Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Rep. Ela Chapin (Member)]: We're live.

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: Welcome back to the House Environment Committee. We are going to be hearing an update from the Vermont Housing Conservation Board on Act 59. There's a lot of folks in the room. Do

[Nick Bennett (Chair, Vermont Trails & Greenways Council)]: you want

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: to introduce them? Are you all planning to speak?

[Gus Seelig (Executive Director, Vermont Housing & Conservation Board)]: I'm going to introduce our team, and then there's members of the TAC who will speak when we're done. And our plan is to try to be done 11:15, 11:20, because I think you wanted to hear from the TAC.

[Rep. Rob North (Member)]: Yes, that would be great.

[Gus Seelig (Executive Director, Vermont Housing & Conservation Board)]: That may depend on the number of questions you ask us. So for the record, Gus Selig, Executive Director for the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board.

[Annie Decker (Associate Director of Resource Development & Resiliency, VHCB)]: I'm Annie Decker. I'm the Associate Director of Resource Development and Resiliency at Vermont Housing Conservation Board.

[Isaac Passehl (Conservation Stewardship Director, VHCB)]: I'm Isaac Passeld, Conservation Stewardship Director.

[Trey Martin (Director of Conservation & Rural Community Development, VHCB)]: And I'm Trey Martin, the Director of Conservation and Rural Community Development.

[Gus Seelig (Executive Director, Vermont Housing & Conservation Board)]: Okay, So very briefly, I'm gonna give the briefest of overviews and just say that, start by saying thank you to this committee, which helped get the board going many years ago, and you'll get our annual report, I think tomorrow on all the activities that we've been up to. We are, for those of you who don't know very much about us, or are confused by the alphabet soup of organizations and entities that you deal with, a multipurpose organization that really stands at the crossroads of land use. We are organized as a

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: Sorry to interrupt, sorry, excuse me. We don't let folks sit behind us over there. Thanks. If you can find another spot, that'd be great.

[Gus Seelig (Executive Director, Vermont Housing & Conservation Board)]: We are organized as a quasi public entity with responsibilities both to build housing, rehabilitate housing, and to conserve all types of land. And what you're looking at, we do that by making grants and loans either to municipalities or nonprofits or specific state agencies. And we have been charged with developing the Act 59 conservation plan in consultation with the Agency of National Resources. And of course, we're doing that also in consultation with you and tons of members of the public. We delivered an inventory report. We wrote to you last year about the delay in receipt of federal funds that held up our ability to get the planning process underway by a year. But our plan is to deliver that report at the end of this fiscal year, right around June 30, July 1. And that's still our plan. You're looking at a photograph that I think typifies our work of Willie Woods in Burke. It's the first publicly owned land there and has great environmental value, great resilience value for that community. Here's the goals that you gave us in statute, which speaks to economic vitality and quality of life for Vermonters. And you're looking again at Putney, Vermont, where we're building housing, providing permanent space for community garden and farmers market adjacent to or right across from the food co op in Putney and just down the street from key historic buildings. Putney is an interesting community because we've worked with them, Putney Mountain Association and the Windmill Hill Pinnacle Association on conservation of Ridgeline that has now, the original goal was a thousand acres and a 10 mile hiking trail reached 25 miles and 2,500 acres. And I think our goal again, as we lay out the plan and develop it is going to be more and more community led conservation along with the work we do with public entities and private landowners. This is a recent project that we love, Lily Woods, that speaks to our excuse me, this is Muddy Moose. It is in Morristown and it speaks to our dual goals. In this case, a 150 acre parcel contains eight vacation homes that are going to move from being vacation homes to year round permanent affordable housing for six of the eight homes. The other two will just be market rate homes. The 150 acres is really critical to the Lemoyo Valley ecosystem, includes 12 acres of floodplain forest, includes 7,700 feet of surface water protections along streams and really speaks to how our land in Vermont really speaks to multiple uses. So we're getting a lot out of the investment, which was a partnership between Downstreet Housing and the Snow Land Trust. This, we hope we come back on a different day to talk about rural communities and economic vitality. On the right is Lisa McDougall, who's a farmer who farmed on leased land in Pownall for a decade and used the Farmland Access Program to get a permanent move. In Shaftsbury, in Whetstone, we're seeing a 12 acre floodplain restoration along the Whetstone Brook, which will make the whole community safer. Big berm was removed. In East Callis, this is one of 80 historic preservation projects we've done around the state and our statute defines conservation to include historic preservation. The store was reopened to great success. There are three affordable apartments. And you may have heard recently about Vermont, our deal work with the Vermont Land Trust and Vermont Adaptive who just got a permanent home in Rochester that will conserve land. Among the things they do is provide support for people with disabilities and the support for veterans is always at no charge. So I think a great win for conservation, a great win for outdoor recreation. I'm gonna turn this over to Annie in minute, but Act 59, the Community Resilience and Biodiversity Act is what brings us to this. And I want to say a few things about things that have changed since Act 59 was adopted because we're living in a different world. And my recollection, Madam Chair, is that there was a predecessor act to Act 59 that did not succeed. And VHCV came forward when Act 59 was proposed to take the lead in doing the plan. And I think that's because of our track record of having conserved over 450,000 acres of farm and forest land across the state and working with a wide variety of stakeholders. What's changed the most are the assumptions that we had with the federal government and the Inflation Reduction Act, which would have given Vermont a lot of federal funding to implement and increase the rate of conservation. Fundamentally, the new administration has put those resources on the shelf, canceled many of them. Doesn't mean there's no federal resources left. There are still forest legacy funds. There's still community forestry funds. Still land and water conservation funds, but greatly diminished amount of federal resources. And as you all know from talking to your friends and neighbors, state resources are only getting tighter. Having said that, you did double our base budget by allocating a full transfer tax to fund us. And that's allowed us fundamentally to triple support for natural area projects, recreation projects, the sort of projects that really focus on biodiversity while holding steady our support for farmland conservation and increasing support for the Farm and Forest Liability Program. As you hear from my colleagues, aside from the changes in the atmosphere around increasing the pace of conservation, what we've heard from many people is we want not only to increase the rate of conservation, but to increase the quality of it, to increase restoration activities, and to increase support for landowners to build more capacity to undertake the mission and to enhance stewardship. So, those will be all important elements that you'll hear about as we go forward, both today and as we work on the report and work with TAC members. And with that, I'm going to stop and turn it over to Annie.

[Trey Martin (Director of Conservation & Rural Community Development, VHCB)]: So much. Thank you.

[Annie Decker (Associate Director of Resource Development & Resiliency, VHCB)]: Doctor. Can I bring this chair up so Isaac can join me? You. Well, thank you all again. Excited to give an overview on Act 59, where the work stands, and what's to come over the next few months as we prepare to deliver a plan to this committee. I did want to just start quickly, and know this committee knows Act 59 well. You've heard testimony last week that also touched a bit Act 59 from FBR. But I did wanna highlight just the vision and goals in the act are really, we're using this as a guide for the scope of the plan as it's being drafted. The vision as it stands is pretty broad and comprehensive, but the goals are specific and there's specific targets. So we're holding both of those pieces as we're working on drafting this plan. The Act 59 centers biodiversity protection and natural area conservation, but its overall vision does include more than that. It calls for conservation, but also supporting resilient communities and providing other public benefits. And this integrated approach that stacks conservation outcomes with other community outcomes closely aligns with the work that we do at VHCb. So this morning, as we talk about Act 59 and updates and what's coming, we're also excited to highlight some projects that do have strong biodiversity outcomes that we've supported, but also provide broader community benefits and climate resilience benefits, just to provide some examples of what we think this conservation really can look like on the ground and for communities moving forward.

