:25,200 some of that technical assistance 566 00:26:25,200 --> 00:26:28,530 happens at these quarterly gatherings, those wood walks. 567 00:26:28,530 --> 00:26:30,960 When maybe if Nancy's leading one, 568 00:26:30,960 --> 00:26:32,490 then she's the county forester, 569 00:26:32,490 --> 00:26:36,210 but she's also going through somebody's land 570 00:26:36,210 --> 00:26:39,660 and describing what she sees and some ideas that she has. 571 00:26:39,660 --> 00:26:42,030 That's technical assistance. 572 00:26:42,030 --> 00:26:45,033 But the technical assistance goes beyond that as well. 573 00:26:46,560 --> 00:26:49,530 We set all of our programs, I'm just gonna close this door. 574 00:26:49,530 --> 00:26:50,553 It's a little noisy. 575 00:26:53,040 --> 00:26:55,950 So we match up all of our program participants 576 00:26:55,950 --> 00:26:59,490 with a couple of these extra things 577 00:26:59,490 --> 00:27:01,740 that we provide for them. 578 00:27:01,740 --> 00:27:03,600 One is the songbird habitat assessment. 579 00:27:03,600 --> 00:27:06,400 We have a really close partnership with Audubon Vermont, 580 00:27:08,310 --> 00:27:10,020 and Audubon Vermont offers these 581 00:27:10,020 --> 00:27:12,240 throughout the state to private landowners 582 00:27:12,240 --> 00:27:17,010 where a biologist goes out in the woods on private land, 583 00:27:17,010 --> 00:27:19,860 does an assessment of the songbird habitat 584 00:27:19,860 --> 00:27:21,570 that is already present on the land. 585 00:27:21,570 --> 00:27:23,790 That also provides some opportunities 586 00:27:23,790 --> 00:27:25,773 for maybe enhancing that. 587 00:27:26,991 --> 00:27:30,780 But what's really special about these with Woodlots in mind, 588 00:27:30,780 --> 00:27:32,910 Audubon really likes partnering with us 589 00:27:32,910 --> 00:27:37,230 because not only do they report out to the landowners 590 00:27:37,230 --> 00:27:41,370 where the landowners get this physical thing in return, 591 00:27:41,370 --> 00:27:45,032 but then we go out afterwards and we can follow up. 592 00:27:45,032 --> 00:27:46,980 And so Audubon has said 593 00:27:46,980 --> 00:27:49,440 they really like working with a program like ours 594 00:27:49,440 --> 00:27:51,330 where they know that after 595 00:27:51,330 --> 00:27:54,360 they give this report to a landowner, 596 00:27:54,360 --> 00:27:56,130 they know that we'll do something with it. 597 00:27:56,130 --> 00:27:57,720 We will go back, we'll follow up. 598 00:27:57,720 --> 00:28:00,210 Other landowners can learn from each other, 599 00:28:00,210 --> 00:28:03,210 and they can look at not just one property at a time. 600 00:28:03,210 --> 00:28:05,400 They can look at the whole region, 601 00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:07,290 all of the landowners there, 602 00:28:07,290 --> 00:28:08,250 and all of them can think 603 00:28:08,250 --> 00:28:10,410 about the collective wildlife habitat, 604 00:28:10,410 --> 00:28:12,990 songbird habitat that they have. 605 00:28:12,990 --> 00:28:15,060 See where the prime habitat 606 00:28:15,060 --> 00:28:16,980 for a certain species is on one property 607 00:28:16,980 --> 00:28:18,783 that might be lacking on another. 608 00:28:20,910 --> 00:28:24,120 Another thing that we give back to landowners 609 00:28:24,120 --> 00:28:26,100 is a climate change analysis 610 00:28:26,100 --> 00:28:29,130 in conjunction with the Department of Forest Parks and Rec. 611 00:28:29,130 --> 00:28:30,810 And this is something where we take 612 00:28:30,810 --> 00:28:33,480 their existing management plan 613 00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:36,510 and we go through it with an eye 614 00:28:36,510 --> 00:28:39,900 towards adaptation and resilience strategies. 615 00:28:39,900 --> 00:28:41,550 So we're actually identifying things 616 00:28:41,550 --> 00:28:44,160 that are already in their existing management plans 617 00:28:44,160 --> 00:28:45,720 that they're already doing 618 00:28:45,720 --> 00:28:48,880 that help with climate resilience in their forests. 619 00:28:48,880 --> 00:28:51,960 Then we also did this for the whole group 620 00:28:51,960 --> 00:28:53,677 so that they can start to learn, 621 00:28:53,677 --> 00:28:57,000 "Oh, well, there are these other adaptation strategies 622 00:28:57,000 --> 00:28:59,714 that have come out on somebody else's land. 623 00:28:59,714 --> 00:29:01,500 What's that about?" 624 00:29:01,500 --> 00:29:03,030 And they have this peer network 625 00:29:03,030 --> 00:29:04,440 where they can connect with each other 626 00:29:04,440 --> 00:29:07,020 and actually see, "why are you doing it that way?" 627 00:29:07,020 --> 00:29:09,093 Or just know that this is an option. 628 00:29:13,410 --> 00:29:16,500 When possible, we also try to follow 629 00:29:16,500 --> 00:29:18,750 those technical assistance opportunities up 630 00:29:18,750 --> 00:29:21,150 with funding possibilities. 631 00:29:21,150 --> 00:29:25,590 For example, we're kinda drawing to a close now, 632 00:29:25,590 --> 00:29:27,960 but we have an agreement with the NRCS, 633 00:29:27,960 --> 00:29:30,120 Natural Resources Conservation Service. 634 00:29:30,120 --> 00:29:32,863 It's part of their RCPP program. 635 00:29:32,863 --> 00:29:34,590 There's lots of jargon here, 636 00:29:34,590 --> 00:29:36,090 but if you're familiar with it, 637 00:29:36,090 --> 00:29:37,260 or if you're not familiar with it, 638 00:29:37,260 --> 00:29:40,690 it's the Regional Conservation Partnership Program 639 00:29:42,000 --> 00:29:46,083 that basically NRCS, through this agreement, 640 00:29:48,957 --> 00:29:50,700 funnels funding for practices 641 00:29:50,700 --> 00:29:53,580 for implementing forest stewardship practices 642 00:29:53,580 --> 00:29:55,440 directly to landowners. 643 00:29:55,440 --> 00:29:58,230 And so we've been able to connect landowners 644 00:29:58,230 --> 00:30:00,750 with some of the funding that has allowed them 645 00:30:00,750 --> 00:30:02,760 to take those recommendations 646 00:30:02,760 --> 00:30:05,880 and put them into their new forest management plans, 647 00:30:05,880 --> 00:30:07,020 or even get the funding 648 00:30:07,020 --> 00:30:09,662 to implement the practices on the ground. 649 00:30:09,662 --> 00:30:11,340 That's one opportunity. 650 00:30:11,340 --> 00:30:14,880 What you actually see here is a different opportunity 651 00:30:14,880 --> 00:30:16,650 that we just did this summer 652 00:30:16,650 --> 00:30:18,840 in conjunction with Vermont Audubon 653 00:30:18,840 --> 00:30:21,381 and Vermont Youth Conservation Corps. 654 00:30:21,381 --> 00:30:24,240 Where through a grant that Audubon got, 655 00:30:24,240 --> 00:30:27,630 we were able to bring in a VYCC crew 656 00:30:27,630 --> 00:30:30,210 to implement a bird-friendly maple project 657 00:30:30,210 --> 00:30:32,310 at no cost to the landowner. 658 00:30:32,310 --> 00:30:35,670 And so it allows us to really follow through 659 00:30:35,670 --> 00:30:38,160 with the assistance that we're providing them 660 00:30:38,160 --> 00:30:41,010 so that landowners can actually implement these projects. 661 00:30:43,410 --> 00:30:45,090 At Cold Hollow to Canada, 662 00:30:45,090 --> 00:30:48,363 we actually have five separate programs going now. 663 00:30:49,260 --> 00:30:53,610 We started with just one, and over time have expanded 664 00:30:53,610 --> 00:30:56,070 so that we have these five separate groups 665 00:30:56,070 --> 00:30:58,320 that are all interacting with each other. 666 00:30:58,320 --> 00:30:59,460 Now, you might be surprised 667 00:30:59,460 --> 00:31:00,870 that we have five separate groups 668 00:31:00,870 --> 00:31:03,333 instead of just why not just one big group. 669 00:31:04,410 --> 00:31:07,290 But what we have found is that it really matters 670 00:31:07,290 --> 00:31:09,300 for building that community and trust 671 00:31:09,300 --> 00:31:11,430 to have the right size group, 672 00:31:11,430 --> 00:31:14,310 and to have the right geographic boundaries 673 00:31:14,310 --> 00:31:16,710 so that nobody has to go too far 674 00:31:16,710 --> 00:31:18,960 and so that they can really build a community 675 00:31:18,960 --> 00:31:20,550 within that group. 676 00:31:20,550 --> 00:31:21,690 And so in this case, 677 00:31:21,690 --> 00:31:24,750 we think five groups is far better than one 678 00:31:24,750 --> 00:31:26,823 in terms of the success of the program. 679 00:31:29,010 --> 00:31:31,920 So at Cold Hollow to Canada, how have we done? 680 00:31:31,920 --> 00:31:34,020 Have we been successful? 681 00:31:34,020 --> 00:31:35,190 So this is one of those things 682 00:31:35,190 --> 00:31:37,560 that's kind of hard to measure, right? 683 00:31:37,560 --> 00:31:40,140 And I think some of the best measures 684 00:31:40,140 --> 00:31:41,820 are actually the landowners' stories. 685 00:31:41,820 --> 00:31:43,350 Just the fact that landowners 686 00:31:43,350 --> 00:31:45,570 keep coming back to these programs, 687 00:31:45,570 --> 00:31:47,880 and the stories that they tell us. 688 00:31:47,880 --> 00:31:50,148 But I'll also add some metrics here. 689 00:31:50,148 --> 00:31:54,780 We've had over 3000 acres conserved 690 00:31:54,780 --> 00:31:58,083 that I think are really directly relevant to this program. 691 00:32:00,690 --> 00:32:01,620 Forest stewardship. 692 00:32:01,620 --> 00:32:03,420 There's this long list of practices. 693 00:32:03,420 --> 00:32:05,677 Updated forest management plans, 694 00:32:05,677 --> 00:32:07,942 forest songbird habitat development, 695 00:32:07,942 --> 00:32:10,680 invasive species control. 696 00:32:10,680 --> 00:32:13,410 These are those programs, these are some of the... 697 00:32:13,410 --> 00:32:15,390 This is a short list of a longer list 698 00:32:15,390 --> 00:32:17,610 of things that have been funded through that program 699 00:32:17,610 --> 00:32:19,290 I was mentioning earlier. 700 00:32:19,290 --> 00:32:20,400 Of course, forest stewardship 701 00:32:20,400 --> 00:32:22,230 is really hard to measure in this way, 702 00:32:22,230 --> 00:32:25,740 because some of the best management is delayed management, 703 00:32:25,740 --> 00:32:27,270 or some of these other practices 704 00:32:27,270 --> 00:32:30,085 that you're not just going to be able to list here. 705 00:32:30,085 --> 00:32:31,890 But we do think that there's been 706 00:32:31,890 --> 00:32:34,793 quite a bit of enhanced forest management. 707 00:32:34,793 --> 00:32:37,620 There's actually been, with these five programs now, 708 00:32:37,620 --> 00:32:40,350 there's been participation of over a hundred landowners. 709 00:32:40,350 --> 00:32:41,730 Some of those are couples and families. 710 00:32:41,730 --> 00:32:45,120 So it's 67 parcels represented, 711 00:32:45,120 --> 00:32:48,540 or about 25,000 acres in our region, 712 00:32:48,540 --> 00:32:53,540 who have received this kind of education and assistance. 713 00:32:53,760 --> 00:32:56,790 And I think one of the big take home messages for me 714 00:32:56,790 --> 00:32:58,650 is what's really important about this program 715 00:32:58,650 --> 00:33:02,820 is this idea that you can take an idea of a project, 716 00:33:02,820 --> 00:33:04,560 improving songbird habitat, 717 00:33:04,560 --> 00:33:06,480 and then bring people out to one parcel 718 00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:07,620 where that's been implemented. 719 00:33:07,620 --> 00:33:08,790 They can see it. 720 00:33:08,790 --> 00:33:11,670 They can talk to the person who's implemented it. 721 00:33:11,670 --> 00:33:13,380 They're part of the community, 722 00:33:13,380 --> 00:33:15,780 and everybody learns from that. 723 00:33:15,780 --> 00:33:20,280 And so it becomes this cross-boundary management method 724 00:33:20,280 --> 00:33:23,133 instead of each person working in isolation. 725 00:33:27,300 --> 00:33:32,130 So I'm gonna finish up this part about, whoa, 726 00:33:32,130 --> 00:33:33,360 the program for the moment, 727 00:33:33,360 --> 00:33:35,730 but I just wanna thank some funders. 728 00:33:35,730 --> 00:33:37,320 The Landscape Scale Restoration Grant 729 00:33:37,320 --> 00:33:38,520 was one of the first funders. 730 00:33:38,520 --> 00:33:41,460 Thank you, Carl, for that. 731 00:33:41,460 --> 00:33:43,560 Oops, my slide keeps advancing on me. 732 00:33:43,560 --> 00:33:45,960 High Meadows Fund and the Open Space Institute 733 00:33:45,960 --> 00:33:47,613 have also been key for that. 734 00:33:49,380 --> 00:33:51,540 And in just a second here, 735 00:33:51,540 --> 00:33:55,230 I'll take you to the website where we now have a toolkit. 736 00:33:55,230 --> 00:33:57,690 Thinking about, it describes the program, 737 00:33:57,690 --> 00:34:01,140 but also thinks about all of the little details involved 738 00:34:01,140 --> 00:34:05,580 in building a program that you might be able to take. 739 00:34:05,580 --> 00:34:07,170 And I'll just add that that has been funded 740 00:34:07,170 --> 00:34:08,610 by a Vermont Watershed grant. 