HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY FORESTS Change in Vermont's forests over time is described. As recently as 1850 about 80% of Addison County's landscape had been converted to agriculture. Since that time the forests and the forest industry has re-established in the County. In the mid-1970's there was a fuelwood boom which ended when the price of energy dropped. In recent decades timberland acreage in the County has steadily grown. Not only has the amount of timberland increased, so also has the size and volume of the trees in the forest.
FOREST COMPOSITION Two types of forest regions meet in Addison County. There are six major forest types represented in the County.
PUBLIC LANDS & FOREST OWNERSHIP About 20.8% of Addison County's acreage is in public ownership, with a substantial proportion of that acreage forested. The USDA Forest Service owns the largest proportion of that acreage (84.4%).
FOREST SITE PRODUCTIVITY The USDA has developed system for evaluating site productivity based on eight criteria. In Addison County seven soil types have been determined as the more productive.
FOREST MANAGEMENT Careful management generally improves forest products and values. The County Forester is available to assist non-industrial private woodland owners and municipalities.
USE VALUE ASSESSMENT PROGRAM (UVA) The County Forester also administers the forestland portion of Vermont's UVA Program. 28% of Addison County's private timberland is enrolled in the UVA program. Consulting foresters and industrial foresters also provide assistance to private woodland owners.
HARVESTING AND TIMBER STAND QUALITY Harvesting of trees under forest management is done either to improve the quality of the existing stand of trees (thinning), or to replace the existing stand (regeneration). Thinning can increase the timber volume production over unmanaged stands. Addison County forests have been subject to high-grading for a number of years. Thinning can no longer improve the productivity or quality of these stands. The best timber management in this case is through some form of regeneration cut that allows the forest to start over. Both thinning and regeneration cuts are essential at different points in the life of a managed forest.
FOREST PRODUCTS Addison County's forests provide a wide range of products and values. Wood products include sawlogs, pulpwood, fuelwood, chips, sawmill residues and maple syrup. Specialty products include balsam boughs, Christmas trees and even Shittake mushrooms.
OTHER FOREST VALUES: WILDLIFE HABITAT Changes in wildlife populations accompany changes in land use and thus habitat. The primary forces that have altered the Addison County habitat over the past 350 years are agriculture, logging, windthrow and to some degree fire. The change associated with agricultural land use has been the greatest. The key to maintaining wildlife diversity is to have the entire spectrum of habitat conditions represented. Today as agricultural lands are abandoned, forest management activities that create openings in the forest will become increasingly important to early-successional species. On the other hand block of undisturbed and unmanaged forest will be important for species favoring climax forest habitat.
RECREATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES Addison County forests also provide a wide range of recreational opportunities, often conducted on access roads and trails originally constructed for the removal of forest products. The recreational use on Snake Mountain was given as an example of the extent of this type of use.
WATER QUALITY Forests produce the highest quality water of any land use. The 1987 Acceptable Management Practices for Maintaining Water Quality on Logging Jobs in Vermont (AMP's), were adopted to provide standards for forest harvest. According to research done in the northeast, improperly constructed forest roads cause soil erosion, and not silvicultural practices such as clearcutting.
UNIQUE FOREST SITES The Nongame and Natural Heritage Program inventory show that Addison County currently has 14 natural forest communities represented at 25 different sites. Roughly three-quarters of the sites are either in public ownership, or protected through easement. Careful consideration needs to be given to the criteria under which sites are designated (See discussion under the Natural & Fragile Areas section).
OLD GROWTH FORESTS Some of the "unique" forest communities are referred to as old growth. The definition of "old growth forests" is controversial. One definition used in Vermont allows minimum disturbance and presence of trees older than 150 years (among other criteria); another definition would be for forestland that has never been cut. Under the latter definition there are no old growth forests in Vermont. The Plan recommends examining the definitions of old growth forest and considering their implications. Guidelines for protecting significant natural forest communities are mentioned. Some areas in the GMNF are being managed as old growth.
ECONOMIC VIABILITY & USE VALUE TAXATION Today Addison County's forest product industry must compete in the global market. This has implications for the economic viability of Addison's forestlands, with product prices determined internationally, and costs determined locally. An example of the factors effecting the economic viability of the County's forestland is the method of assessment of property taxes. A case is made that in many Vermont towns taxes are higher than the landowner can earn under this form of land use. Vermont's Use Value Assessment Program (UVA) attempts to lower the tax burden of the landowner to the rate at which the land is actually being used. The State pays the difference to the Town. In recent years this program has been underfunded, increasing the burden to landowners.