[Alex Smith (Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, Vermont Chapter)]: Yeah. And so what you

[Isaac Passehl (Conservation Stewardship Director, VHCB)]: can see here on the screen is the Chutzville The wildlife Corridor, and we think it's a really great example of some of the actions that are likely to be rising to the top as we draft the plan. It's a it's a place where coalition building and enhancing partner capacity can really result in outcomes that advance the goals of Act 59. And so, you know, this is a Vermont conservation design priority target area. There was a recent report that came out last March about implementing Vermont conservation design that talked about talked about stepping stone blocks that help to facilitate wide wildlife movement between interior forest blocks. In this case, we're talking about a critical linkage between the Northern Green Mountains and the Worcester Range. And so we have had some projects that have closed recently and some projects that are recently funded in this area where that coalition coming together has really helped to advance the goals of Vermont Conservation Design and where we think we're wondering how can we help those types of efforts expand across the state to talk about all the 10 linkages that have been lifted up in implementing Vermont conservation design and that implementing Vermont conservation design report is sort of part of the core of how we're structuring the Vermont conservation design portion of the conservation plan. So we feel like it's a real opportunity to spread the success that's happened here to other areas across the street.

[Annie Decker (Associate Director of Resource Development & Resiliency, VHCB)]: I will touch on the Act 59 timeline very briefly. Again, I think this committee knows this well. But for phase one, that was the inventory report. That was the first kind of task at hand as per the act that was completed in July 2024. I think an important piece that we want to touch on about the inventory report process as we are now working on drafting the conservation plan, we received a lot of input during the phase one inventory report phase. There was a lot of stakeholder engagement that was included in the report itself, but we are using that outreach and engagement we received during that phase of the project to now help inform the draft plan that we've been working on. And there are slides later in this deck that speak to the public process we're going through to now kind of unveil that draft and and receive additional comment and input, but wanted to just elevate that piece of this work. But we are now in phase two, the drafting of the conservation plan itself. We'll talk more about what that looks like in later slides, but that will be due June 30. And we have been engaging in a comprehensive round of stakeholder engagement that we're excited to talk about in more detail. Very, very quickly, we did just want to highlight again, these are the results of the Phase one inventory phase. We've received, again, a lot of stakeholder engagement and input as part of this phase. And I think what we just want to highlight again is identifying that the acreage needed to meet those 2,030 goals is that 189,953 acres number and kind of holding that and elevating that as we draft this plan. And how do we get there?

[Isaac Passehl (Conservation Stewardship Director, VHCB)]: Yeah. And so you can see here, a shot that looks westward over the Sheetsville Hill Wildlife Corridor towards the Mount Mansfield block. And it just sort of illustrates one way that BHCB is already leaning into the types of projects that are priorities for Vermont conservation design. One way is that we've retooled our private working forest policy to help expand the types of projects that are eligible. And so we're already seeing projects that we're funding. We recently funded one that's in this shop, but we haven't yet closed. And so that's sort of one way that we're leaning in. Another way that we're leaning into trying to advance private lands conservation efforts is that we've heard from partners that they have donation easement pipelines that they don't have the capacity to implement because there's cost associated with doing a donation easement project. We've recently approved a policy where we can fund half of those costs without bringing the project to the full board, a streamlined process trying to find efficiencies in this time to advance the conservation tools of Act 59. So we we're definitely leaning fully into trying to advance this work in the most efficient way possible.

[Annie Decker (Associate Director of Resource Development & Resiliency, VHCB)]: So we are now in phase two, again, which is the drafting of the conservation plan itself. We wanted to talk about as we are drafting the plan, we're using the vision and the goals as kind of a framework for the scope of the plan. We're also looking at the Act and the four key criteria that are kind of identified as the components of the plan. And these would be conserving Vermont's agricultural land, working forests, historic properties and surface waters, developing an implementation or implementation methods for achieving the vision and goals of the Act using Vermont Conservation Design as a guide, providing an increasing equitable access to protected and conserved lands and land based enterprises, and implementing the vision of the goals of the act while also enhancing the state's current investments in working lands enterprises. So just using this as another demonstration of this is the scope and the framework with which we are approaching putting together a draft plan and kind of iterative drafts that we will continue to receive public input on over the coming months.

[Isaac Passehl (Conservation Stewardship Director, VHCB)]: Yeah. And the photo you see here is just another way that we've been leaning in to try to find efficiencies in these efforts. I know Danny came and spoke to you this past week and talked about trying to accelerate state land acquisitions. These are two projects that we've recently funded and another connectivity block that's a priority where we are not going to have a co holding easement partner. Our partners have come to us and said, we feel like we can better use our capacity to advance the goals focusing on other places to protect and that this is a place where VHCb can step up and really help to accelerate state lands by being the sole easement holder. And so these are these are good examples of that. Again, in locations that have been identified and implementing Vermont conservation design as priority areas, and then also a coalition effort to focus our conservation efforts on these really lands that are incredibly important for connectivity. And so the coalition, the enhancing partner capacity and the finding efficiencies are all part of the story here in ways that we're trying to advance the goals.

[Rep. Ela Chapin (Member)]: Can we just

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: visit this map a little bit? Just walk us through the colors. I get green is already state land.

[Isaac Passehl (Conservation Stewardship Director, VHCB)]: Yeah. So green is state land, and I'm seeing that there's private land conservation in yellow and then the two orange are the projects that we've recently funded that are new state land acquisitions. And then there's gray, which is important connectivity block, but that were that our partners are coming together similar to a shoots, fill a hill type scenario to try to figure out how to expand conservation efforts in these areas that the Vermont conservation design drafting crew have lifted up as places where permanent conservation is critical. And so I think everyone is really aligned here. And it's just that the coalition effort and bringing these conservation partners and state lands and funders together to focus on the areas that are most critical right now.

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: So the gray or I'm seeing slightly pink is kind of landowners you might be working with?

[Isaac Passehl (Conservation Stewardship Director, VHCB)]: I don't think we're identifying specific parcels of landowners that we're working with. I think there's some pink municipal lands in there as well. And then the two orange blocks, are surrounded by gray lands, are part of the priority area, but we're not we haven't identified specific parcels on this map that are a target for our conservation partners. It's just sort of the whole connectivity corridor between the Camel's Hump State Park and Mount Mansfield that we're feeling like we want to find permanent conservation and connectivity there, and our partners are working on that. But we don't show any specific parcels there that are targeted, although there's a lot of effort to work with landowners.

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: Yeah. Yeah. I wasn't trying to find specific parcels. Just trying to understand the pink is not yet conserved and it's.

[Annie Decker (Associate Director of Resource Development & Resiliency, VHCB)]: Think the pink looks a little the majority of the map is that grayish pinkish color. I think

[Trey Martin (Director of Conservation & Rural Community Development, VHCB)]: we're looking

[Annie Decker (Associate Director of Resource Development & Resiliency, VHCB)]: at that same.

[Rep. Sarah "Sarita" Austin (Clerk)]: Representative Austin. Yep. Can you just expand a bit on how you provide an increased equitable access? Sure. Well, I mean And what that means? I mean, and what what that

[Rep. Ela Chapin (Member)]: looks like?

[Isaac Passehl (Conservation Stewardship Director, VHCB)]: It depends on which parcels you're talking about. For state lands acquisition. One thing that's always critical for us is making sure that there's there's permanent access, public access to parcels. So all of our state land acquisitions and all of our natural area projects require public access. And that's pretty foundational to the work. It's dispersed public access so people have a right to go and walk on the land and hunt and to do all the things that ways that people engage. That's really important when we make those investments. It can look it's it's a different type of way that we approach it in farmland. Our farmland, we've put something in place called the option to purchase at agricultural value that tries to hold farmlands at a more affordable price so that farmers in future in the future can actually afford to acquire those lands and are competing with larger market forces that don't relate to agriculture. And we understand that even that can be difficult for new and beginning farmers to land onto land. And so you'll see actions in the in the draft plan that's coming out where we're thinking about how can we do more? How can the state do more? How can all of our partners come together to do more to help those new and beginning farmers where they're having to beat with farmers with a lot of capital. And, and so how can how can we advance the new and beginning farmers too? There's more work to do there. But the OPAV that I think the state is as a state really leading on is an incredible foundation to build upon. And so there's also community related projects that we focus on and that might be up a higher price to invest in, but that are gonna result in public access, you know, in in places that are closer to that.

