Green Mountain Forest

Since 2016 this project has improved the management of 2,673 acres of mixed hardwood and conifer forests in the Green Mountains of Central Vermont. The property is adjacent to the Middlebury Bread Loaf campus and will sequester approximately 192,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents over a period of 20 years.

These forests are moderately young and in recovery from heavy agricultural use and forest harvesting of the 19th century, thus several habitat elements of importance to many species such as cavity and snag trees, dead trees, and deep litter layers are scarce on these lands.

This project has a 40-year agreement with the American Carbon Registry to sustainably manage this forest for growth. It does include maintenance harvests to improve forest health, including management of invasive species, harvesting trees to hasten a transition to a natural habitat, or the removal of live or dead trees that might pose a threat to the safety of users of the property. This contrasts with the typical industrialized practices found in other nearby areas that are characterized by shorter, even aged rotational cutting of trees. There are no ongoing commercial timber harvests at Middlebury, but trees may be used to restore structures on the property and within limits on the college campus. Carbon sequestration measurements are based on a random sampling of designated plots and check size, dead/decaying and re-growth trees, and checked against accepted forestry modeling practices.

Middlebury College has made a pledge to be carbon neutral, and as part of this effort, the college decided to protect and store carbon on the forestlands owned by the University by creating a combined conservation easement and forest carbon offset project. As such, Middlebury uses a portion of these credits to offset its own emissions.

It helps the planet by sequestering carbon as well as preserves the forest for research, education, and recreation. The species of the forest now have access to a long-lived, unchanging habitat area.

Middlebury College, home to Bill McKibben of 350.org, one of the earliest and most vocal alarmists over climate change, was one of the first universities to dedicate itself to reducing carbon in the world. Its students were the first to call for divestment of fossil fuel stocks by the University endowment and by financial institutions of all sizes. Because of Middlebury’s dedication to “carbon done correctly” as expressed throughout the documentation, we have an extremely high level of appreciation for this project.

The dedication of the University to sustainable management principles is evident throughout the documentation and the idea of no commercial harvesting makes the project very unique.