741 00:34:08,610 --> 00:34:10,259 Thank you, Will, who's also here. 742 00:34:10,259 --> 00:34:12,086 (Monica laughing) 743 00:34:12,086 --> 00:34:14,460 But before I go to the website, 744 00:34:14,460 --> 00:34:17,880 does anybody have questions about the program itself? 745 00:34:17,880 --> 00:34:19,203 How it works? 746 00:34:21,480 --> 00:34:22,890 [Ethan] Maybe this is covered in the toolkit, 747 00:34:22,890 --> 00:34:24,960 but I'd be interested if you could just... 748 00:34:24,960 --> 00:34:27,907 Maybe you could, Nancy, tell us about how it, 749 00:34:27,907 --> 00:34:30,753 just like how it started for you? 750 00:34:31,740 --> 00:34:33,510 [Nancy] Yeah, actually it started... 751 00:34:33,510 --> 00:34:38,310 So our oldest group is about nine years old now. 752 00:34:38,310 --> 00:34:42,330 And so what we did is we started just bringing the ideas 753 00:34:42,330 --> 00:34:44,670 of Two Countries, One Forest and showing people maps. 754 00:34:44,670 --> 00:34:48,390 And we have this thing we call the Cosmic Zoom, 755 00:34:48,390 --> 00:34:50,130 which we take a big picture 756 00:34:50,130 --> 00:34:52,170 and kept bringing it further and further down 757 00:34:52,170 --> 00:34:54,090 to someone's backyard, basically. 758 00:34:54,090 --> 00:34:57,840 And showed them that whatever they did on their property 759 00:34:57,840 --> 00:35:02,370 could influence, basically, a globally-significant forest. 760 00:35:02,370 --> 00:35:04,590 Which that globally-significant forest had a lot to do 761 00:35:04,590 --> 00:35:06,243 with encouraging people. 762 00:35:07,260 --> 00:35:09,810 And so that was our first outreach. 763 00:35:09,810 --> 00:35:11,070 And from that outreach, 764 00:35:11,070 --> 00:35:13,740 we started looking at these individual groups. 765 00:35:13,740 --> 00:35:18,390 And so Eastburg was our first pilot project. 766 00:35:18,390 --> 00:35:21,030 And it really was the eye-opening factor. 767 00:35:21,030 --> 00:35:24,030 It was that people really care about doing something, 768 00:35:24,030 --> 00:35:26,550 and they care about doing something together. 769 00:35:26,550 --> 00:35:28,170 And I think the trust issue 770 00:35:28,170 --> 00:35:30,600 that Monica's gonna go into a bit, is huge. 771 00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:34,620 What we talked about is people wanna do something, 772 00:35:34,620 --> 00:35:36,810 but they don't know what, they don't know where, 773 00:35:36,810 --> 00:35:38,160 they don't know who to trust. 774 00:35:38,160 --> 00:35:40,200 And if you can start working within a community, 775 00:35:40,200 --> 00:35:42,303 that makes a gigantic difference. 776 00:35:43,650 --> 00:35:45,300 I don't know if that's the answer 777 00:35:45,300 --> 00:35:48,888 that you were looking for, Ethan, but that's the beginning. 778 00:35:48,888 --> 00:35:50,880 [Monica] And it's great to have that discussion here. 779 00:35:50,880 --> 00:35:53,070 We can put some things in writing on the toolkit, 780 00:35:53,070 --> 00:35:54,600 but we have people in the room 781 00:35:54,600 --> 00:35:57,120 who have worked on this from the beginning, so. 782 00:35:57,120 --> 00:35:58,530 [Participant] So I just wanna follow up 783 00:35:58,530 --> 00:36:02,130 with another question for Nancy, if it began nine years ago. 784 00:36:02,130 --> 00:36:03,780 Coming from a farming community, 785 00:36:03,780 --> 00:36:07,740 I know that there seems to be 786 00:36:07,740 --> 00:36:10,860 some people that show up and you can identify 'em 787 00:36:10,860 --> 00:36:13,620 when they show up to get information for themselves, 788 00:36:13,620 --> 00:36:15,660 but other people look to them. 789 00:36:15,660 --> 00:36:20,660 So did you start out just advertising workshops 790 00:36:21,180 --> 00:36:24,000 and people showed up and you could identify 791 00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:27,030 those people with interest and leadership capability? 792 00:36:27,030 --> 00:36:29,430 Or did you knock on doors? 793 00:36:29,430 --> 00:36:32,010 [Nancy] Okay, so Monica will go into this in more detail, 794 00:36:32,010 --> 00:36:35,070 but this was one of the real focuses 795 00:36:35,070 --> 00:36:36,960 of the Woodlots group and how we went about it. 796 00:36:36,960 --> 00:36:41,400 It really is, this was an invitation program. 797 00:36:41,400 --> 00:36:45,120 We invited people specifically to come to an event, 798 00:36:45,120 --> 00:36:46,785 and I think we'll talk a little more- 799 00:36:46,785 --> 00:36:47,820 [Monica] Yeah, I think we'll talk about that. 800 00:36:47,820 --> 00:36:49,650 But maybe since we brought it up, 801 00:36:49,650 --> 00:36:51,093 it's a good place to start. 802 00:36:52,410 --> 00:36:54,270 It's an important piece of this, 803 00:36:54,270 --> 00:36:57,810 where this isn't just publicly advertised for everybody. 804 00:36:57,810 --> 00:36:59,160 [Nancy] And so there's a great deal 805 00:36:59,160 --> 00:37:00,270 of institutional knowledge. 806 00:37:00,270 --> 00:37:03,060 I grew up in this area, I'm the county forester. 807 00:37:03,060 --> 00:37:04,320 I was a consulting forester, 808 00:37:04,320 --> 00:37:06,420 so I know a lot of people. 809 00:37:06,420 --> 00:37:09,150 And look at the other co-founder, it's Charlie Hancock, 810 00:37:09,150 --> 00:37:12,360 and he's the consulting forester there now. 811 00:37:12,360 --> 00:37:13,800 We just knew, we know people. 812 00:37:13,800 --> 00:37:17,160 And I have information from the department. 813 00:37:17,160 --> 00:37:18,600 The Department of Forest and Parks 814 00:37:18,600 --> 00:37:20,745 is an incredible supporter of this project 815 00:37:20,745 --> 00:37:24,060 and have given me lots of support in moving forward. 816 00:37:24,060 --> 00:37:28,230 So I have the information looking at land ownership, 817 00:37:28,230 --> 00:37:29,640 size of a parcel. 818 00:37:29,640 --> 00:37:33,210 We really didn't open this up to anybody that owns land. 819 00:37:33,210 --> 00:37:35,670 It's really was about 50 acres of woodland 820 00:37:35,670 --> 00:37:37,350 was sort of our minimum 821 00:37:37,350 --> 00:37:40,650 so that we could really talk about management. 822 00:37:40,650 --> 00:37:42,570 And so there was an acreage, 823 00:37:42,570 --> 00:37:45,294 there was a knowledge of the landowners. 824 00:37:45,294 --> 00:37:47,670 Landowners that we knew. 825 00:37:47,670 --> 00:37:50,070 We don't want detractors at our first gatherings, 826 00:37:50,070 --> 00:37:52,440 and it was really important not to have detractors. 827 00:37:52,440 --> 00:37:54,690 And so that was one of the things that's always, 828 00:37:54,690 --> 00:37:57,900 knowing who people were and inviting those folks. 829 00:37:57,900 --> 00:37:59,160 And we would send out, 830 00:37:59,160 --> 00:38:01,200 basically it would happen almost every time 831 00:38:01,200 --> 00:38:03,153 with all five of these programs, 832 00:38:05,400 --> 00:38:06,627 we'd invite 50 landowners 833 00:38:06,627 --> 00:38:10,770 and 25 landowners would respond with positive response. 834 00:38:10,770 --> 00:38:13,170 So it was almost always a 50% response. 835 00:38:13,170 --> 00:38:14,457 It was pretty interesting. 836 00:38:14,457 --> 00:38:17,190 But that's only after a lot of work 837 00:38:17,190 --> 00:38:19,170 getting to know the community in advance. 838 00:38:19,170 --> 00:38:20,530 I think that's- 839 00:38:20,530 --> 00:38:24,060 [Nancy] Right, and every single town is different. 840 00:38:24,060 --> 00:38:26,370 And they have their own personality, 841 00:38:26,370 --> 00:38:28,920 and these Woodlots programs are by town. 842 00:38:28,920 --> 00:38:32,160 And again, Monica's gonna talk a little bit more about that, 843 00:38:32,160 --> 00:38:35,940 but there were a couple of towns that took a while 844 00:38:35,940 --> 00:38:38,130 before we actually developed something. 845 00:38:38,130 --> 00:38:39,653 [Participant] Well done, thank you. 846 00:38:40,590 --> 00:38:43,680 Yeah, so I'll just introduce the toolkit, 847 00:38:43,680 --> 00:38:45,150 and here's the thing about a toolkit. 848 00:38:45,150 --> 00:38:46,290 The toolkit is there. 849 00:38:46,290 --> 00:38:49,890 You can go to the website, you can read it, 850 00:38:49,890 --> 00:38:51,420 and there's a lot of language. 851 00:38:51,420 --> 00:38:53,678 There are a lot of stories to read on the website. 852 00:38:53,678 --> 00:38:56,580 So I don't wanna spend a lot of time 853 00:38:56,580 --> 00:38:58,020 reading those together now, 854 00:38:58,020 --> 00:38:59,640 'cause you can do that on your own time. 855 00:38:59,640 --> 00:39:02,040 But what I would like to do is introduce you 856 00:39:02,040 --> 00:39:03,270 to where to find everything, 857 00:39:03,270 --> 00:39:06,273 introduce you to what material you would go here to find, 858 00:39:07,140 --> 00:39:11,340 and then we can move into this more workshopping piece 859 00:39:11,340 --> 00:39:15,060 of what we're doing where we can go into really in-depth. 860 00:39:15,060 --> 00:39:16,950 If you were to start a Woodlots program 861 00:39:16,950 --> 00:39:20,160 or something similar in your area, how would you start it? 862 00:39:20,160 --> 00:39:21,330 What would you need to think about? 863 00:39:21,330 --> 00:39:23,220 What would you need to change? 864 00:39:23,220 --> 00:39:24,570 Sound good? 865 00:39:24,570 --> 00:39:26,880 So I'll just kinda go through what's here. 866 00:39:26,880 --> 00:39:29,970 So the Woodlots Toolkit is online. 867 00:39:29,970 --> 00:39:34,380 You can see this, it has its own website. 868 00:39:34,380 --> 00:39:35,280 If you can't remember 869 00:39:35,280 --> 00:39:39,780 the woodlots-toolkit.coldhollowtocanada.org, 870 00:39:39,780 --> 00:39:42,600 but you can remember the coldhollowtocanada.org, 871 00:39:42,600 --> 00:39:44,820 you can also get there from our main site. 872 00:39:44,820 --> 00:39:46,743 But Woodlots Toolkit. 873 00:39:47,970 --> 00:39:50,790 The way that this toolkit is structured 874 00:39:50,790 --> 00:39:55,410 is you start out by you can read about the Woodlots program. 875 00:39:55,410 --> 00:39:57,150 Again, I'm not going to go through all of this, 876 00:39:57,150 --> 00:40:00,600 because a lot of this is the information I just gave you. 877 00:40:00,600 --> 00:40:03,420 But you can think about Woodlots in a nutshell. 878 00:40:03,420 --> 00:40:07,020 And then you can go through our goals, 879 00:40:07,020 --> 00:40:09,573 stewardship, and conservation, and more. 880 00:40:10,680 --> 00:40:13,830 You can see about the strategy of peer engagement, 881 00:40:13,830 --> 00:40:17,343 which is really about building trust and building community. 882 00:40:18,900 --> 00:40:21,660 You can think about this technical assistance piece, 883 00:40:21,660 --> 00:40:23,973 learning and implementing stewardship. 884 00:40:24,926 --> 00:40:26,670 And you can learn more 885 00:40:26,670 --> 00:40:28,803 about our funding for land stewardship. 886 00:40:30,930 --> 00:40:34,680 That is all here, and I won't go into it now. 887 00:40:34,680 --> 00:40:39,420 But if you wanna consider a program for your own area, 888 00:40:39,420 --> 00:40:42,000 you can go into this getting started piece. 889 00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:43,890 Is it for you? 890 00:40:43,890 --> 00:40:47,130 Think about whether you do have similar goals. 891 00:40:47,130 --> 00:40:48,870 And then if you are ready to get started, 892 00:40:48,870 --> 00:40:51,300 then this toolkit has a few places to start. 893 00:40:51,300 --> 00:40:52,620 What we really encourage you to do 894 00:40:52,620 --> 00:40:55,590 is first start by thinking about your place. 895 00:40:55,590 --> 00:40:58,050 Think about the people in that place. 896 00:40:58,050 --> 00:40:59,340 And then when you're ready, 897 00:40:59,340 --> 00:41:01,560 then there's actually a step-by-step guide, 898 00:41:01,560 --> 00:41:03,063 I'll actually go there first, 899 00:41:03,990 --> 00:41:07,507 let's just a step-by-step guide to get to know... 900 00:41:07,507 --> 00:41:09,390 "Step one, getting to know your community," 901 00:41:09,390 --> 00:41:12,580 and you can think about what you can do 902 00:41:13,770 --> 00:41:15,963 in order to implement a program like this. 903 00:41:18,090 --> 00:41:22,140 I'm actually gonna back up and think about the place. 904 00:41:22,140 --> 00:41:26,040 So one thing that I think I do wanna emphasize now 905 00:41:26,040 --> 00:41:27,903 is that this place really matters. 906 00:41:28,890 --> 00:41:32,430 That the message, when we started this Woodlots program, 907 00:41:32,430 --> 00:41:34,080 the idea is that what happens 908 00:41:34,080 --> 00:41:37,860 in this place that we can define, it matters. 909 00:41:37,860 --> 00:41:40,350 And so I think in terms 910 00:41:40,350 --> 00:41:42,930 of making a successful program elsewhere, 911 00:41:42,930 --> 00:41:44,910 that's really the place to start. 912 00:41:44,910 --> 00:41:47,670 Why does that place matter? 