[Gus Seelig (Executive Director, Vermont Housing & Conservation Board)]: I think you'll see another slide or two that'll speak to equitable access, and I would just say the Rochester example with Vermont Adaptive is another attempt at enhancing equitable access.

[Rep. Sarah "Sarita" Austin (Clerk)]: That and, you know, our demographic is we're definitely growing to an older we have the highest demographic, I think, in the country for elderly and just making sure there are thoughts on how Vermonters will be able to access the wilderness. Yeah. So go ahead with Appreciate your

[Annie Decker (Associate Director of Resource Development & Resiliency, VHCB)]: that feedback and that providing an increasing equitable access is kind of one of the four key components of as we're drafting the plan and holding that piece is something we're thinking about a lot across all of these different types of conservation. Thank you for asking I'll that and elevating continue. So wanted to touch a bit about the ways that we are engaging all of the different stakeholders who are involved in this project. The act itself identifies a number of stakeholder groups that VHCV in consultation with ANR should engage with as we draft this plan. So we have formed a technical advisory committee that has a member representing each of those stakeholder groups. That technical advisory committee, or the TAC, convenes starting in May 2025 and will continue meeting through the duration of this project. They meet about monthly. Can find information about what the TAC is up to on our project website, but essentially the TAC is serving in an advisory capacity, working with BHCV and ANR staff as we are developing draft content, bringing that to the TAC, synthesizing the comments and input that we're receiving, and developing materials that we then are sharing more broadly with the public. And that's kind of the iterative process that we're going through as we're developing this draft plan. So TAC is kind of serving as a sounding board in that way and a liaison to the stakeholder groups that they help represent so that we can ensure we're getting as much input and engagement around this draft plan as we can. I wanted to also touch briefly, I think this slide is probably one that this committee has seen before, but sharing the framework of how we're constructed with this draft plan. So we have the vision and goals, those four planning components, and we are kind of approaching that work by organizing the plan around three key objectives. Objective one and two in the most recent drafts that will come out next week are actually switched. So objective one will actually be the objective that focuses on centering Vermont conservation design. So this is kind of the ecological backbone of the plan, talking about how we restore and maintain an ecologically functioning and connected natural and working landscape. And then objective two will be that supporting conservation and communities objective. So this is kind of people on the land. We'll talk about working lands, equitable access in more detail, enhancing recreation opportunities. And then objective three brings it all together and talks about what do we need to actually implement these actions identified under objective one and two. It's about the capacity, the people, the funding, the collaborative opportunities, how do we work together to do this work and then steward the land that we're conserving. So kind of what's going on right now and what's coming in the next few months and how to stay involved in all the work that we're doing. So last night we shared with the committee the framework report. I think that's what you've seen ahead of our testimony today. That report was kind of an early draft plan that came out this fall that was shared broadly with stakeholders. We received a lot of public input, and we have turned that plus a lot of other feedback we've heard into a draft expanded framework report that will be released on Monday. Apologies we don't have that for you today, but we are excited to share that next week that will be available and live and on the website and ready for deep discussion and engagement and feedback. That Expanded Framework Report will be on the project website. It will live there for two months. We're providing a lot of opportunity for input engagement directly through the project website on that draft, but we're also kind of taking it on the road. So we have our second round of regional listening sessions, which will take place across the state also starting next Monday. And then five Mondays from there, going to different locations around the state and talking to folks in their communities and engaging with them on this draft material and hearing what's landing, what isn't, what are exciting opportunities that people are identifying in their communities. We'll also have a virtual session for those who can't meet in person. We also have a stakeholder led listening session opportunity that was an application opportunity we put out to all stakeholder groups to host their own meetings related to this draft plan and excited. There's been a lot of demand for that. We'll be reviewing those applications over the next few weeks, but we were really excited to see that stakeholder groups were very excited for this opportunity. And we're really looking forward to hearing what feedback comes out of those conversations. And then I just wanted to plug, we have this project website, vermontconservationplan.com, where you can follow along, see kind of those most recent drafts, what's coming up, where are these listening sessions being held, what's the TAC up to. It's a great landing page to stay involved and informed. Of course, we're always happy to answer questions and help navigate what's going on with Act 59. And with that, I'm going to hand it over to Trey.

[Trey Martin (Director of Conservation & Rural Community Development, VHCB)]: I wanted you to get to meet all of us today. And also to break it up so that we you're going hear some repetition now of things that you've already heard, but kind of going back into the, what are the key themes, the chair and I spoke last week and she asked that, we talked about what are we excited about? What are we doing? What is this, what are we manifesting in this plan? And so we thought we wanted to talk about some of the urgencies that we've heard and then some of the ways that we're addressing this. You you don't have to look up and look around too much these days to know that, you know, there's an urgency out there that has nothing to do with Vermont and nothing to do with biodiversity, but just an urgency of democracy. And I just it makes me recall last spring, Gus and I got to go to the Wolcott Community Forest closing with the Trust for Public Land and the Northern Rivers Land Trust and the school and the community. This is hundreds of acres protected adjacent to a school with affordable housing, interior forest. It's a connectivity zone. There's miles of stream frontage, and it's a living laboratory for the Walcott Elementary School that's located there. There's trails across all that property. And when Gus spoke to the community, he talked about this. This is how we come together in a nonpartisan way to take care of our places, our communities, our families, and our lives. That's what conservation can do, and that's why we all love our work. That's sort of the first theme is that we want to bring this act. We want to bring these recommendations to the body because this gives a chance for people to work together and set aside some of the things that divide us. There are a lot of needs and there are a lot of barriers right now. You could see the photo that Andrew Brewer took of the flood a couple of summers ago in Downtown Montpelier. My recollection of that summer is just the way that all of our children ran towards danger to take care of our downtown, to empty out the basements of the stores, wading through stuff that was like, we used to tell our daughter, Finley, that her boots, we called them the Sess boots, because they are covered in something gross, but Sess was the least gross thing in the floodwaters in Montpelier. And when you think about what it revealed to us, it's that there's a, not only a critical shortfall of capacity and funding to think about what conservation, what permanent conservation can do to increase resilience, but there was, weren't collaborative enough, we didn't have enough TA, we didn't have enough stewardship, we don't have enough coordination to think about how do we use this tool that is driven by applicants and partners. They come forward when a landowner says, want to conserve. How do we begin to think about doing this in a strategic way? What's the model that shows where conserved wetlands or restored wetlands and flood plains would actually decrease the danger for our downtowns while also opening up habitat and access to those places? How can we be really intentional about what we do? Which means we need to have more of that. We need capacity across spectrum of organizations who do this, and we need to be really intentional about having shared priorities. And so that we know that when we say we're bringing state investments that they're contributing to this pattern of connection and function. In terms of what we've been doing, Gus and the team have touched on a bunch of different innovations that we've brought forward at VHCb. I think the most important thing to recognize though is that, as Gus said, your support has allowed us to triple the amount of work, the amount of funding and capacity that goes out into natural area protection over the last five years. And the trend, if it continues, looks really strong where the program is building the pipeline of projects is increasing with partners. The interest in collaboration around things like reconnecting the greens or the Schutzville Corridor or other connective blocks is that's as we gain a common language and a set of common goals, we're already seeing that that's paying off. We're as Gus and folks said, we're also doing this through that sole held easement program where we can, instead of having a complicated deal with multiple partners, we can hold for public lands. We can provide funding for donated easements. We've been increasing not just the amount of money that we give to partners, nonprofits to do the work, but we're finding new partners out there who want to be part of that system. So, you know, from the traditional partners that you think of all the way out now to Cold Hollow to Canada and Trust for Public Land has increased its work. Northern Rivers Land Trust that I mentioned, Stowe Land Trust has really stepped up in their region. Down in Southern Vermont, there's a group of small trusts that have really come together called the Southern Vermont Conservation Coalition. They're working to also be really, really intentional. So lastly, we've recognized in terms of needs and investments and innovations that we we really need to also think about those really large partners. Nature Conservancy, Vermont Land Trust, ANR, the ones who hold a lot of the conserved land and whose whose job it is to take care of that in perpetuity, which means forever, which is expensive and hard to even imagine. But we've been out. We gave investments to both VLT and A and R recently to increase their stewardship, and we've been working closely with TNC to help them think more broadly about partner capacity. Another theme that we really want to make sure that we're talking about is collaboration. I think you've heard a lot about that today already about the way that we bring people together, but it is about that. Like I said, that shared language or shared priorities that we have. This is a one of our favorite partnerships is the work we've done with Fish and Wildlife. You can see the Lemon Fair Wildlife Management Area there, which is over 1,500 acres of land that's accessible for regulated hunting, fishing, and trapping wildlife watching. It's a migratory bird refugia. It's wonderful wetland bottomland community, and it's come together because so many local partners have worked with fish and wildlife to bring lots and lots of parcels into that 1,500 acres. Our most recent public there was a 176 acres, and that's how we've been doing it is building these really large protected areas one one deal at a time. Again, you heard from from commissioner Fitzgow last week about, their work to imagine how BCD, the Vermont Conservation Design would be implemented, so don't want to spend too much time on that today except to add one thing, which is that you heard Isaac and Annie were talking about reconnecting the greens and the Schutzville corridor.

