Green Mountain National Forest – Howe and Boy Blue Timber Sale Projects

Featured Habitat Project – Covers Winter 2025

by Amelia “Melly” Napper | RGS & AWS Vermont Public Lands Forester

In September 2023, RGS & AWS entered into its latest agreement with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) to support forest management and implement on-the-ground habitat improvements on 6,000 acres across four iconic American national forests from Minnesota to Vermont’s Green Mountain National Forest.

The Somerset and South of Route 9 Integrated Resource Projects (IRP) on Green Mountain National Forest include management activities that aim to achieve multiple goals related to the Forest Plan. Creating forest habitat for diversity is an important objective for both projects. Using timber harvests, we’re creating conditions that restore and enhance the quality and diversity of habitat structure across the forest.

Some of the project area includes northern hardwood dominated stands as softwood habitats are under-represented across the forest. The treatments aim to shift the composition of some of the hardwood stands towards mixed wood and softwood stands. Creation of temporary openings increases the number of age classes and early successional habitat, which is currently not represented across the project areas.

Prior to the timber sale, there’s an extensive list of tasks that need to be completed to meet National Environmental Policy Act protocols and prepare the area for harvest. Working with the timber crew at the Manchester ranger district, I’ve been helping with the sale prep activities, such as marking timber, cruising timber and gathering geospatial data of the timber sale area to create an accurate representation of the resources being harvested.

Boy Blue is a timber sale, associated with the Somerset IRP, in Somerset, Vermont. Much of the area is dominated by American beech that have root sprouted in response to beech bark disease. The understory of many of these stands receive little light due to the intense competition with beech sprouts. The use of regeneration treatments will allow light to reach the forest floor and promote the regeneration of other species that aren’t as shade tolerant as beech and grow healthier, better-quality trees for the future.

Leave tree marking is used to implement the regeneration treatments; the trees being left behind are often high-quality crop trees that will provide seed.

Depending on the silvicultural treatment, tree retention is used to manipulate conditions to regenerate varied species. The hope is to shift most of the stands to sugar maple, yellow birch and red spruce. Throughout the timber sale, special attention is taken to preserve wildlife trees, such as bear clawed beech, cavity and certain legacy trees. Treatments such as group selections, clearcuts and shelterwoods also allow for the creation of temporary early successional habitat. Improvement cuts aim to promote healthy, superior quality trees for future sawtimber by removing single and groups of trees from a stand. This sale will likely be advertised in 2025.

Howe Pond in Readsboro, Vermont, is associated with the South of Route 9 IRP. Howe Pond is a much smaller timber sale and located on a poorer and rockier site than Boy Blue. Beech bark and leaf disease is present in most of the stands being treated. There is an effort to retain clean, non-symptomatic beech, in hopes that their genetic makeup may be resistant to the two different diseases. This sale also has a larger component of softwoods, mostly red spruce and hemlock.

Throughout the regeneration, treatments varying the amounts of tree retention are being used to create conditions that regenerate and promote red spruce. Similar to Boy Blue, the leave tree priority is sugar maple, yellow birch and red spruce. All of the hemlock within both timber sale boundaries will be retained for wildlife in response to hemlock wooly adelgid. Most of the timber sale is composed of regeneration treatments that aim to create a multi-aged stand with diverse habitat structures. This sale will be advertised this year.