913 00:41:47,670 --> 00:41:50,250 Come up with some a message, 914 00:41:50,250 --> 00:41:53,550 because that's ultimately what you will want landowners 915 00:41:53,550 --> 00:41:55,623 in your area to know. 916 00:41:56,550 --> 00:41:57,540 Why does it matter? 917 00:41:57,540 --> 00:42:00,000 Why does it matter what I do right here? 918 00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:02,250 That's what's gonna connect people. 919 00:42:02,250 --> 00:42:04,290 The other reason that geography matters, 920 00:42:04,290 --> 00:42:06,630 that is in this section somewhere, 921 00:42:06,630 --> 00:42:10,610 is that it needs to be a size... 922 00:42:12,360 --> 00:42:15,690 It needs to be a size that that works. 923 00:42:15,690 --> 00:42:20,483 So in our communities, so we have seven towns in our region, 924 00:42:20,483 --> 00:42:22,710 we have five programs. 925 00:42:22,710 --> 00:42:27,060 The first three of those are town-by-town based programs. 926 00:42:27,060 --> 00:42:28,410 One town. 927 00:42:28,410 --> 00:42:30,510 And I think what we would find is 928 00:42:30,510 --> 00:42:33,540 if we were to hold a gathering one town over 929 00:42:33,540 --> 00:42:34,830 that a lot of those people 930 00:42:34,830 --> 00:42:36,753 from the first town wouldn't come. 931 00:42:38,928 --> 00:42:40,830 In the towns that we have divided, 932 00:42:40,830 --> 00:42:43,860 we've combined two towns into one program. 933 00:42:43,860 --> 00:42:45,240 I'd say one of them is brand new, 934 00:42:45,240 --> 00:42:46,890 we don't really have a success story yet, 935 00:42:46,890 --> 00:42:48,990 because this fall was the first time 936 00:42:48,990 --> 00:42:51,150 we implemented the program there. 937 00:42:51,150 --> 00:42:52,380 But the one that's been going on 938 00:42:52,380 --> 00:42:55,500 for about a year and a half now, I find really interesting. 939 00:42:55,500 --> 00:42:57,480 We thought that in order to really have 940 00:42:57,480 --> 00:43:01,770 the right size population to maintain a Woodlots program, 941 00:43:01,770 --> 00:43:04,620 we would need to combine two neighboring towns. 942 00:43:04,620 --> 00:43:06,450 One of those towns could probably have had 943 00:43:06,450 --> 00:43:08,130 its own Woodlots program, 944 00:43:08,130 --> 00:43:11,010 but the other would just have a few strangling numbers, 945 00:43:11,010 --> 00:43:12,930 so we lump them together. 946 00:43:12,930 --> 00:43:14,310 I find it really interesting 947 00:43:14,310 --> 00:43:16,350 that when we hold them in Bakersfield, 948 00:43:16,350 --> 00:43:18,060 people from Bakersfield come. 949 00:43:18,060 --> 00:43:20,910 When we hold them in Fletcher, people from Fletcher come. 950 00:43:20,910 --> 00:43:22,440 And there's a little crossover, 951 00:43:22,440 --> 00:43:26,160 but even just with that very short distance away, 952 00:43:26,160 --> 00:43:28,320 it really limits who will come. 953 00:43:28,320 --> 00:43:30,903 So that geography really matters. 954 00:43:35,040 --> 00:43:37,143 The next piece, is people. 955 00:43:38,700 --> 00:43:42,153 Again, you can read all of these on your own time. 956 00:43:43,050 --> 00:43:44,580 So we've gone into detail 957 00:43:44,580 --> 00:43:47,670 about the landowners and program leadership, 958 00:43:47,670 --> 00:43:50,820 the partner organizations that we work with, 959 00:43:50,820 --> 00:43:52,293 the practitioners. 960 00:43:53,130 --> 00:43:54,870 I'm gonna go into more detail right now 961 00:43:54,870 --> 00:43:58,290 about the landowners and thinking about how many. 962 00:43:58,290 --> 00:44:01,680 Like, how many landowners would be ideal for a program? 963 00:44:01,680 --> 00:44:04,500 And this is, again, you can read more about it, 964 00:44:04,500 --> 00:44:07,470 but it really matters that there are, 965 00:44:07,470 --> 00:44:09,570 we think between about 10 parcels 966 00:44:09,570 --> 00:44:11,523 enrolled in the program and 20. 967 00:44:12,360 --> 00:44:15,660 Our smallest program dips below that sometimes, 968 00:44:15,660 --> 00:44:18,240 and it does sometimes make it hard for landowners 969 00:44:18,240 --> 00:44:21,243 who have to continue hosting more often on these. 970 00:44:22,260 --> 00:44:25,132 Sometimes it means it's harder to invite in guest speakers, 971 00:44:25,132 --> 00:44:29,610 or to really justify bringing in guest speakers 972 00:44:29,610 --> 00:44:30,600 when you might end up 973 00:44:30,600 --> 00:44:32,880 with only five people in your audience. 974 00:44:32,880 --> 00:44:36,870 Now, we can go into a lot more detail. 975 00:44:36,870 --> 00:44:38,400 There could be a success story 976 00:44:38,400 --> 00:44:40,260 with just having those five people 977 00:44:40,260 --> 00:44:42,720 and the lessons that they learn. 978 00:44:42,720 --> 00:44:44,070 And if those five people 979 00:44:44,070 --> 00:44:48,120 are going to implement the practices or follow through, 980 00:44:48,120 --> 00:44:51,300 then that's still arguably very important. 981 00:44:51,300 --> 00:44:56,220 But you start thinking about those questions 982 00:44:56,220 --> 00:44:58,050 when you get too low. 983 00:44:58,050 --> 00:45:02,340 If you get above about 20 parcels, and our biggest program, 984 00:45:02,340 --> 00:45:05,820 we regularly have 20 people show up, 985 00:45:05,820 --> 00:45:07,860 and it also makes it a little harder on hosts 986 00:45:07,860 --> 00:45:10,410 because then you have to have a space for everybody. 987 00:45:10,410 --> 00:45:12,240 You have to think about parking. 988 00:45:12,240 --> 00:45:16,454 And you have to think about whether that group of people 989 00:45:16,454 --> 00:45:21,060 can build the same trust in community as a smaller group. 990 00:45:21,060 --> 00:45:24,993 So all of this is in there somewhere, but yeah, Will? 991 00:45:26,370 --> 00:45:28,440 [Will] Is this all based on your experience 992 00:45:28,440 --> 00:45:29,679 with the Woodlots program? 993 00:45:29,679 --> 00:45:32,351 Or is there something like hard science 994 00:45:32,351 --> 00:45:33,840 that you're pulling from for all this? 995 00:45:33,840 --> 00:45:36,930 In terms of these numbers, what I'm giving you right now, 996 00:45:36,930 --> 00:45:39,183 is from experience on our Woodlots program. 997 00:45:41,370 --> 00:45:42,900 Yep. 998 00:45:42,900 --> 00:45:46,350 [Nancy] And I think that's where this toolkit is, 999 00:45:46,350 --> 00:45:48,990 it's not the only way to do it, right? 1000 00:45:48,990 --> 00:45:50,280 That this is just an example 1001 00:45:50,280 --> 00:45:54,900 that you can morph into a different format, a different way. 1002 00:45:54,900 --> 00:45:58,289 -But it is a method. -Yeah, yeah. 1003 00:45:58,289 --> 00:45:59,730 [Will] Did you have crossovers 1004 00:45:59,730 --> 00:46:02,910 where different Woodlot groups connects with each other? 1005 00:46:02,910 --> 00:46:03,743 We do. 1006 00:46:03,743 --> 00:46:08,583 And so some of that, I'll get there in a minute, 1007 00:46:08,583 --> 00:46:11,670 but some of that would be through our virtual programs. 1008 00:46:11,670 --> 00:46:13,290 That really started... 1009 00:46:13,290 --> 00:46:15,120 I guess we did a little before the pandemic, 1010 00:46:15,120 --> 00:46:17,490 but they've really started in earnest with the pandemic. 1011 00:46:17,490 --> 00:46:19,470 But what was interesting about those 1012 00:46:19,470 --> 00:46:22,170 is that we could have, say, a guest speaker 1013 00:46:22,170 --> 00:46:24,720 who could speak with everybody from all, 1014 00:46:24,720 --> 00:46:27,363 at the time, four of our Woodlots programs together. 1015 00:46:28,590 --> 00:46:31,140 And there would be a little interaction. 1016 00:46:31,140 --> 00:46:32,490 We had different people coming 1017 00:46:32,490 --> 00:46:34,170 to some of those virtual programs, 1018 00:46:34,170 --> 00:46:36,450 because somebody with young kids 1019 00:46:36,450 --> 00:46:38,877 who can't always make it on our Saturday workshops 1020 00:46:38,877 --> 00:46:40,950 can get there, too. 1021 00:46:40,950 --> 00:46:45,299 Or somebody who was a landowner who lives in another state, 1022 00:46:45,299 --> 00:46:47,220 could come to some of those. 1023 00:46:47,220 --> 00:46:50,550 There have also been a few programs that have been places 1024 00:46:50,550 --> 00:46:53,778 where more than one Woodlots group comes together. 1025 00:46:53,778 --> 00:46:57,063 And then more recently, some of our smaller programs, 1026 00:46:59,550 --> 00:47:01,920 I always check with the landowner before doing this, 1027 00:47:01,920 --> 00:47:03,540 but if it doesn't look like we'll have 1028 00:47:03,540 --> 00:47:05,310 a lot of people at one program, 1029 00:47:05,310 --> 00:47:07,560 I'll ask the landowner who's hosting, 1030 00:47:07,560 --> 00:47:10,290 is it okay to invite some people from the next town over? 1031 00:47:10,290 --> 00:47:12,930 And occasionally a few people will come. 1032 00:47:12,930 --> 00:47:15,330 So yeah, so more recently they've gotten to know 1033 00:47:15,330 --> 00:47:16,993 each other a little bit. 1034 00:47:16,993 --> 00:47:18,302 Will? 1035 00:47:18,302 --> 00:47:20,790 [Will] Sorry, you mentioned landowners 1036 00:47:20,790 --> 00:47:22,400 on most of these events. 1037 00:47:22,400 --> 00:47:24,540 Do you ever use like public land, state land, 1038 00:47:24,540 --> 00:47:26,013 or anything like that? 1039 00:47:29,160 --> 00:47:32,550 [Monica] Yeah, so the town forests have been included 1040 00:47:32,550 --> 00:47:34,980 as Woodlots parcels in these. 1041 00:47:34,980 --> 00:47:39,980 So that's kinda the one example where we've used public land 1042 00:47:40,530 --> 00:47:42,480 and that's true even for... 1043 00:47:42,480 --> 00:47:44,940 So we did climate change analyses 1044 00:47:44,940 --> 00:47:48,120 and forest bird habitat assessments on those parcels, 1045 00:47:48,120 --> 00:47:51,270 and I've included them as a land ownership 1046 00:47:51,270 --> 00:47:54,690 so that those town forests in two of our towns 1047 00:47:54,690 --> 00:47:55,773 have been included. 1048 00:47:57,780 --> 00:47:59,220 Because the goal is really 1049 00:47:59,220 --> 00:48:03,510 to work with private landowners and get them engaged, 1050 00:48:03,510 --> 00:48:06,180 and empower them to improve their stewardship, 1051 00:48:06,180 --> 00:48:10,170 we really haven't met on other public lands. 1052 00:48:10,170 --> 00:48:11,003 Is that true, Nancy? 1053 00:48:11,003 --> 00:48:12,210 [Nancy] Yeah, absolutely. 1054 00:48:13,170 --> 00:48:15,510 [Monica] Because the point is really to see 1055 00:48:15,510 --> 00:48:17,160 what each landowner is doing, 1056 00:48:17,160 --> 00:48:19,620 and they can rotate through each other's land 1057 00:48:19,620 --> 00:48:21,170 and get to know what they're... 1058 00:48:22,098 --> 00:48:24,150 That's part of the community building. 1059 00:48:24,150 --> 00:48:25,020 Yeah, Connie. 1060 00:48:25,020 --> 00:48:25,890 [Connie] Do you have a sense 1061 00:48:25,890 --> 00:48:29,250 of what's drawing people to participate? 1062 00:48:29,250 --> 00:48:31,230 In other words, is it the bird connection? 1063 00:48:31,230 --> 00:48:34,320 Is it because they want to manage 1064 00:48:34,320 --> 00:48:35,913 their land for other reasons? 1065 00:48:37,080 --> 00:48:38,910 Surveys or... 1066 00:48:38,910 --> 00:48:42,150 Yeah, so engagement, how does it work? 1067 00:48:42,150 --> 00:48:44,370 Is one of the categories there. 1068 00:48:44,370 --> 00:48:47,250 I will say that when I've directly asked 1069 00:48:47,250 --> 00:48:49,050 when we've done surveys, 1070 00:48:49,050 --> 00:48:52,110 the most popular answer is, "I come for the potlucks." 1071 00:48:52,110 --> 00:48:53,250 (participants laughing) 1072 00:48:53,250 --> 00:48:54,083 I'm not kidding. 1073 00:48:55,590 --> 00:48:58,923 And even the people who will give another great explanation, 1074 00:48:58,923 --> 00:49:03,000 and usually the next one is just, "I've learned so much," 1075 00:49:03,000 --> 00:49:05,970 or, "I now know what to do with my woods," 1076 00:49:05,970 --> 00:49:07,830 is is another big one. 1077 00:49:07,830 --> 00:49:11,610 Where people say, "Sure, I had a forester before 1078 00:49:11,610 --> 00:49:13,080 and I had a forest management plan, 1079 00:49:13,080 --> 00:49:14,163 but I didn't really understand it, 1080 00:49:14,163 --> 00:49:16,620 or I didn't know why I was doing things." 1081 00:49:16,620 --> 00:49:18,333 And they know now. 1082 00:49:20,040 --> 00:49:22,320 The funding has been a big one, too. 1083 00:49:22,320 --> 00:49:25,650 So there are a couple people who have basically said, 1084 00:49:25,650 --> 00:49:28,260 like through the NRCS projects, 1085 00:49:28,260 --> 00:49:31,973 there have been some really financially big projects 1086 00:49:35,610 --> 00:49:39,000 that were funded that the landowners got for free 1087 00:49:39,000 --> 00:49:41,400 because they did road improvement work 1088 00:49:41,400 --> 00:49:43,323 on their forest roads, for example. 