Editor’s note: This commentary is by Matt Breton, of Charleston, who is an avid hunter/angler/forager, a board member of the New England Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, as well as president of the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Conservation Group.
I have been on a lot of walks while on furlough. Searching for morels, ramps, fiddleheads, brook trout and wild turkeys. Food security for my belly, yes, but those walks have also been food for my soul. In strange times, the woods and waters of Vermont were, and are, a refuge. Reports are that housing sales are up – everyone seems to want their piece of the 10-acre rural pie. Who can blame them? Having venison in the freezer, canned vegetables in the larder, and fresh fish in the nearby lake give me comfort. Now that it has stopped snowing, the garden will go in like normal. Questions arise; how do we ensure that all Vermonters – both newcomers and old-timers – have equitable access to these Green Mountains and deepen their connection with nature? How do we keep the green spaces that allow all Vermonters room to roam?
Expand public land.
As we learn from the crisis at hand, it has become more and more evident that we need to have wild places to wander in. Wild can take many forms, from a 20-acre town forest close to a population center to a 26,000-acre national wildlife refuge in the midst of timber company land. Access to these woods and waters of Vermont is essential. For solace, for adventure, for food security. For healthy recreation. For the health of the land and water. For the health of people.
New England is losing 65 acres of forest to development each day and Vermont’s portion of that daily loss adds up to 1,500 acres a year. In addition, funding for land conservation has fallen 50% since 2008, and the acreage conserved annually is also down, falling more than six-fold since the early 2000s, from 333,000 acres a year to about 50,000 acres a year since 2010. This has far-reaching implications when we consider habitat connectivity for wildlife, overall resilience to climate change, and the health of our watersheds.
Not every acre needs to be in public ownership, there is room for public-private conservation partnerships. We need farms and private forests protected from development by their use value and conservation easement, more than ever. Logging and other working land enterprises need to continue, and can, even on public land. People still need houses and their piece of heaven if they want it (blackflies included). A public land expansion doesn’t preclude any of that. While I don’t think the wellbeing of our forests and streams should be an economic discussion, there is even financial support for public land expansion. As an example, for every $1 appropriated to the National Wildlife Refuge System, an average of $4.87 is returned to the local economy. As a state we do even better, where every state dollar invested returns $9 in natural goods and services.
The opportunities for conservation easements, watershed protection, and forest connectivity are upon us. The Great American Outdoors Act is likely to pass and will fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund for the first time in almost two decades. This will allow for a great many willing sellers to permanently protect their land. We need to discuss how these potential public lands are managed and utilized, but we need those lands beneath our feet to even begin the conversation.
In a new era where the rural way of life seems to have become more valuable, we need to consider how we protect what “rural” is. A lot of that includes space to wander, where a person can hear a broad-winged hawk whistle and a grouse drum. The Covid-19 pandemic has taught me how important people are, but it has also reinforced the value of my nearby woods and waters, for the health of my body, mind and soul. As we all begin to look ahead, we need to look beyond the next month and instead think about what the Vermont landscape might look like in years to come. Yes, there are many financial and social challenges of all types upon us, but securing conserved land is one that provides us all with a measure of security. If you hunt, fish, forage or recreate outside, I encourage you to support land conservation of all types in Vermont, including expansion of public land.
Decades from now, I hope my young niece Abby can look up from planting her garden and see wild mountainsides and wooded river bottoms. As she wipes the sweat from her brow, I hope her mind is at ease knowing that, come November, there is a buck she can chase for miles out there, to fill her freezer and fulfill her soul, on land that she and every other citizen owns.