WORKING LAND SCAPE Use Value Taxation helps maintain the working rural landscape and the culture and economy that goes with that. Should growing forest products no longer be economically viable the land use may be converted to other uses, affecting those earning their living from the forest products industry and all the other public benefits associated with the forest.
PROPERTY RIGHTS Much of the working landscape is privately owned, and in many cases represents the owner's life savings. Thus any regulation affecting it should be carefully considered. A passage from Vermont's Constitution is restated in the text pointing out the importance of compensating landowners when they are asked to provide public benefits. It is additionally pointed out that compensation to land owners prevents property which contains a public benefit from becoming a private liability, should the need for protection associated with the public benefit begin to interfere with the economic activity of the landowner.
DISCUSSION Addison County forests are diverse and resilient. Wide differences of opinion exist over the uses and values of the forests of Addison County, and this is particularly true of publicly-owned forests. A mixing of vegetative types, size classes and assortment of features will not only determine the diversity of wildlife, it will also determine the diversity of values that the forests will accommodate in the future.
FORESTRY RESOURCES DOCUMENTATION/ANALYSIS
Forest lands are a dominant and essential part of the landscape in Addison County and Vermont. When we think of the traditional Vermont landscape, it is usually open farm fields against a backdrop of wooded hills. Our famous fall foliage would not exist without forest lands. An understanding and appreciation of our forests and their associated uses and values is central to regional planning. Their composition, ownership, productivity, and uses reflect our past relationship with the land and provide a host of options for the future.
History of Addison County Forests
When the glacier retreated from Addison County some 10,000 years ago, it left behind a landscape scraped bare of vegetation. Through the processes of succession and retrogression, the forest gradually established itself on nearly every acre of the county. The primeval forest encountered by native Americans and European explorers was characterized by a wide range of vegetative types, sizes, and ages, large accumulations of organic matter, and diverse flora and fauna.
The forests of Addison County have experienced many changes since Samuel de Champlain first described the American chestnuts growing along the shores of Lake Champlain. Not only have the chestnuts disappeared, the forest lands that Champlain described have been harvested and replaced several times since.
Early white settlers used the forests for fuel and building materials and exported a variety of forest products including potash, tannin, and ship stores. For a brief period in the mid-1800's, Burlington was the nation's largest lumber port and Vermont had over 1,000 sawmills (Reidel 1987).
The forests were removed from nearly 80% of Addison County and most of the accessible lands were converted to agriculture by 1850. With canal access reaching rich farmlands west of Vermont, hill farms in the eastern sections of the county were abandoned in the latter part of the 1800's.
Natural succession quickly re-established the forest. As the "new" forest matured, the forest industry reappeared. Box shops, casket factories, and bowl and bobbin mills opened around the county.
The Vermont Forest Commission was established in 1905, followed by the Vermont Forestry Service in 1923, and the Green Mountain National Forest in 1925 (Reidel 1987).
By 1941, there were 24 stationary sawmills and 8 portable sawmills in Addison County (Merrill 1941). In 1945, the Vermont Forestry Service began publishing annual sawlog harvests. In 1953, a record 272 million board feet - roughly equivalent to ten square miles of flooring - were harvested in Vermont. Since that time, annual sawlog harvest volumes in Vermont have hovered around 200 million board feet.
The energy shortage of the mid-1970's introduced many Vermonters to the commodity values of the local forests. Local fuelwood venders established businesses throughout the county. Over 70 miles of roads were built in Addison County to provide access to fuelwood supplies. Roadside firewood programs were established on private, state, and federal lands. At the height of the energy crisis, fuelwood standing in the woods sold for as much as $15 per cord, providing a market for previously unmerchantable trees and an opportunity to improve the timber quality of the forest. This forest management boom ended with the return of "cheaper" sources of energy.
The timberland acreage in Addison County has grown steadily in recent decades. Timberland is defined as being at least 10 percent stocked with trees of any size, capable of producing at least 20 cubic feet per acre per year, and not withdrawn from timber production (Frieswyk and Malley 1985). In 1948, 242,900 acres, or 49.1 percent of the county, were classified as timberland (USDA Forest Service 1948). By 1965, timberland acreage had increased to 271,000 acres or 54.8 percent (USDA Forest Service 1965). By 1983, the year of the last published forest survey, timberland increased to 285,600 acres or 57.7 percent of the county. Total forest land, including lands reserved from harvesting and non-productive lands, occupied 313,100 acres or about 63.3 percent of the county (Table 4.6-1).