1089 00:49:44,250 --> 00:49:47,820 And they recognize how instrumental that is. 1090 00:49:47,820 --> 00:49:50,100 And of course, through the EQUIP program, 1091 00:49:50,100 --> 00:49:52,200 even if we hadn't had the RCPP, 1092 00:49:52,200 --> 00:49:53,250 this special grant 1093 00:49:53,250 --> 00:49:55,980 with Natural Resources Conservation District, 1094 00:49:55,980 --> 00:49:58,380 a lot of these are available to landowners, 1095 00:49:58,380 --> 00:50:01,380 but a lot of landowners don't know to connect with them. 1096 00:50:01,380 --> 00:50:03,750 And so they've been connected 1097 00:50:03,750 --> 00:50:05,730 with those other funding sources. 1098 00:50:05,730 --> 00:50:06,563 Yeah. 1099 00:50:06,563 --> 00:50:09,300 [Participant] Yeah, I think that that peer learning part 1100 00:50:09,300 --> 00:50:10,260 is really crucial. 1101 00:50:10,260 --> 00:50:14,101 Because I can remember on a couple of occasions 1102 00:50:14,101 --> 00:50:17,700 people seeing a management practice 1103 00:50:17,700 --> 00:50:19,740 that one landowner put on their land, 1104 00:50:19,740 --> 00:50:22,493 and I didn't know you could get money for that. 1105 00:50:22,493 --> 00:50:27,493 And no offense, they might not trust a forester 1106 00:50:27,510 --> 00:50:29,760 as much as they trust a neighbor. 1107 00:50:29,760 --> 00:50:31,620 And they see their neighbors doing it 1108 00:50:31,620 --> 00:50:34,410 and getting cost share money to get it done. 1109 00:50:34,410 --> 00:50:36,210 And they'll go, "Wow. 1110 00:50:36,210 --> 00:50:37,200 The forester said I could do it, 1111 00:50:37,200 --> 00:50:40,257 and my friends are doing it, so I'm gonna do it, too." 1112 00:50:41,366 --> 00:50:42,450 And that's a lot. 1113 00:50:42,450 --> 00:50:44,040 And I think that peer learning, and I'll share, 1114 00:50:44,040 --> 00:50:47,910 Carl has been out on a few walks with us, 1115 00:50:47,910 --> 00:50:50,353 so he's seen this in person as well. 1116 00:50:50,353 --> 00:50:53,160 But I think that community building 1117 00:50:53,160 --> 00:50:55,110 is the huge thing about this. 1118 00:50:55,110 --> 00:50:57,870 Where it's what people in these communities 1119 00:50:57,870 --> 00:50:59,340 then end up doing. 1120 00:50:59,340 --> 00:51:01,140 I'll send out the save the date 1121 00:51:01,140 --> 00:51:04,380 and I will immediately get responses back from people 1122 00:51:04,380 --> 00:51:07,290 who say, "Okay, I've saved the date, I'm coming." 1123 00:51:07,290 --> 00:51:08,910 And it's how they connect with people. 1124 00:51:08,910 --> 00:51:09,750 Even though they're people 1125 00:51:09,750 --> 00:51:11,640 within the same community as one another, 1126 00:51:11,640 --> 00:51:14,070 I'm not sure they've thought to talk with one another 1127 00:51:14,070 --> 00:51:15,630 about forest management in the past. 1128 00:51:15,630 --> 00:51:19,080 That's not what you just naturally run into somebody 1129 00:51:19,080 --> 00:51:20,913 in the grocery store and talk about. 1130 00:51:21,960 --> 00:51:24,450 And so this has given them 1131 00:51:24,450 --> 00:51:26,550 a shared connection with their neighbors, 1132 00:51:26,550 --> 00:51:31,380 and it becomes what they connect with each other over. 1133 00:51:31,380 --> 00:51:32,880 It's their forest stewardship. 1134 00:51:33,720 --> 00:51:37,470 I really think that community building is a huge part of it. 1135 00:51:37,470 --> 00:51:41,160 I'll mention this just because Jeff's picture is up here. 1136 00:51:41,160 --> 00:51:43,740 This is one of our landowners in one program, 1137 00:51:43,740 --> 00:51:45,483 and the story is actually here. 1138 00:51:46,320 --> 00:51:48,150 But I think the program personality 1139 00:51:48,150 --> 00:51:49,350 is actually a big part of it. 1140 00:51:49,350 --> 00:51:52,020 So we mentioned we have these five different programs, 1141 00:51:52,020 --> 00:51:54,723 but every single one has its own personality. 1142 00:51:55,590 --> 00:52:00,590 And so for example, this person, Jeff Hewitt, 1143 00:52:00,930 --> 00:52:03,420 who's pictured here, he's a poet. 1144 00:52:03,420 --> 00:52:07,320 He owns land in Enosburg, but he's a poet. 1145 00:52:07,320 --> 00:52:09,630 He writes books, he writes poetry. 1146 00:52:09,630 --> 00:52:14,630 And over time there has become this tradition 1147 00:52:14,820 --> 00:52:17,040 that the Enosburg Woodlands programs end 1148 00:52:17,040 --> 00:52:19,560 with Jeff reading one of his poems. 1149 00:52:19,560 --> 00:52:22,830 And it's just something that everybody loves, 1150 00:52:22,830 --> 00:52:24,840 and it's this cherished moment. 1151 00:52:24,840 --> 00:52:28,290 We would never have thought to build that into the program. 1152 00:52:28,290 --> 00:52:31,620 But it's something that the program has become on its own 1153 00:52:31,620 --> 00:52:34,533 because of the individuals involved. 1154 00:52:36,780 --> 00:52:39,450 I think letting the programs each have their own personality 1155 00:52:39,450 --> 00:52:40,923 is really important as well. 1156 00:52:41,760 --> 00:52:44,823 Letting the landowners themselves steer what happens. 1157 00:52:46,230 --> 00:52:48,720 [Nancy] So many people care about their land a great deal 1158 00:52:48,720 --> 00:52:51,382 and they don't really know where to go. 1159 00:52:51,382 --> 00:52:54,390 And there's this social engagement piece 1160 00:52:54,390 --> 00:52:56,010 with their neighbors. 1161 00:52:56,010 --> 00:52:58,740 And I think that really is meaningful. 1162 00:52:58,740 --> 00:53:00,660 It's not just the county forester showing up 1163 00:53:00,660 --> 00:53:03,810 or their consulting lawyers, it's their neighbors. 1164 00:53:03,810 --> 00:53:05,370 And I think that's a big difference 1165 00:53:05,370 --> 00:53:08,100 between that and just a workshop, 1166 00:53:08,100 --> 00:53:11,523 or a gathering, or a informational meeting. 1167 00:53:12,522 --> 00:53:16,710 In some cases it's become their social network, 1168 00:53:16,710 --> 00:53:19,110 particularly new landowners who don't know anybody 1169 00:53:19,110 --> 00:53:19,943 and they come to one of these, 1170 00:53:19,943 --> 00:53:21,930 all of a sudden they've got friends. 1171 00:53:21,930 --> 00:53:24,753 It's really sometimes lots of love, but- 1172 00:53:25,979 --> 00:53:27,149 [Carl] It works. 1173 00:53:27,149 --> 00:53:30,243 [Nancy] I works, this is a social gathering. 1174 00:53:33,060 --> 00:53:34,230 Ross? 1175 00:53:34,230 --> 00:53:37,170 [Ross] Because you probably don't have enough to do yet, 1176 00:53:37,170 --> 00:53:40,020 I'm wondering if you find ways of engaging 1177 00:53:40,020 --> 00:53:42,510 the non-landowners in the community as well. 1178 00:53:42,510 --> 00:53:45,210 So I think that's a really interesting piece. 1179 00:53:45,210 --> 00:53:48,600 So this program is really geared towards landowners. 1180 00:53:48,600 --> 00:53:50,617 We have landowners, though, who ask, 1181 00:53:50,617 --> 00:53:52,440 "Well, I think this other person in the community, 1182 00:53:52,440 --> 00:53:53,273 they don't own land, 1183 00:53:53,273 --> 00:53:55,619 but I think they would really enjoy it." 1184 00:53:55,619 --> 00:53:57,330 They're not invited 1185 00:53:57,330 --> 00:53:59,700 if they don't really fit the program requirements. 1186 00:53:59,700 --> 00:54:00,980 They're not invited to be a part 1187 00:54:00,980 --> 00:54:03,150 of the land of this program. 1188 00:54:03,150 --> 00:54:06,120 However, if one of the landowners is coming to us 1189 00:54:06,120 --> 00:54:07,687 with that information, we can say, 1190 00:54:07,687 --> 00:54:09,090 "Well, when you're hosting, 1191 00:54:09,090 --> 00:54:11,280 absolutely invite that person in." 1192 00:54:11,280 --> 00:54:14,070 And we've definitely had a lot of community members 1193 00:54:14,070 --> 00:54:15,350 who kind of gain... 1194 00:54:16,560 --> 00:54:19,890 They get to see the program from that way. 1195 00:54:19,890 --> 00:54:21,090 One thing I'll add, though, 1196 00:54:21,090 --> 00:54:24,630 is that I think the success of this program 1197 00:54:24,630 --> 00:54:28,050 is that it's really just geared towards those landowners 1198 00:54:28,050 --> 00:54:31,950 who own forest land and larger amounts of it. 1199 00:54:31,950 --> 00:54:33,630 Because that's the connection. 1200 00:54:33,630 --> 00:54:35,910 That's what melds them together. 1201 00:54:35,910 --> 00:54:38,160 It's different from a community outreach program. 1202 00:54:38,160 --> 00:54:40,080 We do other community outreach programs. 1203 00:54:40,080 --> 00:54:41,010 [Nancy] We do. 1204 00:54:41,010 --> 00:54:44,460 Yes, and that's important to emphasize, too. 1205 00:54:44,460 --> 00:54:48,960 We do reach the greater community in other ways. 1206 00:54:48,960 --> 00:54:51,150 And these landowners reach 1207 00:54:51,150 --> 00:54:52,920 the greater community in other ways. 1208 00:54:52,920 --> 00:54:55,830 Because I think that's an important piece of this, too. 1209 00:54:55,830 --> 00:54:57,420 These landowners own land, 1210 00:54:57,420 --> 00:54:58,790 but they're also community members 1211 00:54:58,790 --> 00:55:02,250 in these rural Vermont communities. 1212 00:55:02,250 --> 00:55:05,520 Everything that they adopt on their own land 1213 00:55:05,520 --> 00:55:09,420 and what they hear, and what they know, and what they see, 1214 00:55:09,420 --> 00:55:12,570 they end up sharing with other people as well. 1215 00:55:12,570 --> 00:55:13,980 So even if it's not direct, 1216 00:55:13,980 --> 00:55:17,670 I do think we end up reaching more people 1217 00:55:17,670 --> 00:55:20,580 than just the people in our programs, yeah. 1218 00:55:20,580 --> 00:55:23,160 [Participant] When you say you do community outreach. 1219 00:55:23,160 --> 00:55:24,570 So the Woodlots program 1220 00:55:24,570 --> 00:55:27,630 is just a piece of Cold Hollow to Canada, 1221 00:55:27,630 --> 00:55:28,500 which does other stuff, too? 1222 00:55:28,500 --> 00:55:30,870 -Yes, yes. -Okay. 1223 00:55:30,870 --> 00:55:33,150 [Monica] This is one program. 1224 00:55:33,150 --> 00:55:34,627 Yeah, Will. 1225 00:55:34,627 --> 00:55:36,900 [Will] I'm sure you're gonna get it into this, 1226 00:55:36,900 --> 00:55:38,304 but I'll just ask anyway. 1227 00:55:38,304 --> 00:55:39,860 All right, so what does the program look like? 1228 00:55:39,860 --> 00:55:43,563 I think you mentioned like three or four events year. 1229 00:55:45,180 --> 00:55:47,663 Yep, so it all seems very... 1230 00:55:48,766 --> 00:55:51,378 [Will] (indistinct), but I love it. 1231 00:55:51,378 --> 00:55:53,430 Yeah, so I'm just gonna show you 1232 00:55:53,430 --> 00:55:54,810 how to find this information later, 1233 00:55:54,810 --> 00:55:56,100 but then we can go over it, too. 1234 00:55:56,100 --> 00:55:59,130 So running a program, we have the Woodlots structure, 1235 00:55:59,130 --> 00:56:00,443 which goes into how there's the Woodlots 1236 00:56:00,443 --> 00:56:01,800 and the sharing food. 1237 00:56:01,800 --> 00:56:04,230 And we do that four times a year. 1238 00:56:04,230 --> 00:56:07,410 And then I've also kind of laid out here 1239 00:56:07,410 --> 00:56:09,453 the programming over time. 1240 00:56:10,320 --> 00:56:12,620 It's up there, but I'll just talk to you here. 1241 00:56:14,100 --> 00:56:18,423 So it is, each program does meet four times a year. 1242 00:56:19,440 --> 00:56:23,610 It's on the land of one of the participating landowners. 1243 00:56:23,610 --> 00:56:25,500 So I'll reach out in advance 1244 00:56:25,500 --> 00:56:26,670 and I'll show you where to find this, 1245 00:56:26,670 --> 00:56:29,610 but I even have like the checklist of things to do 1246 00:56:29,610 --> 00:56:31,860 before each Woodlots gathering that's up here 1247 00:56:31,860 --> 00:56:33,333 if anybody finds it useful. 1248 00:56:34,830 --> 00:56:37,170 But reaching out to the landowners, 1249 00:56:37,170 --> 00:56:38,910 finding somebody to host. 1250 00:56:38,910 --> 00:56:41,760 Which I think is harder at the beginning of the program 1251 00:56:41,760 --> 00:56:43,177 when people are still like, 1252 00:56:43,177 --> 00:56:45,690 "I'm not really sure what this is all about." 1253 00:56:45,690 --> 00:56:47,880 Then over time they get really excited about it, 1254 00:56:47,880 --> 00:56:50,400 because they realize that, "I get to have a walk 1255 00:56:50,400 --> 00:56:53,850 from somebody who knows what's going on in my woods. 1256 00:56:53,850 --> 00:56:57,120 They're gonna come to my land and show me about my land." 1257 00:56:57,120 --> 00:57:00,229 So then people get really excited to host these. 1258 00:57:00,229 --> 00:57:02,493 But I reach out, find a host. 1259 00:57:04,200 --> 00:57:07,770 We find a topic, we figure out who's leading it, 1260 00:57:07,770 --> 00:57:09,870 and then I just invite the rest of the group. 1261 00:57:09,870 --> 00:57:12,123 It's all over email at this point in time. 1262 00:57:13,800 --> 00:57:17,340 And yeah, we have a potluck afterwards. 