Providing Leadership

Finding Synergy Among Forestland Uses

Center webinar explores how recreation and forest management coincide and ways to utilize this intersection as an opportunity for public engagement and education.

In our Sept. 19 webinar on The Crossing Paths of Recreation and Forest Management – part of our Building the New Forest Future series – Center Program Director Julie Renaud Evans facilitated a discussion about the opportunities and challenges that come with opening working forestlands to recreational users.

The panel discussed how recreation on public and private lands has changed, including increased demand; which management approaches are used across the region to balance both land uses; and which tools landowners can use to educate visitors about forest systems, management, and harvesting. 

We recorded the conversation for you to revisit or share with others.

Josh Sjostrom, Androscoggin District Ranger of the U.S. Forest Service, manages nearly 240,000 acres in the White Mountain National Forest including popular recreation areas such as the Presidential Range, including Tuckerman Ravine and Great Gulf Wilderness. He shared how the Androscoggin Ranger District engages in formal public planning processes and maintains strong relationships with its users and volunteers to lessen conflicts between recreation and forest management.
Hannah Stevens, Land Use Director of Seven Islands Land Company, manages public use on 820,000 acres of private forestland near Rangeley and north of Baxter State Park in Maine for an eighth-generation family ownership. She highlighted how their management approach differs as a private landowner and manager who allows restricted recreational use to the public.
Ethan Tapper, Chittenden County Forester of Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation, is a service forester who assists private landowners and helps municipalities manage a total of 4,500 acres of community and town owned forests. He described his strong focus and interest in public education and shared examples and tips for engaging the public and avoiding conflicts between land uses.

Educating recreational users so that they become knowledgeable conservationists – people who care about protecting land and wildlife biodiversity, who understand forests need to be resilient and adaptable in a changing climate, who appreciate that forests are an asset to all of us – that is a good feeling.”

– Ethan Tapper, Chittenden County Forester, Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation

The discussion highlighted how recreational trends are changing across the region, how recreation and forest management can be complementary, and finally how recreational use creates an opportunity to educate more users on the value of forest management and their role within that.

We hope you enjoy the recording. Please share it with others, explore previous webinars, and save the date for our next.

Promoting Healthy Forests

Julie Renaud Evans

Program Director

Cell: 603-724-8322

Kendall Gray

Program Manager

Cell: 443-841-5201

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Julie Renaud Evans

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