Not only has the amount of timberland increased in recent decades, the size of the trees and volumes in the forest have increased as well. Between 1973 and 1983, sawtimber volumes increased 22 percent statewide (Frieswyk and Malley 1985). By 1983, about 62.7 percent of the timberland in Addison County had reached sawtimber size (Table 4.6-2).
Forest Composition
The Northern Forest Region and the Central Forest Region collide in Addison County making the forests of Addison County very diverse. Six major forest types are represented in the county (Table 4.6-3). The northern hardwood types, which include species such as yellow birch, white ash, sugar maple, and American beech, occupy over two-thirds of the timberland in Addison County.
The white and red pine types and oak-hickory types each account for about 10.7 and 9.7 percent, respectively, of the timberland in Addison County. They are located primarily in the western sections of the county, often on clay soils or on rock outcrops with shallow soils.
The aspen-birch type occupy the most recently abandoned farm lands and account for about 5.7 percent of the timberland area. The spruce-fir types are generally restricted to the higher elevations occupying about 3 percent of the timberland area. The elm-ash-red maple type is generally confined to the poorly drained bottomlands of the county and they comprise about 3 percent of the timberland area.
Public Lands Forest Ownership
Government ownership in Addison County totals about 103,100 acres or 20.8 percent of the county (Table 4.6-4). The vast majority of these publicly-owned lands are forested. The USDA Forest Service owns 84.4 percent of the public lands, followed by the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources which owns 12.2 percent of the public lands. Municipally-owned lands comprise about 3.4 percent of the county. The towns of Ripton, Hancock, and Granville have the highest percentage of publicly-owned lands and the towns of Monkton, Waltham and Whiting are among the towns with the lowest.
Forest Site Productivity
The USDA (1991) has developed a system that values forest sites for wood production based on soil drainage, rooting depth, erodibility, rock outcrops, water table, slope, stoniness, and soil texture. These have been summarized into 7 relative values ranging from 0 to 100 with 100 being the most productive. There are 7 soils in Addison County that are the most productive (Table 4.6-5).
Forest Management
In most situations, forest products and values can be improved through careful management. The County Forester, employed by the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation, provides technical assistance to non-industrial private woodland owners and municipalities. This assistance is based on forest resource capability and landowner objectives.
The County Forester also administers the forestland component of the Vermont Use Value Assessment Program (UVA). Enrolled parcels, managed according to approved management standards, are appraised at their use value which is currently set at $79 per acre. Towns are reimbursed for local shortfalls in tax revenues by the State. There are currently 52,074 acres of Addison County forestland enrolled in UVA (Table 4.6-6). This represents about 28 percent of the private timberland in the county.
There are 13 consulting foresters and several industrial foresters that work regularly in Addison county providing assistance to private woodland owners. Their services can include forest inventory, mapping, appraisals, timber sale marking and administration, road construction, and surveying.
The Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation and the USDA Forest Service maintain separate staffs of foresters and technicians for public lands management. In general, public forest lands are more intensively managed than are private forest lands (DeGraaf and others 1992). Increased values of privately-owned timber resources and management under the UVA program are changing this trend in Addison County.
The harvesting of trees under forest management is done to either improve the quality of the existing stand of trees (i.e. thinning) or to replace the existing stand (i.e. regeneration). Regeneration cuts include `group selection' where small patches are created, `shelterwood' cuts where large trees are left, and `clearcuts' where the stand is removed completely. Although forest management thinnings have wider public acceptance, both thinnings and regeneration cuts are essential at different points in the life of a managed forest.
Forest management through thinning can increase timber volume production more than two-fold over unmanaged stands through the periodic regulation of stand stocking or density (Leak and others 1986). Over one-third of Addison County's timberland is either too sparse or too dense to optimize productivity (Table 4.6-7).
Productivity can also be increased by improving the quality of the growing stock. In economic terms, quality is often a more important factor than quantity. Current mill values for red oak logs, for example, can range from $.13 per board foot to $1.40 per board foot depending entirely on quality.
Proper management of Addison County forests has been limited by inadequate markets and prices for low quality materials. This situation has lead to the common practice of "high-grading" or taking the best and leaving the worst. After repeated high-grading, thinning will no longer substantially improve productivity and the best timber management option is to start the stand over through some type of regeneration cut. Local, low grade markets such as small-scale wood energy production coupled with careful forest management could substantially improve the quality and productivity of Addison County's forests.
Although some planting of trees has been conducted in Addison County, over 97% of Addison County's forests owe their existence to natural regeneration. The potential does exist to re-introduce or increase species through planting. The Vermont State Tree Nursery is currently expanding the stock it offers to accomplish this objective.