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: Can you just hold for a second?

[Nick Bennett (Chair, Vermont Trails & Greenways Council)]: I hear you. Thanks. Sorry about that.

[Trey Martin (Director of Conservation & Rural Community Development, VHCB)]: Button gets pushed and I just keep going. But yeah, no, I wanted to just I wanted to highlight one other thing about the recommendations that ANR has brought forward around Vermont Conservation Design, which is yes, it's about connectivity. It's about resilience. It's about protecting waterways and interior forests, But one of the key recommendations is that we also try to find ways to invest in the parts of Vermont that aren't as heavily concerned, and so that that area that Isaac and Annie described in Central Vermont connecting the Greens and the Worcester And Camelstomp. This is a part of the state where we've really focused, the Northern And Southern Greens, the Worcester Range, the Northeast Kingdom. There are other places around Vermont that are much less subscribed and where we we're we're asking why what do communities need in these other parts of Vermont to to, you know, step into this? And and so that's another big focus of that that you I mean, here's the Goulet WMA addition in Addison County, which is a a fantastic project near I think near where the chair lives, and it's over 3,000 acres. It's Ducks Unlimited plus EPA plus the HCV coming together to protect this. But how do we do this in the places, you know, in Southeastern Vermont and Southwestern Vermont, places where communities haven't had this benefit yet? Another, you know, just this is the fruit of collaboration is projects that have multiple benefits. So when you bring multiple partners together, you think about multiple outcomes, and that helps us to get more funding and more leverage and more work. So one of the things that this plan emphasizes is the stackability of benefits or the co benefits. So, Darling Hill and Nick, you're going hear from Nick in a little bit, one of our TAC members from the Trails and Greenways Council and Dimba. But this isn't just about mountain biking. It's also a place that protected for mountain biking allows a lot of other goods for the community. It's not just the money that comes in, but it's protecting those forests, those meadows, those places that also produce boards and cords and agricultural commodities and other uses. So stackable benefits. Valley Brook in Morgan was an Act 76 funded project. So your clean water service providers, this is work we did up in the Northeast Kingdom where we restored about a mile of this pristine brook. We reconnected several rebuilt several culverts so that they're right sized for aquatic organism passage. We protected the road. The brook trout came back, rebuilt the whole alluvial fan and the wetland that leads into it, restored several and removed farm roads that were draining right into this. And the only problem with a project like this is that we can't do it everywhere. It's very expensive to do these restoration projects. And then how do you prioritize, which is, again, something we want to lean into. And then finally, Tango Way up in Brunswick is on the Connecticut River. It's an example of multiple benefits where we not only are retiring and restoring some farmland that's in flood plain and isn't good for production of agricultural commodities. And as there's a seed fall dispersal methodology that's going to let that grow back up into silver maple and other flood plain forest species. But we're we're slowly phasing out agriculture, and some of the parcel will continue to be productive in perpetuity. So there's not just conservation for the flood plain, but also for that ongoing production. And you asked about equity of access. So here's coming back to this last slide. Wanted these are three examples of what we mean by that. I think you heard already about farmland access on the on the far right there. This is another family that was able to access affordable farmland because of VLT's access program. They're also converting to organic, which is something that we often see. And we talk about the importance of farmland in conservation for biodiversity because it's such a a high percentage of conserved farms is woodland, wetland, meadows and fields. It's only small parts of conserved farms are are growing, you know, agricultural crops. Most of the farms we produce are helping to increase that connectivity and the protection of natural areas. Camp Dream on the far left is an effort VHEV has been involved with for a couple decades, bringing kids from affordable housing communities from across the region to a honest, you know, true summer camp experience in Vermont, but also allowed us to conserve a big block of land in Fletcher. There's a, you know, lovely watershed there, a really, really pristine pond that's accessible there. And then Camp Sunrise in in in in Benson is is one of our recent favorite projects where we worked with outright Vermont to buy the old boy scout camp there to restore it, to to do some to help them with the conservation so that they could then go out and raise the money to to rebuild the dam and to rebuild the infrastructure so that LGBTQ youth can come from all over New England to one of the few places where safe and protected for for summer camp experiences. But also two beautiful and pristine ponds that their whole shorelines are protected as a result of this conservation. There's a a wooded parcel. There's a wetland, and there's a springing trail right in there. The community is gonna continue to have access in addition to the camp. That takes us to the end of kind of what we wanted to say to y'all this morning. I know we wanna make way for some of the folks who've been on the TAC, but probably want to answer some questions first as well.

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: Yeah. Thanks for your presentation to all of you and your work implementing Act 59. I know it was a big ask and that you've done some a lot of work and a lot of learning along the way, and we appreciate it. I have a couple of nuts and bolts questions. Just to start off, you talked about some changes that you've made along the way as you're implementing Act 59 and applying it to your existing programs. I'm curious about well, first of all, is there a cap on conservation projects that what is the cap on dollars that you'll put into a conservation project?

[Trey Martin (Director of Conservation & Rural Community Development, VHCB)]: It depends on what type of a project it is. We have different guidelines that apply to different types of projects, and and and they have different caps associated with them. So some of the caps, like for a, like, a a local area project that's recreational focused, I think that's was it a 150,000 or a 175,000? But they they go up all the way to to 4 or 5 or $600,000 for some of the caps. And sometimes often, we ask our board to waive the caps because projects are so important. Either and and the acreage has become more expensive over time as well. So Yeah. Because that's something we're revisiting.

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: Yeah. I'm hearing feedback that the caps are not appropriate or that they're really limiting. The amount of money available isn't worth the time for staff to apply for the project. Where can we find the different types of projects and the CAPS? Where's that laid out

[Trey Martin (Director of Conservation & Rural Community Development, VHCB)]: for us? It's all all on the BHCB website under under conservation programs. There's guidelines, but we can write up a spreadsheet that you can send something back that says here's the different guidelines and what the associated CAPS are. Yeah. It's something we've heard too. And it's part of it's one of the recommendations in the plan is to look at our guidelines and figure out how to align them with the goals of the plan. So we're, we are aware of this and working towards that.

