One of the larger pitch pines in the Town Forest
Yesterday evening the Salisbury Planning Commission jumped into a new project to prepare guidelines for the management of the Salisbury Municipal Forest. Chris Olson, the Addison County Forester, was invited to review the information he had collected about the town forest, and distributed copies of several pertinent old and recent documents. Four members of the Salisbury Conservation Commission were also present to answer questions about the natural resource information currently available for the town forest. Quite a bit of good information is available, and the Planning Commission hopes to receive more after Eric Sorenson, a Natural Communities Ecologist with the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department, surveys the town forest this spring. Chris Olson also accepted an invitation to expand the timber inventory he has done into other areas of the town forest. The Conservation Commission agreed to compile existing information about wildlife use of the town forest. We are making all of the documents available online here.
I will be leading a public walk through the town forest on May 8, and I hope I can lead other walks just for members of the Planning Commission or Select Board. This is the last springtime opportunity we will have to explore the forest before the new town plan is adopted in March 2011 with management guidance for the town forest.