Forest Products and Values
Addison County's forests provide a wide range of products and values. These include traditional wood products such as hardwood veneer, lumber, pulpwood, fuelwood, chipwood, and maple syrup. They also provide wildlife habitat, recreational opportunities, clean water supplies, unique sites, and aesthetically pleasing views.
Wood Products
The wood products industry is Vermont's second largest industry employing nearly 10,000 people in 1,120 Vermont businesses in 1991 (De Geus 1993). In Addison County, 80 wood products companies employ 555 people (De Geus 1993).
The average annual sawlog harvest in Addison County between 1980 and 1989 was roughly 9,632,000 board feet of which 64.7% was hardwood (De Geus 1990). During that same period of time the number of commercial sawmills in Addison County declined from 18 to 12. In 1991, about 15,063,000 board feet were harvested and 17,806,000 board feet were sawn in Addison County (De Geus 1993). The forests of Addison County also produce 19,497 cords of pulpwood, fuelwood, chips, and sawmill residues annually. Gallons of pure Vermont maple syrup are produced annually in Addison County and there are currently about 40 members in the Addison County Sugarmakers Association. Other wood products include specialty wood products such as balsam boughs, Christmas trees and even Shittake mushrooms.
Wildlife Habitat
Changes in wildlife populations have always accompanied shifts in habitat and land use. Although livestock predators such as wolves and mountain lions were hunted and trapped extensively from the early days of settlement, it was the shifts in habitat that profoundly impacted wildlife populations.
The primary forces that have altered the Addison County habitat in the past 350 years are agriculture, logging, windthrow, and to some degree, fire. Of these, agriculture was the greatest. As lands were cleared for agriculture, species such as black bear, white-tailed deer and wild turkey retreated from the heavily-farmed areas of Addison County. Other wildlife species associated with early successional habitats took their places. These included bobolinks, bluebirds, and ring-necked pheasants. As agricultural lands were abandoned, populations of deer, ruffed grouse, and snowshoe hare increased with the returning young forest. Populations of bluebirds, vesper sparrows, and upland sandpipers declined (DeGraaf and others 1992). As the forest has once again matured, pileated woodpeckers, mourning doves, fishers, and black bears have become more common.
The key to wildlife diversity across the landscape is to have the entire spectrum of habitat conditions represented. As agriculture becomes practiced on fewer and fewer acres, forest management activities that create openings in the forest will become increasingly important in improving the habitat for early-successional species. Blocks of undisturbed and unmanaged forests will continue to be important for species favoring climax forest habitat.
Just across Lake Champlain, in neighboring New York, almost 2.5 million acres have been permanently removed from the timber resource base and provide this kind of habitat. This is an area over one third the size of Vermont.
Recreation Opportunities
Addison County forests provide a wide range of recreational opportunities from hiking, hunting, cross-county skiing, mountain biking, and snowmobiling. These activities are often conducted on access roads and trails originally constructed for the removal of forest products.
Data quantifying the nature and extent of these recreational activities in forests throughout Addison County are generally unavailable. One popular recreational area in Addison County where recreational use data exists is Snake Mountain (located on the Addison-Weybridge border). Every year over 5000 people hike Snake Mountain to enjoy the managed forests and spectacular views of the Champlain Valley.
Water Quality
It has been suggested that water will be the premiere forest product of the twenty-first century. Forests, including managed forests, produce higher quality water than any other land use.
Forests adjacent to streams and rivers are particularly important in that they shade streams, provide important woody debris, and act as a filter to capture pollutants before they reach the stream.
In 1987, the Acceptable Management Practices For Maintaining Water Quality on Logging Jobs in Vermont were adopted. These practices focus on the construction, maintenance, and closure of truck roads, skid trails, and log landings as well as the retention of protective buffer strips to maintain water quality.
Proper implementation of the AMP's results in an excellent transportation system that can be easily maintained and repeatedly used over time. These transportation systems improve access for non-timber uses as well.
One of the most common misconceptions about forest management is that clearcutting causes soil erosion. This is often used as an argument to prohibit the practice of clearcutting. Twenty-five years of research at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Watershed in New Hampshire has proven that poor transportation networks cause soil erosion in the northeast and not silvicultural practices such as clearcutting.
Unique Forest Sites
An inventory of ecologically significant forested sites in Addison County is maintained by the Nongame and Natural Heritage Program in Waterbury, Vermont. Addison County currently has 14 natural forest communities represented at 25 different sites in 12 towns (Table 4.6-8). Over three-quarters of the sites are publicly-owned or are protected by conservation easements. The criteria under which these sites are designated need to be carefully examined as to what does and does not constitute a unique site, particularly when designation means removing the site from productive use.