[Gus Seelig (Executive Director, Vermont Housing & Conservation Board)]: We have a committee of our board that has asked us to review and change the guidelines, so we will revisit that in relatively short order this spring. And in the meantime, the board has repeatedly waived gaps in order to make a project happen. The real estate market, as you know, has just changed dramatically since the pandemic began. So they're waiving on most projects.

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: And I'm happy to hear that you're putting objective one as front and center Vermont conservation design. That was really the big impetus behind this bill, to get this exactly what I'm getting from y'all, which is the coordination and the attention to the priorities that reflect that great framework. I have just want to sort of state publicly that I noticed that. That's great. I'm glad that that's going to be a priority. And I just would hope that in the previous slide where there's four things, no mention of biodiversity, which I think is a really important piece of what we're doing here, which is never to take away from the other great priorities that we've invested in in the past, but to elevate biodiversity as a really critical feature of our conservation programs. I see that you've done that in the objectives. I appreciate it, and I hope we can continue to hold that awareness.

[Trey Martin (Director of Conservation & Rural Community Development, VHCB)]: And those those four criteria that Annie talked about are taken straight from the act. That that's from the the planning mandate. So that's we include those along with the vision, along with the the goals as kind of the constellation of stars we're navigating to. So the VCD is sort of proxy for this is all about connection and interior forest, like health, and function. But, yes, we that's that

[Jamie Fidel (Director, Audubon Vermont)]: we are in agreement about about that.

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: And maybe maybe now is not the time, although if you can give me the high level, well, I am interested in the requirements of conservation projects. So with that, awareness of biodiversity is also an important part of our conservation landscape. Hearing a little feedback that not every natural area conservation project needs to be held to, like, the public access trails, parking areas kind of standard, and I'd love to hear a response from you all about that.

[Gus Seelig (Executive Director, Vermont Housing & Conservation Board)]: Well, mean, our perspective, we have always said with private landowners, that's not a requirement.

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: Sorry, but a private individual landowner or like a nature conservancy or a conservation group private landowner?

[Gus Seelig (Executive Director, Vermont Housing & Conservation Board)]: With the nature conservancy, we have always sought multiple benefits. And it is a balancing act that we take on a case by case basis. So if there's really some reason that the public cannot access that land, that is among the considerations that the board would take up in considering a project. So there's not a ban on it. But certainly when trade speaks to the stackable benefits, if we have limited or we have limited resources, project that has many benefits for the public may be more of a priority than the public has.

[Trey Martin (Director of Conservation & Rural Community Development, VHCB)]: We also do, when we think about recreational access, there's like trailheads and trails and infrastructure and stormwater control that comes with doing something really fancy. That's a kind of recreational access, and then there's other kinds of recreational access. I'm pointing to two PACTAC numbers you'll hear from here that just diffuse. What we need is pull offs along the road and open on posted lands that hunters and anglers and trappers and climbers and wildlife watchers can access. We do want at least the latter, and then we sometimes are working with partners where the former has to happen as well. VHCb generally doesn't fund the infrastructure or trail building or that part of a project. What can we do with conservation? And then how does that leverage another partner coming in to help do a restoration project on the brook or help build trail infrastructure or help build a pull off that's going to be a place where people can just access a really good hunting grounds. So it really depends project to project.

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: Other members have questions before we shift gears? Representative Austin? I

[Rep. Sarah "Sarita" Austin (Clerk)]: just noticed on maps about Chittenden County, it seems like the effort to conserve land around that area. I'm just wondering if you're looking at that. I mean, there's a lot of people there and I don't want them to have to drive hours to go to access. Or so I'm wondering, are you looking in Chittenden County in that area, the region?

[Gus Seelig (Executive Director, Vermont Housing & Conservation Board)]: We have worked with Winooski Valley Park District. We've done a lot of work on Mount Nance Fields. We've concerned Colchester Pond, So Little Shelburne Farms. Shelburne Farms, Shelburne Pond, which is distinct from Shelburne Farms.

[Rep. Sarah "Sarita" Austin (Clerk)]: I didn't know you did Shelburne Farms.

[Gus Seelig (Executive Director, Vermont Housing & Conservation Board)]: We've worked with them on several occasions, their acquisition of land from the Shelburne Museum when it was up for sale. So we've done an awful lot of farmland conservation in Charlotte. So there's no, obviously, we're always trying to balance projects from all over the state. It's why increasing our base funding is so important because it's really what would help our farmland program steady. It's increased our focus on natural areas and recreation lands. We've worked with Town of Williston as I'm thinking about it now, several acquisitions. It clearly is more expensive than Chittenden County. And so, one of the things in our statute is can we leverage other monies? That's a consideration for what a different consideration that goes to like, should we have no caps at all is we have an obligation to every part of the state. So, we have a very, very expensive project with no leverage. That means that maybe in another form of state where it's harder to fundraise, they're going get shut out if we just had no capital. So, those are all the kinds of things that our board has to balance and consider when an application comes in front of us. But I think that there is a fair amount of conservation that's been done in Chittenden County. It's not a forget it kind of zone. One of the projects I've spoken to you about that I think speaks best to our dual mission is one where if you're familiar with Cambrian Rise in Burlington, there's a thousand units that will be developed on 27 acres. That was made possible because Vermont Land Trust went to the developer and to the city and raised a huge amount of money so that 12 acres would become a public park. Reduced the opposition to the development to just about nothing. And it means we're not gonna have a thousand units sprawled out over the countryside because we're concentrating development, which I think supports our conservation mission as Vermonters.

[Rep. Sarah "Sarita" Austin (Clerk)]: Great, thank you. Very helpful.

[Trey Martin (Director of Conservation & Rural Community Development, VHCB)]: Just to add one thing on our partner Trust for Public Land has done work across the country to analyze how to make sure that all kids are walkable to a park or trailhead or green space. So that's one of the things we've been hearing about in the plan is how do we, there's another equitability of access thing is like, where are the recreational resources or to use environmental justice terminology, the environmental benefits. Mhmm. And how do we make sure conservation supports benefits in all

[Rep. Sarah "Sarita" Austin (Clerk)]: the places? Great. Thank you.

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: Representative North.

[Rep. Rob North (Member)]: Thank you, madam chair. Thank you for your participation this morning. I noticed in the charts that FY '26 budget is about 6,500,000.0

[Trey Martin (Director of Conservation & Rural Community Development, VHCB)]: so far. That's about what we've spent so far. Think our total target was two thirds higher than that, maybe around 10. Okay.

[Rep. Rob North (Member)]: Around 10. What first or how much of that comes from the state of the clock? All of it. All of it. The number of partners that you work with to raise money to That's oh, sorry.

[Trey Martin (Director of Conservation & Rural Community Development, VHCB)]: That all that money is money we've spent, and all of that leverages other money. So every every farmland project leverages an equal amount of NRCS funding through the ACIP AL program. So that's a and our funds farmland acquisition and protection. And then so that's sort of a one to one match of public dollars. And then

[Rep. Rob North (Member)]: So 6 and a half

[Jamie Fidel (Director, Audubon Vermont)]: million or contributing toward 10,000,000 is is half the story. Yes. 6 and a

[Trey Martin (Director of Conservation & Rural Community Development, VHCB)]: half was just natural area. But that's just natural areas. And then we had about 5,000,000 of state money going into farms, and then 5,000,000 of NRCS going into farms. Then that 6,000,000 is leveraging sometimes even higher than Yeah. One to But when we did it in the inventory, we looked at the last previous six years, and the natural area projects were leveraging at one to eight, whereas farm was leveraging at one to one. So an even better story.

[Rep. Rob North (Member)]: Finding partners to work with you and donating. It's not like that's a statutorily identified ratio.

[Trey Martin (Director of Conservation & Rural Community Development, VHCB)]: We're supposed to look for leverage, as Gus said, but then what we end up doing is encouraging partners to do, is there a local contribution from the conservation commission, if there is one, and if

[Rep. Rob North (Member)]: they have a fund, have local folks donated to a campaign. So in total, what's the the state funding provided?