1263 00:57:17,340 --> 00:57:19,800 Because it's a potluck after the first couple events, 1264 00:57:19,800 --> 00:57:21,597 everybody knows how it works 1265 00:57:21,597 --> 00:57:25,140 and it's not a lot to organize at that point. 1266 00:57:25,140 --> 00:57:27,210 It's really just some email communications 1267 00:57:27,210 --> 00:57:28,683 to invite everybody there. 1268 00:57:30,330 --> 00:57:31,632 But at the beginning, 1269 00:57:31,632 --> 00:57:35,460 those meetings are really about getting to know the group. 1270 00:57:35,460 --> 00:57:37,920 We can share maps, we can share that message 1271 00:57:37,920 --> 00:57:40,860 about why this place right here is important 1272 00:57:40,860 --> 00:57:42,273 and what you do matters. 1273 00:57:43,530 --> 00:57:47,460 We then move into the forest bird habitat assessments where, 1274 00:57:47,460 --> 00:57:49,410 for us, this is our method. 1275 00:57:49,410 --> 00:57:51,240 You might find something different to do, 1276 00:57:51,240 --> 00:57:53,400 but early on in the program 1277 00:57:53,400 --> 00:57:56,313 is where we engage with Vermont Audubon. 1278 00:57:57,480 --> 00:57:59,040 If you wanna learn more about that, 1279 00:57:59,040 --> 00:58:00,540 there's a whole page here 1280 00:58:00,540 --> 00:58:02,730 about those forest bird habitat assessments. 1281 00:58:02,730 --> 00:58:05,640 There's a sample assessment of what it looks like. 1282 00:58:05,640 --> 00:58:08,583 We can link back to their website to learn more. 1283 00:58:09,570 --> 00:58:11,790 But every landowner gets one of these. 1284 00:58:11,790 --> 00:58:13,500 And then we meet with Audubon 1285 00:58:13,500 --> 00:58:15,990 so that they can really describe 1286 00:58:15,990 --> 00:58:18,780 at one of these Woodlots blocks 1287 00:58:18,780 --> 00:58:21,210 the process that they're going through 1288 00:58:21,210 --> 00:58:23,553 and how a landowner should interpret it. 1289 00:58:24,420 --> 00:58:25,860 Sometime early on in the program 1290 00:58:25,860 --> 00:58:28,080 we also do these climate change analyses. 1291 00:58:28,080 --> 00:58:31,773 And once again, you can kind of go through how we do these. 1292 00:58:32,700 --> 00:58:35,310 Where we got our methods from. 1293 00:58:35,310 --> 00:58:38,700 You can see what a sample analysis looks like. 1294 00:58:38,700 --> 00:58:41,700 You can see what the sample group analysis looks like. 1295 00:58:41,700 --> 00:58:46,110 And that really is our programming for the first year, 1296 00:58:46,110 --> 00:58:48,780 is thinking about those resources 1297 00:58:48,780 --> 00:58:51,420 as we go from property to property. 1298 00:58:51,420 --> 00:58:53,220 Over time, I think we're more likely 1299 00:58:53,220 --> 00:58:54,783 to bring in guest speakers. 1300 00:58:55,800 --> 00:59:00,000 I mean, Nancy has led most of them at this point. 1301 00:59:00,000 --> 00:59:03,450 Not all of them, but it's, I mean, 1302 00:59:03,450 --> 00:59:05,460 any of you who have been out in the woods 1303 00:59:05,460 --> 00:59:07,140 with any of your county foresters 1304 00:59:07,140 --> 00:59:10,050 know that they are a wealth of information, 1305 00:59:10,050 --> 00:59:11,130 and landowners love it. 1306 00:59:11,130 --> 00:59:12,870 They just get to go for a walk 1307 00:59:12,870 --> 00:59:14,190 with their neighbors in the woods, 1308 00:59:14,190 --> 00:59:17,640 and hear neat things and new information about the woods. 1309 00:59:17,640 --> 00:59:19,890 [Nancy] I have to say that it is intense. 1310 00:59:21,057 --> 00:59:23,580 And so that's one of the things that you have to recognize 1311 00:59:23,580 --> 00:59:26,970 and figure out on your own what level you're going to do 1312 00:59:26,970 --> 00:59:28,800 if you wanna do something like this. 1313 00:59:28,800 --> 00:59:31,680 It's 20 days, 20 weekends a year 1314 00:59:31,680 --> 00:59:33,960 if I wanna be at every one of these workshops, 1315 00:59:33,960 --> 00:59:35,790 every one of these Woodlot gatherings. 1316 00:59:35,790 --> 00:59:39,038 And so the idea is to split that out. 1317 00:59:39,038 --> 00:59:42,630 There's board members, there's professionals. 1318 00:59:42,630 --> 00:59:44,400 Monica can be there for some of them, 1319 00:59:44,400 --> 00:59:46,000 I can be there for some of them. 1320 00:59:47,040 --> 00:59:49,590 And this kind of that idea. 1321 00:59:49,590 --> 00:59:52,290 Vermont Covers is one of the greatest organizations 1322 00:59:52,290 --> 00:59:54,849 we have in state, wonderful outreach program, 1323 00:59:54,849 --> 00:59:59,070 but it's a statewide, top-down kinda thing, 1324 00:59:59,070 --> 01:00:00,570 and it's always been difficult 1325 01:00:00,570 --> 01:00:02,797 to get landowners to stay together. 1326 01:00:02,797 --> 01:00:06,300 For us, landowners have stayed together for a decade now. 1327 01:00:06,300 --> 01:00:10,740 But it does require that there is someone there 1328 01:00:10,740 --> 01:00:14,880 that is that nexus, which is Cold Hollow to Canda, 1329 01:00:14,880 --> 01:00:16,560 is this nexus that we are. 1330 01:00:16,560 --> 01:00:18,843 So there is a responsibility. 1331 01:00:19,680 --> 01:00:20,790 [Monica] Right. 1332 01:00:20,790 --> 01:00:23,400 So I was at a workshop recently 1333 01:00:23,400 --> 01:00:25,200 with some partner organizations, 1334 01:00:25,200 --> 01:00:27,620 San Jose for example, with North Woods. 1335 01:00:27,620 --> 01:00:30,960 And we had Audubon, and we had Vermont Covers, 1336 01:00:30,960 --> 01:00:32,880 and we had Vermont Youth Conservation Corps. 1337 01:00:32,880 --> 01:00:34,620 We had a bunch of groups 1338 01:00:34,620 --> 01:00:36,990 that work with landowners throughout the state. 1339 01:00:36,990 --> 01:00:38,370 And the discussion got started 1340 01:00:38,370 --> 01:00:41,650 about how do we keep landowners engaged? 1341 01:00:41,650 --> 01:00:44,910 Instead of just having that first initial contact 1342 01:00:44,910 --> 01:00:46,770 where we think, "Oh, there's this landowner 1343 01:00:46,770 --> 01:00:50,880 who's really interested in land stewardship of some sort. 1344 01:00:50,880 --> 01:00:53,220 How do we move it to the next step 1345 01:00:53,220 --> 01:00:56,850 where we reengage them and keep them moving forward?" 1346 01:00:56,850 --> 01:00:59,280 And I listened to this discussion and I thought, 1347 01:00:59,280 --> 01:01:01,650 we don't have that problem at CHC. 1348 01:01:01,650 --> 01:01:03,930 I think this is kind of the solution to that. 1349 01:01:03,930 --> 01:01:06,810 Where if you have that, 1350 01:01:06,810 --> 01:01:09,420 for anybody who works with landowners 1351 01:01:09,420 --> 01:01:11,160 and has that challenge, 1352 01:01:11,160 --> 01:01:14,610 I really think this program is the solution to that. 1353 01:01:14,610 --> 01:01:17,823 You keep landowners engaged and they want to come back. 1354 01:01:18,720 --> 01:01:23,720 But as Nancy mentions, it takes some time. 1355 01:01:24,510 --> 01:01:25,590 I think it's a trade off 1356 01:01:25,590 --> 01:01:29,640 between reaching lots of people in a really shallow way 1357 01:01:29,640 --> 01:01:31,607 with reaching fewer people, 1358 01:01:31,607 --> 01:01:34,740 but in a really deep, connected way 1359 01:01:34,740 --> 01:01:36,783 where they will move forward. 1360 01:01:37,950 --> 01:01:39,120 Yeah. 1361 01:01:39,120 --> 01:01:40,497 [Participant] So I'm wondering, 1362 01:01:40,497 --> 01:01:43,980 generally if you own like 50 acres of land, 1363 01:01:43,980 --> 01:01:46,140 that's a pretty set demographic 1364 01:01:46,140 --> 01:01:48,210 and it's generally like a lot of wealth involved. 1365 01:01:48,210 --> 01:01:53,210 So I'm wondering how if the goal of the Woodlots Toolkit 1366 01:01:54,240 --> 01:01:56,310 is basically just target the land 1367 01:01:56,310 --> 01:01:58,620 and focus on the land conservation with a few people, 1368 01:01:58,620 --> 01:02:01,770 or if there's anything to reconcile 1369 01:02:01,770 --> 01:02:04,860 that you're focusing mostly on like wealthy landowners 1370 01:02:04,860 --> 01:02:06,660 and also find other ways... 1371 01:02:06,660 --> 01:02:08,490 It's a really good question 1372 01:02:08,490 --> 01:02:11,580 and we really are focusing on this one. 1373 01:02:11,580 --> 01:02:15,690 I mean, we recognize that there's a particular demographic 1374 01:02:15,690 --> 01:02:17,460 that we're working with here. 1375 01:02:17,460 --> 01:02:19,110 And I guess what I would say is, 1376 01:02:19,110 --> 01:02:22,860 I think there are many other programs, and CHC does some, 1377 01:02:22,860 --> 01:02:25,470 including more of our outreach, general outreach efforts, 1378 01:02:25,470 --> 01:02:28,683 that are more targeted at other groups. 1379 01:02:30,810 --> 01:02:33,060 We're working with landowners who have land 1380 01:02:33,060 --> 01:02:35,253 of at least 50 acres. 1381 01:02:36,570 --> 01:02:39,060 That's also who we can work with 1382 01:02:39,060 --> 01:02:41,910 when we're talking about land conservation in particular. 1383 01:02:43,110 --> 01:02:46,440 For a conservation group to conserve land 1384 01:02:46,440 --> 01:02:51,440 that's a smaller number of acres, a smaller lot, 1385 01:02:51,480 --> 01:02:55,140 is so much cost per acre 1386 01:02:55,140 --> 01:02:57,870 that many groups are unwilling to do that. 1387 01:02:57,870 --> 01:03:00,420 I think many people in the State of Vermont 1388 01:03:00,420 --> 01:03:02,820 and across the whole region really know 1389 01:03:02,820 --> 01:03:07,080 that we need to do better at working with other populations 1390 01:03:07,080 --> 01:03:09,750 and especially in some connectivity areas 1391 01:03:09,750 --> 01:03:11,430 where parcels are smaller. 1392 01:03:11,430 --> 01:03:12,990 But at the moment I would say this program 1393 01:03:12,990 --> 01:03:15,990 is really working with the structure that we have in place 1394 01:03:15,990 --> 01:03:20,430 and the people who do own at least 50 acres of forest land 1395 01:03:20,430 --> 01:03:23,580 with the tools that we have available right now. 1396 01:03:23,580 --> 01:03:25,230 Yeah. 1397 01:03:25,230 --> 01:03:27,053 [Participant] So thinking about this, 1398 01:03:27,053 --> 01:03:31,023 I mean, it's amazing program and I wonder if you have any, 1399 01:03:32,130 --> 01:03:34,050 have done sort of any digging or data 1400 01:03:34,050 --> 01:03:37,290 into the driving implementation 1401 01:03:37,290 --> 01:03:40,574 in terms of like practice implementation 1402 01:03:40,574 --> 01:03:44,820 versus landowners who maybe just have a stewardship plan, 1403 01:03:44,820 --> 01:03:47,257 landowners who participate in this pilot program, 1404 01:03:47,257 --> 01:03:49,230 or if you have thoughts about doing that? 1405 01:03:49,230 --> 01:03:53,040 And I guess the reason for asking for that is like, yeah, 1406 01:03:53,878 --> 01:03:55,217 we've sort of talked about it. 1407 01:03:55,217 --> 01:03:57,630 It's like this is intensive and it's a big investment, 1408 01:03:57,630 --> 01:04:00,480 and so how do you get people to buy into that? 1409 01:04:00,480 --> 01:04:05,130 And the point you raised about you don't have the problem 1410 01:04:05,130 --> 01:04:08,910 of having land owners participate is, that's big. 1411 01:04:08,910 --> 01:04:10,660 That's part of what we've talked... 1412 01:04:12,420 --> 01:04:14,490 Our field ornithologist at Mass Audubon 1413 01:04:14,490 --> 01:04:17,247 has done some like analysis of the forests 1414 01:04:17,247 --> 01:04:18,360 for the birds program. 1415 01:04:18,360 --> 01:04:20,280 Like a lot of people get plans 1416 01:04:20,280 --> 01:04:21,780 and then getting them to implementation 1417 01:04:21,780 --> 01:04:23,833 is a whole different thing, so. 1418 01:04:23,833 --> 01:04:25,470 [Monica] Right, right. 1419 01:04:25,470 --> 01:04:28,080 So I think is your initial question about, 1420 01:04:28,080 --> 01:04:29,610 about the implementation piece? 1421 01:04:29,610 --> 01:04:31,567 Like how many of our engaged landowners have- 1422 01:04:31,567 --> 01:04:33,420 [Participant] Yeah, and have you documented 1423 01:04:33,420 --> 01:04:35,970 that in any sort of way that's like shareable? 1424 01:04:35,970 --> 01:04:38,708 Yeah, so what we have been able to document, 1425 01:04:38,708 --> 01:04:41,978 we don't document, or we don't really track everything 1426 01:04:41,978 --> 01:04:43,260 that landowners have done. 1427 01:04:43,260 --> 01:04:47,130 We do have good data on what landowners have done 1428 01:04:47,130 --> 01:04:50,820 that we have helped to fund through these various methods. 1429 01:04:50,820 --> 01:04:53,400 So we're missing a lot through that way. 1430 01:04:53,400 --> 01:04:56,614 Because anything that's funded by a landowner, 1431 01:04:56,614 --> 01:04:58,833 we don't have a record of. 1432 01:04:59,740 --> 01:05:04,740 But I will say, it's not on one of my slides here, 1433 01:05:04,910 --> 01:05:07,290 of the landowners who have, what did I say? 1434 01:05:07,290 --> 01:05:11,130 67 land ownerships involved, 1435 01:05:11,130 --> 01:05:14,130 there have been, I think it's 30 something. 