As explained in the Natural and Fragile Areas section of this Plan, natural heritage inventories are often divided into those resources of greater than statewide significance, those of statewide significance, and those of local significance. The suggested priority system on page 4.2-9 of that section would apply to the classification of these forested natural heritage resources also.
Some of these communities are referred to as "old growth." Arriving at a definition of old growth timber is one of the most controversial subjects in forestry today. Old growth forest are important reservoirs of information that provide research opportunities on human impacts. One definition in Vermont is any forest "where human disturbance has been minimal and natural disturbance has been limited to small-scale windthrow events or natural death of trees (Thompson 1992). Five guidelines are used to identify old growth forests. These include lack of physical or historical evidence of human use, evidence of long-term natural conditions, multiple canopy layers, a stand at least 10 acres in size, and trees older than 150 years (Thompson 1992).
Another definition is forestland that has never been harvested and where there has been no human disturbance. Under this definition there may be about 6-8 million acres of old growth forest left in the United States and none in Vermont. Almost all of the true old growth is owned by the federal government and much of that is permanently protected. Another 91 million acres of federal land has been removed from the timber resource base and will be old growth at some point in the future. About 60,000 acres of this federal land is located in Vermont, about 20,000 acres in Addison County. This does not include 2.5 million acres of future old growth across the Lake in New York. The various definitions of old growth need to be examined and the implications of those definitions carefully considered.
Methods for protecting significant natural forest communities vary but there are some general guidelines. Areas in the Green Mountain Natural Forest are currently being managed as old growth. In other significant natural forest communities, management techniques being used to maintain those communities include maintenance of a core area and selective harvesting under winter conditions leaving buffer areas around rare plant sites. In some cases, careful selection cutting can benefit significant natural communities by providing canopy openings (Marshall 1993).
Addison County has five trees that are the largest for the species in Vermont (Freeman 1990). These are a bur oak in New Haven, an eastern white pine, a Scotch pine, and a yellow-poplar in Middlebury, and an English walnut in Weybridge.
Economic Viability, Use Value Taxation, and the Working Landscape
Over the last 250 years the markets in which the forest products from Addison County must compete have changed dramatically. At first only local, then regional and national, now our forest product enterprises compete against firms from around the world in both buying resources and in selling products.
This has far-reaching implications for the economic viability of Addison County forest lands. While our product prices are determined globally, most of our costs are determined locally.
Therefore all factors that affect the cost of production in growing, harvesting, transporting, and processing forest products also affect the ability of forestland to earn a rate of return that is competitive with alternative land uses.
When growing forest products is no longer economically viable, and the land is forced into an alternative use the impact is damaging. It is damaging not just to the wood products industry and the people who earn their living directly of indirectly from that industry, but also to almost all the other public benefits and values, discussed above, that are associated with growing forest products.
Chief among the factors affecting the economic viability of forest land is the way in which property taxes are assessed. A typical acre of forestland in Addison County can grow about 6 to 8 dollars worth of forest products per year. After management expenses of about 2 dollars per acre, this leaves 4 to 6 dollars per acre per year to cover the expense of interest and property taxes. Even if interest expenses are ignored, under current property tax law a great many towns in Addison County, and throughout Vermont, assess property taxes on forestland at more than 4 to 6 dollars per acre per year. In some towns, taxes are twice that high. Very few, if any, investments or industries pay 100 to 200 percent of their pre-tax income in property taxes and survive for long.
To address this issue in the late 1970's, when the State Legislature adopted a policy of taxing farm and forestland at development value, instead of the value in its current use, the Legislature also adopted the Use Value Appraisal Program, sometimes called the Current Use Program. This program corrects the tax rate on land being used to grow farm and forest products and makes the tax burden on such land commensurate with the income it earns and commensurate with the burden such land places on town services.
More importantly, the use value taxation helps maintain the working rural landscape which is so important to maintaining the rural character, the rural culture, and the rural economy of Vermont. This working landscape is both scenic and productive. As scenic landscape, it provides an important benefit to the tourism industry each year attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors and the money they spend when they are here. As productive farm and forest land, it provides resource base not only for the people who earn their living directly from the land, but also for all the people who earn their living from industries that add value to farm and forest products through further processing and manufacturing. It is these people who make up the rural culture of Vermont, a culture that constitutes the living heritage of Addison County and Vermont.
In recent years the Current Use Program has been underfunded, however, and in 1993 there is a proposal in the legislature to eliminate the forestland portion of the Program altogether.