[Trey Martin (Director of Conservation & Rural Community Development, VHCB)]: So it's about $10,000,000 in fiscal year twenty six.

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: But that's would be natural areas is what I'm hearing.

[Trey Martin (Director of Conservation & Rural Community Development, VHCB)]: Six and a half of that was in natural areas, then and then five or six into farms, and then another more public money coming in that we draw down from NRCS.

[Rep. Rob North (Member)]: And is that remaining essentially constant into the if we're looking at it

[Trey Martin (Director of Conservation & Rural Community Development, VHCB)]: I'm asking because I'm going to

[Rep. Rob North (Member)]: be involved in putting it. What are we looking for? About saying we're keeping things level?

[Trey Martin (Director of Conservation & Rural Community Development, VHCB)]: We'd love to see that over time. We would love to build that, both in terms of that base support as well as one time funding that can go out either for more projects or to more partners for their capacity. In the inventory, we said that we needed to double, to triple the pace of production. You were gonna meet the 2,030 goal, that's a 187,000 acres in five years. That's way faster than we produce grid conservation outcomes right now. So to think about doing that means that, one, can we innovate? Are there ways that we can do more with less? But, also, we just know that that partners have a hard time sometimes keeping their lights on, keeping their fundraising and communications going, much less having the funding to go out and develop properties.

[Rep. Rob North (Member)]: 12,000,000 from from the state. How much of that was one time?

[Trey Martin (Director of Conservation & Rural Community Development, VHCB)]: I think we're only using about 1,000,000 of one time funding this year. That was part of a appropriation five years ago. Yeah. So that was mostly base this year. Okay.

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: Which is mostly property transfer tax. Yeah. It's entirely that. So what happens is that statutory requirements are there, and we've met them last year, which is Last two years, I think. Yes. Something to celebrate, not not something we always do. So it's great to see that you're able to scale up when we when you get your full allocation.

[Trey Martin (Director of Conservation & Rural Community Development, VHCB)]: I was nervous when I started at BHCB because we had a lot of one time funding as well as this, and how are we going to show you that we can use this? It had been a little slower in the pandemic. For that one slide, I mean, we've really There are issues with the caps. There's issues with stewardship. There's issues with bringing projects forward. We feel like we've heard those things. We're addressing them, and we're starting to see it unlock. And Act 59 has been a really good galvanizer for that. It's allowed it's created the running room for us to say, these are the things that we need to do. And and so for that reason, I I think we wouldn't be where we are if we hadn't also been doing this work. Great, great to stand on. Great. Well, thank you very much.

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: I'm sure we'll hear more from you when you report out and then also your regular annual report, but then also we'll keep following what you're doing here.

[Trey Martin (Director of Conservation & Rural Community Development, VHCB)]: Yeah, we'll send to Cat a copy of what we post on Monday. And I do also want to highlight that those regional listening sessions, we put them on five Mondays in a row so that if members are interested, you can come.

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: So we'll let Thank people know about those as all. Thank you so much. I know there's a couple of tech members in the room. Are others joining by Zoom?

[Rep. Ela Chapin (Member)]: Okay,

[Trey Martin (Director of Conservation & Rural Community Development, VHCB)]: think we have one person

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: on Zoom. And the rest will come in perfect.

[Trey Martin (Director of Conservation & Rural Community Development, VHCB)]: Jamie, Alex, and Nick were here in person.

[Jamie Fidel (Director, Audubon Vermont)]: Do you

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: all have a preferred order? Or what's your pleasure? Is anyone time anyone time constraint? Please join us, Jane.

[Jamie Fidel (Director, Audubon Vermont)]: Thanks. I was listening out there, and I guess I was on a delay. Hi. Good morning. Good to see you all. I'm Jamie Fidel with Audubon, Vermont. Just have some new developments since last time I've been here in the chair. So previously worked for Vermont Natural Resources Council for twenty three years and now I'm the new director at Audubon Vermont. And so great to be here. Thanks for the opportunity. Quickly testify as a member of the technical advisory committee. I just would like to underscore a couple points for your consideration. I'm really excited by this opportunity. I was excited from the beginning stages of when you were working on the bill through helping to support passage of the bill and now helping helping to support implementation. It's because this provides an incredible opportunity for us to look at working with landowners, willing landowners who are interested in in conserving their land. And we know we don't have all the tools that are available to help those willing landowners who wanna make this choice as sort of, you know, this is this is the decision that they're making for their for their land, for and and we know that the benefits are incredible both for landowners and for our communities when when land is conserved in Vermont And so, you know, regardless of the goals that landowners have for their land, I think as representative Satcowitz said the other day, you know, can we can we afford options for them to keep keep their land intact as as a first starting point? And then can we support the suite of management decisions that landowners may may make for their land, supporting working land, supporting wildlife habitat, maintaining water quality, providing recreational access, managing for climate resilience, managing for wildlands or natural areas. These are all important values that landowners have in Vermont. So, we should try and and and build up all the opportunities possible. As was mentioned earlier, intergenerational transfer, there was a report to the legislature about ten years ago on this dynamic in Vermont. And at the time back in 2017, this was a statistic that 15% of forest land owners were over 75 years old. So I don't actually know what that stat is right now, but we are going to see sort of this large sort of intergenerational transfer. And then do we have the right tools, landowners? And I I know we don't have enough options because even just in my new job at Audubon, I feel that at least two calls over the last couple months from landowners who are wondering what they can do to conserve their land. And they had reached out to land trust in their region. Have They about 100 acres and those parcels are are too small really for the land trust to be able to help them. And and some of them are really scared. They they they don't actually want to risk what's going to happen. That that a lot some of these parcels are working lands and they want to keep them intact. And so what options do they have? And so this really provides an opportunity to look at the suite of tools to advance conservation opportunities. So funding, we know funding is constrained right now. So what can we do on the proactive side? Can we look at the Green Bank model? Can we look at leveraging, we already do a good job of of this, but what more can we do to leverage private philanthropy options? Other states have actually pooled large coalitions have supported a portion of the sales tax or a portion of outdoor sort of the outdoor recreational equipment going towards conservation. There's all kinds of models to look at, understanding that it's it's a high hurdle to try and provide any more taxation in this moment. But what can we look at creatively to address the funding gaps, the policies that we need from easements? But can we look at providing landowners with potentially a tax credit for doing some level of conservation? Either can we look at conservation agreement models? So there's there's a lot of different solutions that I think are important to look at through this process. Wearing my Audubon hat, really concerned about the amount of threatened and dangerous species that we have listed in the state. Can we offer a certain incentive as we think about maintaining biodiversity, ecologically intact landscape for landowners who cooperatively enter into some kind of recovery strategy for those species and move them off the list through some kind of conservation mechanism. And I'd like to talk about sort of the durability of land conservation. There's no doubt that through easements and the current use program that we have done, we're doing important work in Vermont to keep our landscape intact for those landlords who who choose to do that. You know, there's the conservation goals and then there's the broad vision in Act 59. And I think it's important to look at programs like current use and can there be an option for landowners to actually enroll, a durable option to enroll? Could we somehow use the lien that's put on the property as a way for them to say, yes, I'm voluntarily electing that I would actually like to enroll my property in this program for a long period of time, whether that's permanent or some durable period of time. Can we look at the program serving as as a as another option where easements may not work for landowners and may not be available? And that does lead me to kind of one of my last points and that's on the equity side, we know that there are landlords who, one, don't just don't have the means in order to access even land ownership and even have options to conserve. And then there are landowners who are are lucky enough to own land. They wanna conserve it and they don't have all the options. So what models can we look at to serve the suite of people who who appreciate conserve land? Can we look at cooperative land ownership models? Can we look at different ways to promote access as has already been discussed in in communities across across Vermont? So, you know, working with with towns on strategies to to build up the different options, whether that be town forest or other celebratory ways that we've looked at providing community access to conserve lands, and then the stewardship capacity, which is really important for us to look at in building up the the the workforce and the people that are needed for this work. And so I could go on and on about the ideas that I think are in the mix, the ideas that are running through my head. I just wanna sort of end by saying that I think this is critically important opportunity. I think the TAC has been having some really productive conversations. There's, you know, a good diversity of perspectives there, and I'm really hoping that the plant can come out and give you a menu of options to to act on and to have some kind of comprehensive approach that allows us to look at all the suite of conservation opportunities, all the management goals, and and build up a a sort of big tent level support to kinda move forward with the best strategies that we think makes sense for Vermont. So with that, I will yeah. Wanna be efficient with my time, or you wanna hear from others?