1436 01:05:14,130 --> 01:05:17,160 So almost half have implemented 1437 01:05:17,160 --> 01:05:18,900 stewardship practices of some sort. 1438 01:05:18,900 --> 01:05:21,270 That includes updating management plans 1439 01:05:21,270 --> 01:05:22,773 with these funding sources. 1440 01:05:23,670 --> 01:05:26,700 So I'm not sure if that answers the question, 1441 01:05:26,700 --> 01:05:28,260 but it's quite a large number. 1442 01:05:28,260 --> 01:05:32,100 And I think having the funding to implement the practices 1443 01:05:32,100 --> 01:05:33,810 has been a big part of that. 1444 01:05:33,810 --> 01:05:34,703 [Participant] Yeah. 1445 01:05:35,835 --> 01:05:38,880 It might be awesome to visually show that on the website. 1446 01:05:38,880 --> 01:05:39,780 Like create some graphic. 1447 01:05:39,780 --> 01:05:41,380 I think it is there somewhere. 1448 01:05:42,930 --> 01:05:45,210 Yeah, just in terms of going through this, 1449 01:05:45,210 --> 01:05:46,470 just thinking about our time, 1450 01:05:46,470 --> 01:05:48,813 we have about 20 minutes left together. 1451 01:05:50,040 --> 01:05:51,795 I can really let you go through 1452 01:05:51,795 --> 01:05:55,110 the toolkit itself on your own time. 1453 01:05:55,110 --> 01:05:58,380 It's up here, but I'll just show it does have 1454 01:05:58,380 --> 01:06:02,640 like program administration and changes over time. 1455 01:06:02,640 --> 01:06:07,640 It has program expenses, what we have paid for. 1456 01:06:09,510 --> 01:06:13,530 One thing, going back, has funding sources, 1457 01:06:13,530 --> 01:06:15,660 connecting landowners with these opportunities. 1458 01:06:15,660 --> 01:06:20,130 It has how we've evaluated it, success in the long term. 1459 01:06:20,130 --> 01:06:21,450 How is CHC doing? 1460 01:06:21,450 --> 01:06:22,610 This is where we've... 1461 01:06:24,120 --> 01:06:26,310 32 landowners have received assistance 1462 01:06:26,310 --> 01:06:31,310 for incorporating the analyses into forest management plans. 1463 01:06:32,010 --> 01:06:35,610 30 additional, well there's some overlap, 1464 01:06:35,610 --> 01:06:37,260 but 30 have received assistance 1465 01:06:37,260 --> 01:06:39,063 for implementing those practices. 1466 01:06:41,220 --> 01:06:44,040 It also has some tips on how you let 1467 01:06:44,040 --> 01:06:48,600 a program mature over time when land passes on. 1468 01:06:48,600 --> 01:06:51,330 How you advance the content over time. 1469 01:06:51,330 --> 01:06:52,860 There's some case studies. 1470 01:06:52,860 --> 01:06:54,060 Like I've said, I'm not gonna go 1471 01:06:54,060 --> 01:06:55,440 into all of that detail now. 1472 01:06:55,440 --> 01:06:58,620 I just wanna kinda let you know this is all here. 1473 01:06:58,620 --> 01:07:01,680 But I also think it would be helpful, or I guess I ask you, 1474 01:07:01,680 --> 01:07:05,310 would it be helpful to spend the next 15 minutes 1475 01:07:05,310 --> 01:07:08,250 really workshopping some of how to bring this 1476 01:07:08,250 --> 01:07:10,140 into another geography? 1477 01:07:10,140 --> 01:07:11,544 Is that helpful to you all? 1478 01:07:11,544 --> 01:07:12,377 [Participant] Yeah. 1479 01:07:12,377 --> 01:07:13,800 [Monica] Okay, that's what I was hoping to do. 1480 01:07:13,800 --> 01:07:14,923 Maybe for that, go ahead. 1481 01:07:14,923 --> 01:07:15,810 [Participant] I just wanted to comment. 1482 01:07:15,810 --> 01:07:18,990 I feel like this reminds me that you've been very successful 1483 01:07:18,990 --> 01:07:20,760 it sounds like, keeping landowners engaged. 1484 01:07:20,760 --> 01:07:23,040 And it reminds me a lot of like watershed associations 1485 01:07:23,040 --> 01:07:27,220 and I feel like they have a very visible resource 1486 01:07:28,110 --> 01:07:30,060 that they're protecting that keeps 'em together. 1487 01:07:30,060 --> 01:07:31,590 And I feel like part of your success 1488 01:07:31,590 --> 01:07:35,037 might be building that understanding for people 1489 01:07:35,037 --> 01:07:36,650 and the connection that their woodlot 1490 01:07:36,650 --> 01:07:38,220 is not an isolated thing. 1491 01:07:38,220 --> 01:07:40,460 And letting them see that their woodlot 1492 01:07:40,460 --> 01:07:43,020 is part of like something that's bigger. 1493 01:07:43,020 --> 01:07:44,670 And it's harder, I think, with forests 1494 01:07:44,670 --> 01:07:48,870 because it's not so visible like a lake is. 1495 01:07:48,870 --> 01:07:50,758 But I think building that, 1496 01:07:50,758 --> 01:07:52,830 speaking to your point about geography, 1497 01:07:52,830 --> 01:07:54,300 building that and letting people really see 1498 01:07:54,300 --> 01:07:57,720 like I am part of this geographic forest stand area. 1499 01:07:57,720 --> 01:08:00,843 [Nancy] Most detected broadleaf forest in the world? 1500 01:08:03,153 --> 01:08:05,852 Every one of our woodlot owners (drowned out by crosstalk) 1501 01:08:05,852 --> 01:08:06,817 [Participant] And people ask, 1502 01:08:06,817 --> 01:08:07,890 "how do you keep people connected?" 1503 01:08:07,890 --> 01:08:09,830 I think that's how they're staying connected to this, 1504 01:08:09,830 --> 01:08:14,216 is they are seeing that they're not just their own woodlot. 1505 01:08:14,216 --> 01:08:15,407 [Monica] Yeah, I think that is a huge piece of that. 1506 01:08:15,407 --> 01:08:18,210 Is that I think every one of those landowners 1507 01:08:18,210 --> 01:08:20,850 who keeps engaging with us recognizes that, 1508 01:08:20,850 --> 01:08:24,490 and there's that story to build from, yeah. 1509 01:08:24,490 --> 01:08:26,430 [Participant] Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that. 1510 01:08:26,430 --> 01:08:28,230 'Cause Forest Services work 1511 01:08:28,230 --> 01:08:31,500 with the New York City watershed program to do just that, 1512 01:08:31,500 --> 01:08:35,180 where we've got a watershed education program 1513 01:08:35,180 --> 01:08:38,190 in the east of Hudson and in the Catskill watersheds, 1514 01:08:38,190 --> 01:08:41,430 and that feeds 9 million people's water in New York City. 1515 01:08:41,430 --> 01:08:43,890 We don't have a a woodlots program like this, 1516 01:08:43,890 --> 01:08:47,910 but they've developed a website called "My Woodlot," 1517 01:08:47,910 --> 01:08:49,860 which gives landowners a variety 1518 01:08:49,860 --> 01:08:52,110 of resource management tools 1519 01:08:52,110 --> 01:08:54,900 within that New York City watershed area, 1520 01:08:54,900 --> 01:08:55,950 and that's the incentive. 1521 01:08:55,950 --> 01:08:58,080 Which, like you said, that geography 1522 01:08:58,080 --> 01:09:00,000 really connects people in that way. 1523 01:09:00,000 --> 01:09:00,833 -Yeah. -Yeah. 1524 01:09:01,920 --> 01:09:04,953 So I'm wondering, we have about 15 minutes left. 1525 01:09:07,200 --> 01:09:09,840 I hear there's a lot of good discussion happening here, 1526 01:09:09,840 --> 01:09:11,580 so I'm thinking that it might work best 1527 01:09:11,580 --> 01:09:12,960 to keep us as a big group. 1528 01:09:12,960 --> 01:09:14,580 Does that make sense to everybody? 1529 01:09:14,580 --> 01:09:16,475 But maybe if we can pull chairs out 1530 01:09:16,475 --> 01:09:19,800 and maybe can we use one example of somebody who would, 1531 01:09:19,800 --> 01:09:22,770 if you'd like to bring something like this elsewhere 1532 01:09:22,770 --> 01:09:25,260 and we can think about what it would take to adapt 1533 01:09:25,260 --> 01:09:27,660 or make this work elsewhere? 1534 01:09:27,660 --> 01:09:28,908 Sound good? 1535 01:09:28,908 --> 01:09:29,741 Okay. 1536 01:09:30,657 --> 01:09:34,074 (participants murmuring) 1537 01:09:56,965 --> 01:09:58,710 [Participant] Been splitting a lot of firewood. 1538 01:09:58,710 --> 01:10:02,043 (participants laughing) 1539 01:10:07,316 --> 01:10:09,559 No, I have a splitter. 1540 01:10:09,559 --> 01:10:12,892 That's young man's work, through, right? 1541 01:10:15,049 --> 01:10:18,613 There's some chairs in (drowned out by crosstalk) 1542 01:10:18,613 --> 01:10:21,210 No, no, no, that's okay, that's okay. 1543 01:10:21,210 --> 01:10:23,670 But I'm wondering, does somebody have an example 1544 01:10:23,670 --> 01:10:25,220 that you'd like us to workshop? 1545 01:10:28,560 --> 01:10:32,403 Thinking about how to take this to a different place. 1546 01:10:35,910 --> 01:10:37,920 [Participant] I mean, I haven't actually thought 1547 01:10:37,920 --> 01:10:41,160 about doing this, but, well... 1548 01:10:41,160 --> 01:10:43,708 Mostly just because it seems like a lot of work. 1549 01:10:43,708 --> 01:10:45,996 (participants laughing) 1550 01:10:45,996 --> 01:10:50,996 However, my land is on the very southern terminus 1551 01:10:52,440 --> 01:10:55,863 of your identified project area, literally bordering it. 1552 01:10:58,350 --> 01:11:01,363 And so I have thought about, in relation to this, 1553 01:11:01,363 --> 01:11:04,140 expanding a project area from my land 1554 01:11:04,140 --> 01:11:06,780 north towards you guys. 1555 01:11:06,780 --> 01:11:08,070 And having the next, yeah. 1556 01:11:08,070 --> 01:11:10,170 [Participant] And it's also my land is also part 1557 01:11:10,170 --> 01:11:15,170 of this Forest Legacy big conservation project in the '90s 1558 01:11:16,440 --> 01:11:18,690 called the Chittenden County Uplands Project. 1559 01:11:20,100 --> 01:11:24,270 So, yeah, so there's some existing blocks of conserved land. 1560 01:11:24,270 --> 01:11:25,860 There's some big blocks of state forest 1561 01:11:25,860 --> 01:11:27,840 that you could sort of build off of. 1562 01:11:27,840 --> 01:11:31,080 Okay, sounds like a good place to start, right? 1563 01:11:31,080 --> 01:11:35,883 If you wanted to take Woodlots, this idea, someplace else. 1564 01:11:40,867 --> 01:11:42,717 So if you were to follow the toolkit, 1565 01:11:43,620 --> 01:11:45,120 the step one that we would give you 1566 01:11:45,120 --> 01:11:48,553 is to really get to know the community first 1567 01:11:48,553 --> 01:11:52,710 so that the community understands whoever the entity is 1568 01:11:52,710 --> 01:11:55,890 who's going to be to be gathering people together. 1569 01:11:55,890 --> 01:12:00,000 So that your first, I feel strongly, 1570 01:12:00,000 --> 01:12:03,150 I'll let Nancy answer to this as well, 1571 01:12:03,150 --> 01:12:04,260 but I think I feel strongly 1572 01:12:04,260 --> 01:12:07,080 that it's maybe less successful if the first thing 1573 01:12:07,080 --> 01:12:08,550 people have heard about this project 1574 01:12:08,550 --> 01:12:12,640 is just the cold call or the mailed letter 1575 01:12:13,770 --> 01:12:18,770 that says, "Hey, there's this project, you're part of it. 1576 01:12:18,810 --> 01:12:21,120 Do you wanna come and meet four times a year? 1577 01:12:21,120 --> 01:12:22,167 Sign here." 1578 01:12:24,054 --> 01:12:28,770 So what we've done is really start with the outreach effort, 1579 01:12:28,770 --> 01:12:31,440 outreach and educational efforts. 1580 01:12:31,440 --> 01:12:35,460 Now Nancy mentioned that when starting the Woodlots program, 1581 01:12:35,460 --> 01:12:38,310 she and other board members at Cold Hollow to Canada 1582 01:12:38,310 --> 01:12:40,470 had worked in the region for a long time 1583 01:12:40,470 --> 01:12:43,470 prior to the start of those programs. 1584 01:12:43,470 --> 01:12:44,910 And I think that was especially true 1585 01:12:44,910 --> 01:12:48,900 for the first three of the five programs that we started. 1586 01:12:48,900 --> 01:12:52,050 Nancy knew people, she lived in the community. 1587 01:12:52,050 --> 01:12:54,480 She was one of the Woodlots landowners 1588 01:12:54,480 --> 01:12:57,240 for the very first program that started. 1589 01:12:57,240 --> 01:12:58,860 These were her neighbors. 1590 01:12:58,860 --> 01:13:01,080 Now, that's not going to be the case 1591 01:13:01,080 --> 01:13:04,585 with starting a program like this anywhere, right? 1592 01:13:04,585 --> 01:13:08,190 The fourth program that we started 1593 01:13:08,190 --> 01:13:11,520 was in two towns where Nancy and other board members 1594 01:13:11,520 --> 01:13:15,480 all said, "We don't know this community as well. 1595 01:13:15,480 --> 01:13:18,240 We don't have the same relationships. 1596 01:13:18,240 --> 01:13:20,040 We haven't built them there." 1597 01:13:20,040 --> 01:13:21,021 And so, go ahead. 1598 01:13:21,021 --> 01:13:22,521 [Nancy] The fifth one, right? 1599 01:13:22,521 --> 01:13:23,871 (indistinct) 1600 01:13:23,871 --> 01:13:24,704 Do the others. 1601 01:13:24,704 --> 01:13:25,537 Oh yeah, yeah, sorry. 1602 01:13:25,537 --> 01:13:26,400 I'm getting it mixed up. 1603 01:13:26,400 --> 01:13:27,550 Last one, the last one. 1604 01:13:28,557 --> 01:13:30,720 And so we started out by just doing 1605 01:13:30,720 --> 01:13:32,070 a community outreach effort 1606 01:13:32,070 --> 01:13:34,710 where we had a series of outreach efforts 1607 01:13:34,710 --> 01:13:36,870 that were for the general public. 1608 01:13:36,870 --> 01:13:38,160 Some of them were very popular. 