Another important aspect of the working rural landscape is that it is largely privately owned. For almost all those who earn their living growing farm and forest products, their land is their life savings. They have no pension funds, trust funds or mutual funds. Therefore, the impact of any land use or environmental regulations upon the value of working rural landscape should be carefully considered, particularly regulations that are highly subjective and vague, with little direct connection to public health or safety.
The Vermont Constitution states that "private property ought to be subservient to public uses when necessity requires it, nevertheless, whenever any person's property is taken for the use of the public, the owner ought to receive an equivalent in money." When private property owners are required by law or regulation to provide a public benefit from their property, an effort should be made to find ways to justly compensate them for the loss they incur. To do otherwise could be considered by some to create a discriminatory tax, whereby a public benefit is financed by the property owner only, instead of by the beneficiary, which is the general public.
Another advantage of compensating property owners when requiring them to provide public benefits from their land is that it prevents a private asset with public benefits from being converted into a private liability. Sometimes this liability can become quite large if continuing to provide the public benefit means the land is restricted from growing farm or forest products and thereby forced to operate at an economic loss. The best solutions, such as allowances for clustered housing, are those that are mutually beneficial to both the property owner and the general public
Discussion
Addison County forests are diverse and resilient. They provide a wide range of products and values including wood fiber, maple syrup, water, wildlife habitat, recreational opportunities and aesthetics. Their ecology and management are unique to Addison County.
DeGraaf and others have (1992) suggested that the period of increased fuelwood cutting in the mid 1970's "marked a change in attitude toward forests from one of protection or neglect to one of use and management." Wide differences of opinion, however, still exist over the uses and values of the forests of Addison County. At present, this is particularly true of publicly-owned forests.
Some of these differences can be attributed to pre-conceived ideas "rooted" in other ecosystems under vastly different management practices and ownership types. Other differences are centered around seemingly conflicting values associated with forest resources.
DeGraaf (1992) tells us that "the mixing of vegetative types, size classes, and an assortment of features" determines the diversity of wildlife communities. This same "mixing" of forest types, classes, and features will also determine the diversity of values that our forests will accommodate in the future.
THE ROLE OF CULTURE IN ADDISON COUNTY What is meant by culture is discussed. For example, choices made about the built and natural environment that express culture.
CULTURAL RESOURCES DISCUSSED Some of what is discussed as cultural resources are represented by tangible things such as buildings, while another part of the discussion includes attitude toward place. Both tangible and attitudinal aspects need to be included in the discussion of cultural resources. Attitudes about what is notable in regard to culture change over time.
QUALITIES OF ADDISON COUNTY'S CULTURAL LIFE Some of the qualities of Addison County's cultural life are listed: active attachment to local community and its institutions; volunteerism; tolerance for difference; and a recognition that folks must make their own amusements, all this within the context of a growing recognition of the modern world presented in the media. Addison County continues to support its cultural institutions.
CHANGE It is noted that the composition of Addison County's culture is in a period of transition. The concept of intentional community, as opposed to community which is solely derived from its historical context is described.
CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS Cultural institutions are described as either local, regional or supraregional depending on the distance and intended audience of their operations. A list is included. Regional Cultural resources which primarily serve the region are described, particularly Middlebury College. Statewide cultural institutions located in Addison County are described. Public Lands as a cultural resource are described.
Locally The County's people are identified as the Region's greatest cultural resource. Local celebrations over the seasons are noted. The important role of schools as local cultural resources is discussed.
CULTURAL EVENTS Cultural events serve to broaden knowledge of and participation in the cultural life of the County. There is also a cultural aspect to natural resources, how nature and the environment are perceived. Examples of these kinds of resources are mentioned.
CULTURAL RESOURCES DOCUMENTATION/ANALYSIS
What is the Role of Culture in Addison County?
Culture contributes to a richer human experience. At the most basic level, the family circle is culture. Radiating outward, it puts its stamp on society. The townscape, its composition of buildings and open spaces, its parks and plans for development and land use exemplify culture: what we value and want to see preserved, as opposed to what we consider disposable or replaceable illuminate our attitudes towards both past and present forms of life. What we do with both the built and natural environment expresses our culture. How we bury our dead, build and maintain our towns, memorialize our losses and victories, care for our elderly and transmit our sense of ourselves and our history to our young express our culture.
