Craftsbury Forestry Committee

Excerpt from 2006 Annual Report

Most of the activities undertaken by the Forest Committee in 2006 focused on the completion of projects for our trees for Local Communities Grant. Thanks to the grant money and the Committee's hard work, Craftsbury residents can now enjoy a hiking trail in the Coburn Hill Town forest. Several committee members, with the generous help of Dave Brown, logged in over thirty hours of (fun) labor for the trail project. Jim Moffatt built a beautiful Kiosk for the trail head and Keren Latimer from Sterling College did a great job with the kiosk's sign.

The trail is an easy, ungroomed walk to a scenic overlook facing east towards Albany and Glover. In the spring, we plan to build a bench for the overlook and a small bridge over a wet section of the trail using lumber milled by Will Strong at Cutting Edge Forestry. We will also display town forest and trail maps at the kiosk. The Coburn Hill Trail is convenient to access and will lead hikers through a truly lovely mixed forest community of Craftsbury's public forest.

As a result of the work completed and inspired because of the grant, the committee will be making recommendations to help insure that the management of the town forest will meet the recreational, ecological, and economic goals of our community. Thanks to everyone who helped make the grant process a success.

The committee sponsored a Tour of the Common Trees in May to talk about the history and ecology of the trees that have been planted around the Common. We are continually updating an inventory of these trees as the dead or injured trees are replaced or repaired. Committee member and Assistant Tree Warden, Stuart LaPoint, has been a diligent caretaker of this important community asset.

We are currently assembling information detailing the history of our town forest. Ann Ingerson has completed a rough draft from information contributed by Jim Moffatt, our Committee Chair. Jim has served on the Municipal Forest Committee for over three decades and has chronicled an abundance of facts and entertaining anecdotes during this time of service.

We are looking forward to working with Craftsbury residents in the future as we seek new opportunities to involve more local people in the stewardship and enjoyment of our town forest.

Click here to view more photos from the Craftsbury Municipal Forest Committee.

—Jim Moffatt (Chair), Rob Libby(Vice-Chair), Barbara Alexander (Secretary/Clerk), Farley Brown, Jim Jones, Ann Ingerson, Burt Strong Gilbert Goodrich, and Stuart LaPoint