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: Great. Thanks for joining us today and for your testimony and your work following through on act 59. Do members have questions?

[Rep. Sarah "Sarita" Austin (Clerk)]: Several. In Boston. So, another demographic, when I was talking about demographics of Vermont, is our workforce is aging out in Vermont. They're growing older and retiring, and we need to attract it's not that we need to attract tax payers. We need to attract workforce. To Vermont, I'm wondering what workforce if you're kind of promoting that outside of Vermont, like what you're looking for in terms of this workforce you're talking about.

[Jamie Fidel (Director, Audubon Vermont)]: Yeah. I can give you a couple of examples. You know, we're part of a project called Serve, Learn, Earn. It's in coalition with three other organizations in in Vermont, and these are youth leadership opportunities for them to learn skills in order to then move into the workforce. And this is resources, one of the groups. So we're looking at building housing opportunities. Audubon is one of the groups along with BICC that looks at more of the conservation opportunities. But I think you'll see in the report suggestions that we do need to look at opportunities to build up sort of the conservation practitioners, whether that's the appraisers, the the components of the conservation work that are needed in order to to execute the deals and where we don't have we don't have enough resources or people that are doing that that work right now. And so I think there'll be a very strategic look at building up the workforce and then what are the opportunities to do it, whether it's through college programs in Vermont, whether it's through these these sort of trade and service learning opportunities that different organizations provide? Is it building up new curriculum? Is it creating some kind of incentive for people to to enter into this part of the workforce? Where can they be housed? So really important question.

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: Yeah. We need. Okay. We have three other witnesses coming up here, and we wanna wrap up around noon. So thanks, Jamie.

[Jamie Fidel (Director, Audubon Vermont)]: Okay. Thank you.

[Alex Smith (Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, Vermont Chapter)]: Next.

[Nick Bennett (Chair, Vermont Trails & Greenways Council)]: Good morning. Thank you everyone for having me. I'm Nick Bennett. I'm the chair of the Vermont Trails and Greenways Council. I'm also the executive director of the Vermont Outlife Association. I'm on the technical advisory committee, for the BCP as as was mentioned earlier. I put together a few slides just to kind of touch on how outdoor recreation is both coming to this process as well as to the technical advisory committee. I'll try to run through those relatively quickly because I know we're tight on time. Just to briefly set sort of some context on outdoor recreation. Generally, Vermont hosts over 11,000 miles of public access trails. Many of those are stewarded. The majority of those are stewarded through collaborations between public lands, managers and nonprofit stewardship organization. Over 70% of public access trails in Vermont are located on private land. We have a highly vibrant and highly diversified outdoor business sector. The Vermont Outdoor Business Alliance organizes that group. There are dozens of outdoor recreation communities that that have really oriented around recreation across the state. Public access recreation is a designated purpose for conservation in Vermont statute. That's really accelerated a lot of opportunities, some of which Trey touched on and others. Currently, outdoor recreation accounts for nearly 5% of Vermont's GDP as well. So that's second only in the nation only behind Hawaii in terms of the degree to which outdoor recreation is responsible for economic benefit. Then as I mentioned before, pub private landowners really carry a huge burden when it comes to hosting public access recreation in Vermont, at least from a trails perspective. And I should have mentioned as well, outdoor recreation, we come with this process. We both and Trey touched on this. There's sort of the structured outdoor recreation, trail based recreation, which I represent with the Trails and Greenways Council. And then there's the dispersed recreation, which Alex will talk about a little bit. We really are both sort of two sides, but a collaborative sort of force when we think about outdoor recreation. So who is the trails and trails and greenways council? This is the the who I represent on the TAC. The five zero one c three, we were founded thirty five years ago. We're an official adviser to the agency of natural resources designated in statute to advise on recreation. And we're a really a member focused organization, volunteer board of many of which are folks like me who work for, trail stewardship organizations, and we have a part time staff member. So not a huge organization, But collectively, and that's what we bring to the table, we represent over 50,000 individual members, folks that have have licenses or paid into our member organizations. We log over a 100 thousand hours of volunteer time to steward trails. We maintain and manage over 8,000 miles of trail across the state, support over 15,000, 16,000 here jobs, through the out those outdoor recreation businesses. The assets we we steward really are vital to that. And as I mentioned before, we really are the the organization to steward trails on private land, which, again, is the lion's share of public access trails. Then we also work closely with whether it's the federal at the federal level, but agree Mount National Forest or the state agencies to help steward trails on public land as well. So, really, view ourselves as the collective stewardship organization for maintaining trails and not and trails of all type. These are winter trails, summer trails, motorized, non motorized. We have try to bring everybody to the table. So recreation and conservation, we really view recreation as a primary way in which the public accesses protected lands, and in many cases, a driver for their conservation can then can really support and fuel these efforts. As I mentioned before, public access recreation is recognized purpose for conservation in statute, and there's a long and and really vibrant history of how recreation has helped drive conservation in in Vermont. We have the Land and Water Conservation Fund that's generated that's provided over 45,000,000 in grant funding since 1965 to support projects across the state. We have the Long Trail Protection Campaign as an example. 25,000 acres have been conserved since nineteen eighties. And then new opportunities like Development Trail, which seeks to conserve up to 200 or over 200,000 acres of parcels throughout state as it builds a connection for similar to long trail, but for a sort of bike optimized and adapted accessible trail that will connect communities throughout Vermont. And then as noted before, outdoor recreation is one of the key stakeholders in I 59. And one thing I noticed while outdoor recreation, we were fortunate to become on the heels of the statewide comprehensive outdoor recreation plan referred to as the SCORF. That's also part of Move Forward Together Vermont, which you might have heard about. This is this is led by the, Vermont Outdoor Recreation Economic Collaborative and ANR. But to create this plan, we have collectively as a community a plan for outdoor recreation in Vermont. And the vision for that plan is to foster healthy and vibrant communities through outdoor recreation, which nicely weaves directly into the community resilience portion of this act. So, really, nicely marriage between what Move Forward Together Vermont is seeking to achieve and and what the c what the act 59 wants to achieve as well. We had their cross cutting objectives in the plan, one of which is equity, which has been touched on a couple times in this campaign. Really think looking at all the actions that the community is pursuing, taking that equity lens, and then climate resilience too, knowing that we're we're living in a changing climate. We need to think how we make our infrastructure more durable. There's a whole bunch of actions, 19 of them organized across these categories of stewardship, wellness, and economic development. And I just tag to hear that some of those actions underneath wellness involves developing recreational opportunities and conserving open spaces that strategically fill gaps and experience and distribution across the state. So that's a targeted outcome of that plan. And also to create enhanced in community outdoor recreation opportunities that directly connect where people live, learn, and work. So there are actions baked into this plan that really connect directly into what we see as as an outcome of the Sierra. And then kinda as we're coming to the plan itself, the role we we view and as we're bringing sort of participating in the TAC, there are three ways that we think trail based recreation really belongs in part of these 30 by thirty and fifty by 50 efforts. One is to provide equitable access to conserve spaces, and I think it's important to distinguish at times access doesn't necessarily equal equity. There's an important role to play for the infrastructure we touched on to make way for not only to make spaces inviting for people who haven't always felt historically welcome in the outdoors, but for folks with physical disabilities, the service center of Austin touched on for folks who are aging out to provide infrastructure that allows them to access these lands. So that's one big bucket we think we can help achieve. Certainly, to promote community resilience, we know that outdoor recreation generates health outcomes, well-being for the communities, and economic vitality. Mentioned that nearly 5% of GDP number. And then also, really importantly, as a driver to help conserve new spaces. We see, and it's been touched on the resource constraints for this plan. We know that our community can come together and get excited about projects and bring bring money to the table, bring enthusiasm from the communities to really helping drive that uptick we need to achieve in in conservation outcomes. And then in terms of how it's currently incorporated in the draft, and you'll see the full public draft sounds like in a day or two or just a couple of days, Promoting outdoor recreation is baked in as a pathway underneath the set second objective for conservation and communities, and it's also really vital to some of the other pathways in the plan, including increasing equitable access as we talked about. And then as I mentioned before, that that need to increase and optimize funding and financing really coming to the table with that support. And just to wrap up here, there's a couple other ways that we're working to engage our community. We have outdoor recreation date here at the State House next Thursday. We'll have, at least, I think, over a 100 folks here to advocate for outdoor recreation, talking about impact stories in their communities. There'll be opportunity to have a lunch with constituents down at the pavilion. And then we're also hosting, as was touched on, it's great that we're we're gonna be hosting one of these stakeholder listening sessions for outdoor recreation groups on March 9 that will really seek to sort of absorb and take in a lot of feedback and help channel that through the TAC into the plan itself. And sorry for the lightning round. It was pretty fast, but, hopefully, the Visa Visa leave behind as well, folks.