What Are Cultural Resources
Several factors are at work here as we try to identify cultural resources. One might call some the hard evidence for they are characterized by things that are tangible: roads, buildings, colleges, cemeteries, parks and wildlife preserves: the particular, cumulative organization of individual towns since their founding. Some are "softer", they encompass the evolution of attitudes towards place that add up to our sense of the present. They interpenetrate. Both need to be taken into account as we speak of cultural resources. A native American burial mound or an eighteenth century building or a nineteenth century landscape have a more complex meaning at the end of the twentieth century than when they were originally built. They transmit the continuity of human occupation and culture in a particular place. They are our common legacy: fragile, irreplaceable, and constantly in need of protection. Perceptions of what constitutes education, history, the arts and culture, or what is "good" for them, are always in flux. Therefore, as we try to give a picture of cultural resources in Addison County in 1992, we want to recognize at the same time the value of past or future points of view, whether they increment, confirm or contradict the present statement.
The same qualities that characterize political life in Addison County also permeate its cultural life: an active attachment to local community and its institutions, more so than to regionalism; a long and productive history of volunteerism seated in the community; and a tolerance for difference. The county has a rural recognition that it must make its own amusements, be they fiddling, contra-dancing, quilting, amateur theatricals, choral music or tractor pulls - all this coupled with a recognition of the modern world and its ways largely imparted by television. And unlike many rural areas in the United States in the late 20th century, Addison County has held onto or replenished its population and sustained active support for cultural institutions such as schools, libraries, historical societies and for volunteer or community funded service agencies that see to the needs of the acutely ill, the underprivileged, the elderly, the retarded, young children, young parents and animals.
Change
We're in a period of transition. As demographics and the economy change, work and social lives change, diluting the agricultural base of society and the self-sufficiency of towns in earlier days. Local community shares its concerns with the larger, regional community. Many people move in circles removed from the farmer's cycle of the year. Farmers have formed regional cooperatives as marketing practices have changed over time.
Something we might call intentional community is going on. Intentional community is not the same as historic community - town structure, services, traditions, families who have lived here two hundred years. It can be seen in the volunteerism of newcomers who wish to contribute something to their towns; in the revival and revision of traditional craft and art forms; in an interest in local and Vermont history on the part of people whose forebears lived elsewhere as well as those who "own" that history by birthright; in the integration and self-definition of the new Vermonters. It's more a creative construct than an evolved cultural form. The Marble Works in Middlebury is an example of intentional community in the business world. More than a shopping mall, it creatively incorporates a workplace of the past into the culture of the present.
Cultural institutions in Addison County can be described as local, regional, or supra-regional depending on the distance and intended audience of their operations. (See the attached inventory)
Regional
The Region is fortunate to have Middlebury College with its fine library, fully open to Addison County residents for a small yearly fee; wide variety of public lectures, theatre, music, literary dance and film events, and art exhibitions. A major employer in Vermont, and highly-ranked nationally for academic excellence, the College has 900 full and part-time employees and 2000 students. Its summer language and English schools, and Writer's Conference bring many more students to the region and enliven its culture. Its policy has been to share its cultural riches with the community. In 1992, the Middlebury College Center for the Arts opened with greatly expanded facilities offering a permanent art gallery, and expanded programs for drama, dance, art and music. Programming for the greater community, including programs for schoolchildren, will be an integral part of the Center's mission. Founded in 1800, its historic buildings and park like campus resembling a small New England town in themselves, Middlebury College, renowned for programs that promote global communication, remains rooted in the tolerant community values of its founders.
Other institutions of higher learning active in the county are the Middlebury branches of Community College of Vermont and of UVM Extension. Many of the Community College's courses are taught by local professionals and academics in direct response to local needs and interests. There is no full-time faculty. The County Agricultural Center is an umbrella for diverse entities such as the Soil Conservation Service, the Addison County Forester, the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, and the UVM Extension Service. A pilot project in archeology is taking place in Addison County under the joint direction of the SCS and the State Archeologist. The Extension Service offers wide-ranging programs which benefit County residents in many ways. The Morgan Horse Farm in Weybridge is also part of the University of Vermont. Two other academic institutions are located in Middlebury. One is the Geonomics Institute, located on the Middlebury campus, which specializes in international relations and economics. The other is the Salzburg Seminar which arranges international academic conferences that take place in a castle in Salzburg, Austria.
Statewide
Several major statewide cultural institutions are located in Addison County. The Vermont Community Foundation, an endowment fund and grants program founded in 1985, has its office in Cornwall. The Vermont State Craft Center at Frog Hollow in Middlebury is known far beyond the region for its distinction in contemporary crafts. There are three museums: the Sheldon Museum in Middlebury, the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum at Basin Harbour, and Rokeby, a museum in Ferrisburgh that follows a single family's life and artifacts in that very house from the eighteenth century to the mid-twentieth. The Champlain Valley Folk Festival attracts thousands to its annual program in Kingsland Bay State Park. The Vermont Folklife Center, one of a very few institutions of its kind in the nation, is located in the basement of the Painter House, an historic building in Middlebury. The Center provides exhibitions and conducts research on folklife in Vermont.