1609 01:13:38,160 --> 01:13:39,810 We had a live animal event 1610 01:13:39,810 --> 01:13:43,260 with the Southern Vermont Natural History Museum 1611 01:13:43,260 --> 01:13:45,930 that they came and presented 1612 01:13:45,930 --> 01:13:49,380 and were pretty far from Marlboro 1613 01:13:49,380 --> 01:13:51,240 where the Natural History Museum is. 1614 01:13:51,240 --> 01:13:53,880 So this was a new event in this community 1615 01:13:53,880 --> 01:13:56,793 that did not have a lot of public outreach events. 1616 01:13:57,690 --> 01:14:01,350 We got like 76 people there in this very tiny town 1617 01:14:01,350 --> 01:14:03,663 that has a population of about a thousand. 1618 01:14:04,680 --> 01:14:06,997 And people there were saying, 1619 01:14:06,997 --> 01:14:09,360 "I've never seen this many people in Waterville before. 1620 01:14:09,360 --> 01:14:10,497 Where did all these people come from? 1621 01:14:10,497 --> 01:14:13,102 Our our town meeting isn't like this!" 1622 01:14:13,102 --> 01:14:15,330 And I think it was really helpful 1623 01:14:15,330 --> 01:14:16,800 in just getting to know people, 1624 01:14:16,800 --> 01:14:19,500 so that when the letter came from Cold Hollow to Canda, 1625 01:14:19,500 --> 01:14:23,100 people already had an idea of who we were and what we did. 1626 01:14:23,100 --> 01:14:25,380 [Nancy] But we also, coming to your point earlier, 1627 01:14:25,380 --> 01:14:28,440 we also had pre-identified leaders from that community 1628 01:14:28,440 --> 01:14:31,320 that we knew had relationships with 1629 01:14:31,320 --> 01:14:34,470 and asked to spearhead this. 1630 01:14:34,470 --> 01:14:38,190 So there were people beyond us that were from the community 1631 01:14:38,190 --> 01:14:41,160 that we were able to call on. 1632 01:14:41,160 --> 01:14:43,920 In this case, I think I would also be thinking 1633 01:14:43,920 --> 01:14:46,020 about like how large a geographic area. 1634 01:14:46,020 --> 01:14:46,853 Like you've mentioned, 1635 01:14:46,853 --> 01:14:49,350 that there's already like the Chittenden County something. 1636 01:14:49,350 --> 01:14:50,762 [Participant] Uplands, yeah. 1637 01:14:50,762 --> 01:14:53,100 Yeah, would you wanna, I don't know how big that is. 1638 01:14:53,100 --> 01:14:55,140 Like would you want to try to include all of that? 1639 01:14:55,140 --> 01:14:57,030 Or would you want be a piece of that? 1640 01:14:57,030 --> 01:15:00,205 I think that to me would be an important aspect. 1641 01:15:00,205 --> 01:15:01,743 [Participant] I don't remember what your example was, 1642 01:15:01,743 --> 01:15:04,800 of, what was it, 10 to 20 landowners? 1643 01:15:04,800 --> 01:15:06,287 Yeah, that's a good number. 1644 01:15:06,287 --> 01:15:08,327 [Participant] About that, I guess? 1645 01:15:08,327 --> 01:15:09,630 And in our example, too, 1646 01:15:09,630 --> 01:15:14,137 we sent out letters to more like 40 or 50 landowners, 1647 01:15:14,137 --> 01:15:18,090 knowing that only about half would engage. 1648 01:15:18,090 --> 01:15:19,500 [Nancy] But you do have a place to start. 1649 01:15:19,500 --> 01:15:21,960 Chittenden County Uplands is a known entity, right? 1650 01:15:21,960 --> 01:15:23,520 And there are definitely landowners 1651 01:15:23,520 --> 01:15:25,260 that have been involved with that for a long time 1652 01:15:25,260 --> 01:15:27,150 that know each other in that area. 1653 01:15:27,150 --> 01:15:31,773 So it has an organizational structure already to start with. 1654 01:15:33,353 --> 01:15:34,533 [Participant] I did a weird thing 1655 01:15:34,533 --> 01:15:37,973 when I worked for county land conservation. 1656 01:15:37,973 --> 01:15:39,897 [Participant] Chittenden County Uplands Initiative. 1657 01:15:39,897 --> 01:15:43,950 [Participant] This is when local newspapers were available 1658 01:15:43,950 --> 01:15:47,250 and I came in as a graduate, after graduate, 1659 01:15:47,250 --> 01:15:50,040 my first job after graduate. 1660 01:15:50,040 --> 01:15:54,450 And I went through the (indistinct) local newspaper. 1661 01:15:54,450 --> 01:15:57,840 And the folks that were in the paper 1662 01:15:57,840 --> 01:15:59,913 because of 4H and doing things. 1663 01:16:01,020 --> 01:16:02,700 I called them up on the phone 1664 01:16:02,700 --> 01:16:04,500 and I put together a commission 1665 01:16:04,500 --> 01:16:08,029 to talk about farmland preservation. 1666 01:16:08,029 --> 01:16:12,240 And so I was there for like two and a half years. 1667 01:16:12,240 --> 01:16:14,849 And 10 years later the group was still meeting. 1668 01:16:14,849 --> 01:16:16,676 (participant laughing) 1669 01:16:16,676 --> 01:16:19,620 The people that stood up in their community 1670 01:16:19,620 --> 01:16:24,620 were people I called and I remember the county LCC chair 1671 01:16:26,310 --> 01:16:28,517 was like, "Whoa!" 1672 01:16:28,517 --> 01:16:30,993 (participant laughing) 1673 01:16:30,993 --> 01:16:32,388 I think, yeah. 1674 01:16:32,388 --> 01:16:33,810 So I think that brings us to this next piece, 1675 01:16:33,810 --> 01:16:38,810 which is we have done this as an invitation-only program. 1676 01:16:39,330 --> 01:16:42,630 It's not just publicly advertised that everybody's invited. 1677 01:16:42,630 --> 01:16:44,970 It's really looking at maps 1678 01:16:44,970 --> 01:16:48,600 of where the important forest blocks are 1679 01:16:48,600 --> 01:16:51,630 and who are the landowners within that block. 1680 01:16:51,630 --> 01:16:54,060 And I think we initially made lists 1681 01:16:54,060 --> 01:16:55,710 that had everybody on them, 1682 01:16:55,710 --> 01:16:57,780 but then we've specifically, 1683 01:16:57,780 --> 01:16:59,250 we've actually whittled down this list. 1684 01:16:59,250 --> 01:17:02,490 And I know this is something that some people question, 1685 01:17:02,490 --> 01:17:05,760 but we've really specifically whittled down that list 1686 01:17:05,760 --> 01:17:10,590 in some cases by talking to their consulting foresters 1687 01:17:10,590 --> 01:17:12,810 about is this somebody who you think 1688 01:17:12,810 --> 01:17:14,610 would engage in a program like this. 1689 01:17:16,440 --> 01:17:18,900 And really thinking about who are the people 1690 01:17:18,900 --> 01:17:20,730 who are the starting... 1691 01:17:20,730 --> 01:17:23,010 Where's the starting place for this program? 1692 01:17:23,010 --> 01:17:26,730 People who will, who already do care about land management, 1693 01:17:26,730 --> 01:17:28,380 who are engaged. 1694 01:17:28,380 --> 01:17:30,780 That's gonna be the people we want to start with. 1695 01:17:30,780 --> 01:17:32,070 [Participant] Are you telling people 1696 01:17:32,070 --> 01:17:33,330 that you're inviting them? 1697 01:17:33,330 --> 01:17:34,626 Yes, yeah. 1698 01:17:34,626 --> 01:17:36,246 [Participant] Like they're invitation-only- 1699 01:17:36,246 --> 01:17:38,640 Yes, they are invited to the Woodlots program. 1700 01:17:38,640 --> 01:17:40,110 And that's really intentional. 1701 01:17:40,110 --> 01:17:43,503 Because if we're going to build trust between these people, 1702 01:17:44,460 --> 01:17:47,227 we need to not have the people who are gonna say like, 1703 01:17:47,227 --> 01:17:49,170 "What, land conservation? 1704 01:17:49,170 --> 01:17:52,920 No, we don't want any of that around here." 1705 01:17:52,920 --> 01:17:55,890 We do want people who don't necessarily all agree 1706 01:17:55,890 --> 01:17:58,200 and have the same points of view, 1707 01:17:58,200 --> 01:17:59,640 but we don't want somebody 1708 01:17:59,640 --> 01:18:01,830 who's gonna tear the program apart from the beginning. 1709 01:18:01,830 --> 01:18:05,010 [Participant] But what if that key landowner 1710 01:18:05,010 --> 01:18:07,110 who owns the biggest, most valuable block, 1711 01:18:07,110 --> 01:18:10,350 is some curmudgeon that doesn't want to talk anybody? 1712 01:18:10,350 --> 01:18:11,993 Well, then we'll have to consider. 1713 01:18:11,993 --> 01:18:14,190 I think we've been, here's part of it. 1714 01:18:14,190 --> 01:18:16,710 Is that they're self-selecting, right? 1715 01:18:16,710 --> 01:18:18,930 These programs are self-selecting. 1716 01:18:18,930 --> 01:18:21,957 The people who are going to engage, are going to engage, 1717 01:18:21,957 --> 01:18:24,870 and the people who don't care are also not going to engage. 1718 01:18:24,870 --> 01:18:26,970 [Participant] Choose your battles, then, yeah. 1719 01:18:26,970 --> 01:18:29,550 [Nancy] This is a peer-to-peer program. 1720 01:18:29,550 --> 01:18:33,930 It's not a conservation program per se. 1721 01:18:33,930 --> 01:18:35,520 The Cold Hollow to Canada is a lot of things. 1722 01:18:35,520 --> 01:18:39,060 You can go to our website and see this is really specific 1723 01:18:39,060 --> 01:18:42,063 to a peer-to-peer learning organization. 1724 01:18:44,220 --> 01:18:45,810 And the other thing, just to say, 1725 01:18:45,810 --> 01:18:47,130 that every one of these landowners 1726 01:18:47,130 --> 01:18:48,690 already has a forest management plan. 1727 01:18:48,690 --> 01:18:50,130 They're in the current use program. 1728 01:18:50,130 --> 01:18:51,660 So they've been self-selected already 1729 01:18:51,660 --> 01:18:53,970 by being in the current use program in Vermont. 1730 01:18:53,970 --> 01:18:57,330 So they already have an interest in forest management. 1731 01:18:57,330 --> 01:18:59,490 So there's that self-selection, 1732 01:18:59,490 --> 01:19:03,540 and then there's the conversations with neighbors, people... 1733 01:19:03,540 --> 01:19:06,317 You know, just knowledge. 1734 01:19:06,317 --> 01:19:09,810 Knowing that curmudgeon is not... 1735 01:19:09,810 --> 01:19:12,267 While maybe conservation is something 1736 01:19:12,267 --> 01:19:16,770 that will show up in that landowner's life someday, 1737 01:19:16,770 --> 01:19:18,720 peer-to-peer may not be the right place. 1738 01:19:18,720 --> 01:19:20,820 Or there's people that are from out of town, right? 1739 01:19:20,820 --> 01:19:22,437 They would love to actually be part of it, 1740 01:19:22,437 --> 01:19:25,470 and some people are that only come once a year. 1741 01:19:25,470 --> 01:19:27,330 So there's also not a requirement 1742 01:19:27,330 --> 01:19:28,980 that people come every time, right? 1743 01:19:28,980 --> 01:19:31,473 You don't have to show up at every meeting. 1744 01:19:32,640 --> 01:19:34,144 [Participant] Get 'em to move. 1745 01:19:34,144 --> 01:19:34,977 (participants laughing) 1746 01:19:34,977 --> 01:19:36,183 [Nancy] Right, right, no exactly. 1747 01:19:37,530 --> 01:19:39,060 [Participant] So you in some way 1748 01:19:39,060 --> 01:19:41,040 identify what your area is. 1749 01:19:41,040 --> 01:19:43,420 Could be a town, could be something else. 1750 01:19:43,420 --> 01:19:44,913 [Nancy] Could be watershed. 1751 01:19:47,113 --> 01:19:49,460 [Participant] And then you would pick like 10... 1752 01:19:50,550 --> 01:19:53,042 Would you start with like 10 people? 1753 01:19:53,042 --> 01:19:54,540 I'm gonna pick 10 landowners. 1754 01:19:54,540 --> 01:19:56,893 We have started with more like 40 to 50. 1755 01:19:56,893 --> 01:19:58,140 [Participant] And and that's just like 1756 01:19:58,140 --> 01:20:00,120 you reach out to that person in some way. 1757 01:20:00,120 --> 01:20:01,077 Yep, we reach out to those 40 or 50. 1758 01:20:01,077 --> 01:20:03,330 [Participant] And so, here's my big idea. 1759 01:20:03,330 --> 01:20:05,550 And reaching out, I think what we've also found, 1760 01:20:05,550 --> 01:20:07,290 this was definitely true for this last group, 1761 01:20:07,290 --> 01:20:10,624 we mailed letters to those 40 to 50 1762 01:20:10,624 --> 01:20:13,373 and we heard back from some. 1763 01:20:13,373 --> 01:20:15,270 But when we really reached people 1764 01:20:15,270 --> 01:20:18,450 was when we talked to people they knew 1765 01:20:18,450 --> 01:20:21,000 who then communicated with them. 1766 01:20:21,000 --> 01:20:23,970 Or even the cold calls with the phone calls 1767 01:20:23,970 --> 01:20:26,040 got people there more than the letters, 1768 01:20:26,040 --> 01:20:28,800 or the phone call followed the followed the letter 1769 01:20:28,800 --> 01:20:30,900 so that people really heard. 1770 01:20:30,900 --> 01:20:33,750 It wasn't just this random piece of mail that... 1771 01:20:33,750 --> 01:20:34,583 [Nancy] And in no place 1772 01:20:34,583 --> 01:20:36,510 were we ever entirely unknown, either. 1773 01:20:36,510 --> 01:20:37,653 That was really clear. 1774 01:20:39,165 --> 01:20:42,534 [Participant] Being a county forester really helps. 1775 01:20:42,534 --> 01:20:43,410 We just know everybody. 1776 01:20:43,410 --> 01:20:44,640 That's true. 1777 01:20:44,640 --> 01:20:47,130 [Nancy] And so inviting your county forester 1778 01:20:47,130 --> 01:20:49,620 to be a part of this, even if they're not a big part, 1779 01:20:49,620 --> 01:20:51,630 even a small part, is actually really helpful, 1780 01:20:51,630 --> 01:20:53,700 because they have a lot of data as well. 1781 01:20:53,700 --> 01:20:56,100 And we have a lot of information in our offices. 1782 01:20:56,100 --> 01:20:57,030 So it's really helpful 1783 01:20:57,030 --> 01:20:59,850 to have the county forester somewhat involved. 1784 01:20:59,850 --> 01:21:03,270 The consulting foresters are a really big help, too. 1785 01:21:03,270 --> 01:21:05,940 You know, they're the ones that know their clients, 1786 01:21:05,940 --> 01:21:08,670 and they can say, "Well, these these guys would be great. 1787 01:21:08,670 --> 01:21:09,637 They'd love it." 1788 01:21:09,637 --> 01:21:10,830 "No, I don't think this one would." 1789 01:21:10,830 --> 01:21:12,930 And that's why it's a starting place, right? 1790 01:21:12,930 --> 01:21:14,250 I mean, you can build later. 1791 01:21:14,250 --> 01:21:16,650 You can invite the curmudgeon after he finds out 1792 01:21:16,650 --> 01:21:20,070 that we're not some crazy group. 1793 01:21:20,070 --> 01:21:22,893 And that happens, too. 1794 01:21:22,893 --> 01:21:25,590 That they hear about what's going on, 1795 01:21:25,590 --> 01:21:27,150 they see what's happening, 1796 01:21:27,150 --> 01:21:29,040 and then they might be more amenable. 1797 01:21:29,040 --> 01:21:31,433 They may not be the first person to reach out to. 1798 01:21:32,729 --> 01:21:34,110 [Participant] I feel like, too, 1799 01:21:34,110 --> 01:21:35,907 I don't know if you've said this, 1800 01:21:35,907 --> 01:21:38,460 but I feel like when you're contacting people, 1801 01:21:38,460 --> 01:21:40,920 being really clear about what your goals are 1802 01:21:40,920 --> 01:21:43,740 so that they have a good sense 1803 01:21:43,740 --> 01:21:46,160 of what you're asking them for, right? 1804 01:21:46,160 --> 01:21:48,780 If you're sort of vague, you know- 1805 01:21:48,780 --> 01:21:49,770 [Participant] Their time is valuable. 1806 01:21:49,770 --> 01:21:51,475 They're not gonna jump on something like that. 1807 01:21:51,475 --> 01:21:52,350 [Participant] I think it's hard for people. 1808 01:21:52,350 --> 01:21:53,899 But I think when you go to people 1809 01:21:53,899 --> 01:21:55,230 with like a really clear idea, 1810 01:21:55,230 --> 01:21:57,360 like this is the geographic area, 1811 01:21:57,360 --> 01:21:59,670 this is what we're trying to accomplish 1812 01:21:59,670 --> 01:22:01,050 and even with the timeline, 1813 01:22:01,050 --> 01:22:04,671 I think that's way easier for people to be able to say like, 1814 01:22:04,671 --> 01:22:07,770 sign on to or wanna become about. 1815 01:22:07,770 --> 01:22:09,606 [Nancy] And the toolkit has those examples. 1816 01:22:09,606 --> 01:22:11,823 All of our letters, everything we've sent. 1817 01:22:13,234 --> 01:22:17,190 We've populated that toolkit with everything we've done. 1818 01:22:18,750 --> 01:22:21,210 And you can use exactly what we've got 1819 01:22:21,210 --> 01:22:23,760 or adapt it to what you have. 1820 01:22:23,760 --> 01:22:25,391 Most likely adapt it. 1821 01:22:25,391 --> 01:22:26,763 Right, right. 1822 01:22:27,600 --> 01:22:29,340 But yeah, and one of the things on that letter 1823 01:22:29,340 --> 01:22:32,550 is it actually has the phone numbers or email addresses, 1824 01:22:32,550 --> 01:22:34,080 I can't remember what we added, 1825 01:22:34,080 --> 01:22:35,880 but for all of our board members. 1826 01:22:35,880 --> 01:22:38,730 And so it's not just contact me, 1827 01:22:38,730 --> 01:22:41,100 this random person who you don't know. 1828 01:22:41,100 --> 01:22:43,707 It's these are people who are also part of your community 1829 01:22:43,707 --> 01:22:46,170 who you can talk to about this program. 1830 01:22:46,170 --> 01:22:48,830 And sometimes that's where... 1831 01:22:49,860 --> 01:22:51,720 [Participant] But you have existing organization 1832 01:22:51,720 --> 01:22:52,553 with a board. 1833 01:22:52,553 --> 01:22:53,434 We did have a- 1834 01:22:53,434 --> 01:22:54,267 [Participant] So you were starting, right? 1835 01:22:54,267 --> 01:22:56,190 So you have, is that what you're saying? 1836 01:22:56,190 --> 01:22:59,798 You have Cold Hollow to Canada existed, the board, 1837 01:22:59,798 --> 01:23:02,350 before you started to do the Woodlots program? 1838 01:23:02,350 --> 01:23:04,500 Yeah, but I guess a similar, 1839 01:23:04,500 --> 01:23:06,390 if you don't have your own nonprofit 1840 01:23:06,390 --> 01:23:08,550 and you're just starting a landowner group, 1841 01:23:08,550 --> 01:23:11,160 I'd say the more people you can just get on board, 1842 01:23:11,160 --> 01:23:13,560 even if they're not gonna be part of your program, 1843 01:23:13,560 --> 01:23:17,760 but if you can get those messages out 1844 01:23:17,760 --> 01:23:20,250 through people who know the landowners, 1845 01:23:20,250 --> 01:23:22,440 it's much more effective. 1846 01:23:22,440 --> 01:23:24,510 [Nancy] Yeah, calling those those leaders up, 1847 01:23:24,510 --> 01:23:27,240 finding out who the leaders are, calling up the leaders, 1848 01:23:27,240 --> 01:23:29,460 asking them to participate in forming 1849 01:23:29,460 --> 01:23:31,997 a steering committee rather than a board, right? 1850 01:23:31,997 --> 01:23:33,000 Right, right. 1851 01:23:33,000 --> 01:23:36,780 And and I will say, right now we have five groups 1852 01:23:36,780 --> 01:23:40,140 and we have talked about how this is a lot of effort. 1853 01:23:40,140 --> 01:23:42,540 But it started out as just volunteers. 1854 01:23:42,540 --> 01:23:46,233 I mean, Nancy really started this and it was her neighbors, 1855 01:23:47,280 --> 01:23:49,920 and she did already know them, but she was a volunteer. 1856 01:23:49,920 --> 01:23:52,020 She wasn't doing this as part of, 1857 01:23:52,020 --> 01:23:53,610 I guess it was part of Cold Hollow to Canada, 1858 01:23:53,610 --> 01:23:56,493 but she was a volunteer board member at the time. 1859 01:23:58,020 --> 01:24:01,590 And so I wanna emphasize that we have grown 1860 01:24:01,590 --> 01:24:05,880 into a staffed position here, 1861 01:24:05,880 --> 01:24:07,410 but it hasn't always been like that. 1862 01:24:07,410 --> 01:24:09,960 And that's not necessarily where it needs to start. 1863 01:24:13,710 --> 01:24:16,253 [Participant] Let me like big picture this out. 1864 01:24:16,253 --> 01:24:18,390 I mean, I guess I'm still trying to figure out 1865 01:24:18,390 --> 01:24:21,285 what exactly it is that you're asking landowners to do? 1866 01:24:21,285 --> 01:24:22,978 I mean, like I said, I own a lot of land, 1867 01:24:22,978 --> 01:24:24,656 so I'm not a forester. 1868 01:24:24,656 --> 01:24:28,146 So like, or a lot owner. 1869 01:24:28,146 --> 01:24:32,131 What's the action, I guess? 1870 01:24:32,131 --> 01:24:35,850 And and where does that come into this whole discussion? 1871 01:24:35,850 --> 01:24:37,680 Because I mean, when we were talking about ideas, 1872 01:24:37,680 --> 01:24:41,698 there was like, I wrote this in like 20 minutes, but anyway. 1873 01:24:41,698 --> 01:24:45,780 So the beauty of this is there's no requirement 1874 01:24:45,780 --> 01:24:46,710 for the landowner. 1875 01:24:46,710 --> 01:24:50,250 They don't have to do anything, everything is optional. 1876 01:24:50,250 --> 01:24:52,590 But we ask them to engage. 1877 01:24:52,590 --> 01:24:54,960 We ask them to come to the programs 1878 01:24:54,960 --> 01:24:57,090 and we give them opportunities. 1879 01:24:57,090 --> 01:25:00,030 So it's not, we're not looking for... 1880 01:25:00,030 --> 01:25:03,270 We're not asking them initially 1881 01:25:03,270 --> 01:25:05,400 for anything that they give back. 1882 01:25:05,400 --> 01:25:07,860 It's really, we're offering this program to them. 1883 01:25:07,860 --> 01:25:10,860 [Nancy] But the goal is to enhance forest stewardship 1884 01:25:10,860 --> 01:25:14,850 across the Cold Hollow to Canada region, 1885 01:25:14,850 --> 01:25:19,456 and also to enhance conservation values of all forms, 1886 01:25:19,456 --> 01:25:23,640 as well as getting people to love their land more. 1887 01:25:23,640 --> 01:25:25,050 So if they love their land more, 1888 01:25:25,050 --> 01:25:27,360 they're gonna be more inclined to protect that land. 1889 01:25:27,360 --> 01:25:29,460 And so this is an avenue. 1890 01:25:29,460 --> 01:25:31,083 And initially it was started, 1891 01:25:32,010 --> 01:25:34,050 initially the goal was an avenue 1892 01:25:34,050 --> 01:25:37,320 to get greater amounts of conservation done. 1893 01:25:37,320 --> 01:25:40,448 And so the first Woodlots group, 1894 01:25:40,448 --> 01:25:43,830 actually at this point now a third of that property 1895 01:25:43,830 --> 01:25:45,780 is now permanently conserved in easement. 1896 01:25:45,780 --> 01:25:48,780 So that's really long-term success. 1897 01:25:48,780 --> 01:25:49,860 But in the meantime, 1898 01:25:49,860 --> 01:25:52,620 you're getting great forest management done 1899 01:25:52,620 --> 01:25:56,250 and you're getting people to buy into that in a bigger way, 1900 01:25:56,250 --> 01:25:57,870 understanding what climate change is. 1901 01:25:57,870 --> 01:26:01,170 10 years ago when we started doing climate change analyses, 1902 01:26:01,170 --> 01:26:03,547 there were people in our world at that time saying, 1903 01:26:03,547 --> 01:26:05,850 "Don't use the words climate change, use something else." 1904 01:26:05,850 --> 01:26:07,440 Well, we didn't go there. 1905 01:26:07,440 --> 01:26:11,550 We said what it is and people felt empowered 1906 01:26:11,550 --> 01:26:14,280 by understanding that they could do something on their land 1907 01:26:14,280 --> 01:26:15,420 that would actually affect 1908 01:26:15,420 --> 01:26:18,270 climate change adaptation or mitigation. 1909 01:26:18,270 --> 01:26:20,610 That they could actually do something where it felt 1910 01:26:20,610 --> 01:26:23,724 like there was nothing we could do at that time. 1911 01:26:23,724 --> 01:26:25,290 So I think it's empowerment. 1912 01:26:25,290 --> 01:26:29,100 It's empowerment, it's trust, it's learning together. 1913 01:26:29,100 --> 01:26:30,270 But the ultimate goal 1914 01:26:30,270 --> 01:26:33,423 is enhanced forest stewardship and conservation. 1915 01:26:34,680 --> 01:26:37,470 [Participant] I have another question, overall questions. 1916 01:26:37,470 --> 01:26:42,320 So you mentioned the RCPP program. 1917 01:26:42,320 --> 01:26:44,820 Is that available to people 1918 01:26:44,820 --> 01:26:46,950 that are in these groups specifically? 1919 01:26:46,950 --> 01:26:49,320 Or is that available to everybody 1920 01:26:49,320 --> 01:26:52,620 and you're just helping these people in the groups 1921 01:26:52,620 --> 01:26:53,453 figure out how to do it? 1922 01:26:53,453 --> 01:26:55,170 Right, so I'm actually gonna start 1923 01:26:55,170 --> 01:26:57,120 with a different NRCS program. 1924 01:26:57,120 --> 01:27:01,890 The EQUIP program really is available to landowners. 1925 01:27:01,890 --> 01:27:06,030 And so one method is really just to help landowners 1926 01:27:06,030 --> 01:27:09,270 understand what the program offers, what practices EQUIP, 1927 01:27:09,270 --> 01:27:12,210 which is available for anybody offers, 1928 01:27:12,210 --> 01:27:13,920 and how to get connected with that. 1929 01:27:13,920 --> 01:27:17,100 And I think that's the step one of what's really helpful. 1930 01:27:17,100 --> 01:27:20,670 The RCPP is something that we as an organization, 1931 01:27:20,670 --> 01:27:24,783 as a non-profit apply to as, it's basically like a grant. 1932 01:27:25,620 --> 01:27:27,210 And so we got connected to that. 1933 01:27:27,210 --> 01:27:30,270 That program, I will say, it's tremendous 1934 01:27:30,270 --> 01:27:31,980 in terms of the amount of funding 1935 01:27:31,980 --> 01:27:33,510 that's gone directly to landowners. 1936 01:27:33,510 --> 01:27:37,020 It's almost $600,000 just in this subject outreach, 1937 01:27:37,020 --> 01:27:39,630 which is a lot of funding, that's really significant. 1938 01:27:39,630 --> 01:27:42,750 But I will say there's also a huge amount of administration 1939 01:27:42,750 --> 01:27:44,430 on the part of organization. 1940 01:27:44,430 --> 01:27:46,770 So I would not go that direction 1941 01:27:46,770 --> 01:27:51,770 unless you are prepared to do a lot of administration. 1942 01:27:53,940 --> 01:27:55,290 [Participant] I just wanted, I'm sorry, 1943 01:27:55,290 --> 01:27:56,123 just say it's 4:30. 1944 01:27:56,123 --> 01:27:59,280 It's supposed to wrap up at 4:30 if anybody needs, 1945 01:27:59,280 --> 01:28:00,930 there's the poster session and the social. 1946 01:28:00,930 --> 01:28:02,283 I just wanted... 1947 01:28:02,283 --> 01:28:03,756 (participants murmuring) 1948 01:28:03,756 --> 01:28:04,589 I think we... 1949 01:28:04,589 --> 01:28:06,420 I really appreciate your time here today. 1950 01:28:06,420 --> 01:28:07,253 Thank you for coming. 1951 01:28:07,253 --> 01:28:09,553 [Participant] Thanks a lot, thank you. 1952 01:28:09,553 --> 01:28:10,620 [Nancy] Feel free to reach out to either of us. 1953 01:28:10,620 --> 01:28:12,020 [Monica] Yeah, definitely.