Public Lands
Public lands in the region include forests, marshland, wildlife sanctuaries and lakefront. The Long Trail passes through Addison County. A significant portion of the eastern part of the county is included in the Green Mountain National Forest. Conservation groups link themselves with local rivers: the Otter Creek Audubon Society, the Lewis Creek Conservation Committee. Some local businesses - restaurants, even a bakery - provide a locale for occasional performances, poetry readings and art exhibitions.
Local
The greatest cultural resource in Addison County is its people. Most people share a sense of pleasure at being here, whether their families have been residents for two hundred years or two days. There is a tolerance, even admiration for "characters", be they eccentric or even disreputable. There is a continuum of memory, oral tradition and a willingness to listen that spurs intergenerational projects such as the one recently funded by ACEEF (Addison County Educational Endowment Fund), which supported local history gathering by schoolchildren among senior citizens. Addison County Field Days celebrate farm life and rural pleasures and pastimes each year. Strawberries are a cause for celebration, too, as are the Fourth of July, the Festival on the Green, community cross country ski races and winter carnivals, and the seasonal harvests of maple syrup, wild game, apples and other agricultural produce. At these moments, and also at times of dire need and disaster, the community is one big extended family. In some communities, there are seasonal residents, be they tourists, workers or part-time residents.
The local elementary schools are the place for socialization, integration and cultural enrichment. The school is central in creating a feeling of belonging to a particular place. Arts events created and funded by the Vermont Council on the Arts often take place in the schools where parents, senior citizens, and other members of the communi-
ty are invited to join school children in the programs. The school is where a sense of belonging expands from the family circle to the community. There are more demands on the schools than ever before, with a larger cross-section of the population not necessarily rooted in the community for generations. Though sometimes it appears that local schools are uneconomical, they serve a valuable purpose in anchoring the community. The committee notes the importance of local schools in socializing people, both children and adults - including adults who are not parents. It's a sign of cultural and generational change that members of the community are involved in the school rather than leaving the school in the hands of the education `experts'. Valuable intergenerational projects are going on all over the county, with senior citizens sharing their sense of place with the young in interviews, videos, and tours of historic structures. ACEEF, the Addison Central Educational Endowment Fund, a recently created organization, supports cultural, intergenerational, arts, and experimental educational projects not provided for in local school budgets.
Cultural Events and Historic Resources
One of the pivotal concerns of the planning process is to envelop all in the cultural life of the community. Media events, tours, seminars, publications, demonstrations at the Field Days, special music and drama events such as the 1992 Festival on the Green in Middlebury, or `old home' days in other communities, all serve to broaden knowledge of, and participation in, the cultural life of the County. "The Historic Architecture of Addison County", a book published in 1992 by the Vermont Division of Historic Preservation, is one of only two such county reference books in the State. Due to funding cuts at the Division, no further editions are planned. This book contains photos and detailed descriptions of over 500 historic structures in Addison County.
There is a cultural aspect to natural resources - how nature and the environment are perceived - how we fit into the scheme of things. Our origins parallel the origins of all biological systems. A sense of unity contributes to a sense of the value of nature and the importance of resource preservation. Nature museums, outdoor nature walks, wildlife sanctuaries, and other similar resources help us understand this connection.
The Regional Planning Commission can help to articulate and transmit the region's culture both inside and outside Addison County by coordinating between agencies and resources, providing assistance with grant applications for funds for projects, networking with other RPCs and state agencies, and providing information, on request, to member communities on cultural resource identification, education and preservation.
LIST OF CULTURAL RESOURCES IN ADDISON COUNTY
This listing is for information purposes. Regional significance has not yet been established.
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SUPRA-REGIONAL |
REGIONAL |
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- Middlebury College: including Libraries, Art Center, Theaters & Galleries. - Children's Art Exchange - Geonomic's Institute - Salzburg Seminar - Vermont Community Foundation - Vermont Folklife Center - Community College of Vermont, Middlebury Branch - UVM Extension, Middlebury Branch - Morgan Horse Farm - State Forest Land - State Parks - Lake Champlain Islands Trust - Champlain Valley Folk Festival - Vermont State Craft Center at Frog Hollow - Fraternal, Military and Service Organizations - Ducks Unlimited and | |