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: Yeah. Great. Thank you for your testimony. I think in the interest of time, we're gonna skip to the next. And then at the end, if we have time for questions, I just wanna make sure the last two folks have time to share what they came to share. So with thank you for your test we will welcome Hannah Sessions via Zoom. Think Hannah's next. I'm just going on the order of the agenda here.

[Gus Seelig (Executive Director, Vermont Housing & Conservation Board)]: So we'll go to Hannah.

[Hannah Sessions (Farmer; TAC member; Board member, Vermont Land Trust)]: Everybody. Everybody can hear me okay?

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: Yes.

[Hannah Sessions (Farmer; TAC member; Board member, Vermont Land Trust)]: Great. Thank you so much for having me here. I'm very happy to testify as a member of the TAC team. I really, really appreciate the representation on the TAC team. At every meeting, I'm learning a new perspective. It's a really, really great gathering of people. It's been extremely thoughtful and intentionally put together. So I'm on the committee representing farmers and landowners. For those of you who don't know, I know Amy knows about me, but a little about me for those who don't know, my husband and I farm on a conserve farm in Leicester, lovely Leicester in Southern Champlain Valley, Southern Addison County. We purchased our farm in 2000 with the intention of selling our development rights to fund a cheese business, which we did in 2002. And fast forward twenty five years almost, and we have a herd of 125 goats, and we make 60,000 pounds of cheese annually. We distribute across the Northeast and across the nation on our website. We employ 10 people, and we also support a small family cow dairy farm in Leicester. As of now, we are the only two dairy farms left in Leicester. We're also an animal welfare approved farm, and so I've been lucky enough to speak around the Northeast about profitable and humane farming practices. As a first generation farm, this has been only possible because of farm conservation. So having gone through the conservation process, I was really happy to serve on the board of VHCB until 2019, and now I'm on the board of the Vermont Land Trust. So later on in the early, maybe around 2010, I can't remember the year exactly, we did an overlay easement, and we conserved 50 acres of wetlands on our farm. And together with our neighbors, I think we're the largest contiguous wetland in the Northeast. And we saved the town of Middlebury from flooding not once but twice during Irene and then in the 2023. And representative Ballant came to visit our farm in 2023 to sort of, like, see the wetlands in action. So we really appreciate the flexibility that was allowed to us to do an additional layer of conservation on that land, and it was made easier because our land was sort of already in the system of conservation. So once we conserve land, we have better and more easy access to additional layers of conservation on those lands. Then we were able to purchase proper hay land with that money across the street when our neighbor was threatening to put in an RV park, which was not a very popular idea in our neighborhood, understandably. So maybe some of you know, but alongside our Act fifty nine thirty by 30 is another 30 by 30 goal, which is prompted by the New England Food Systems Planners Partnerships, and that is to raise 30% of the food consumed in New England in New England. So it's really amazing that those two goals are traveling parallel to each other on this path. And so we have a great opportunity to play a huge role in that 30 by 30 goal by promoting farming and, in fact, growing more farms in Vermont rather than less. I have been loving being on the VLT board and watching the the the mapping that that is going on across the state. And I know that VLT considers a lot of different, you know, biodiversity and flood resiliency impact when they consider any project. So that's all I had to say today. Thank you for your time.

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: Thank you for joining us and for your work on the TAC and on the boards. Thank you.

[Alex Smith (Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, Vermont Chapter)]: I'll keep Yeah. This quick. I, my name is Alex Smith. I'm here representing Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, which is a nonprofit, nationwide nonprofit whose primary goal, we got our hands in a lot of different things these days, but generally speaking, we're there to advocate for the acquisition and stewardship of public land and maintain hunting and fishing access to it. That's our big deal. I came here, I'm from the Adirondacks originally, which has been made for very interesting context to be on the technical advisory committee, because the Adirondacks in a lot of ways are somewhere where the goals envisioned in Act 59 have borne out. There's some significant differences, but by and large, about 50% of the Adirondacks, which is about the same acreage as Vermont, roughly, are permanently conserved and protected and publicly held. Differences there are the rest, the other 50% also is subject to some pretty stringent zoning recommendations that are not permanent conservation, but provide some of the same benefits. And I think one of the really interesting things for me moving to Vermont, to Bristol and Addison County, I came over here was, I looked at the landscape around me and I thought this will work, can, this is good mountains, I can live here, which I was very nervous about leaving the Adirondacks. And I came very quickly to realize that though I had a lot of access and that there was a terrific landscape there close to my door, it was really fragile. It was entirely dependent, was and is largely dependent. We do have some national forests in the area, more than a lot of the state does, but it was largely dependent on private landowner, teritability largely, and the lack of development in places that as somebody whose day job is in the building industry, I felt were very vulnerable locations as well. So it's been really exciting to be a part of this committee and work towards protecting some of that for my own children, which is sort of my fundamental goal in all of this. I think one thing that I bring to the TAC and that these guys have heard me talk about probably so ad nauseam is that there are certain mistakes that I think happen in the creation of the guidelines around protection of the Adirondacks. So I think we have an opportunity to avoid this time around. Primarily that the process did not feel terribly close to the people, to the people of the Adirondacks. And I think where I grew up, were sort of born with a certain mistrust of big sea conservation because you're surrounded by the restrictions that is placed upon the local economy. And that is in my mind, as somebody who acknowledges and left the Adiratics somewhat due to those things, I still am glad they exist. But I think one thing that we have an opportunity to do this time around, so to speak, is to learn from that to a degree and to bring this process as close to the people as possible and see them make sure that people see themselves in it. I don't feel that these two goals are mutually exclusive. And I guess the other sort of last thing that I I will say is that I, looking at the Adirondacks and looking at Vermont, I feel that one truth of it all is that the only relevant conservation is permanent conservation. We're talking about protecting biodiversity on a grand scale. What happens in one hundred years is what's relevant, what happens in two hundred years is what's relevant. And as I see it, the only feasible way to achieve that sort of protection is through the development of a real ethic among the people of Vermont, or the perpetuation of an ethic, as I do think it's there in a lot of folks. People need to want this and it needs to be something that survives political wins and all of the other factors that we cannot see coming over the rest of time. And that's an awfully ambitious goal, as is everything we're doing here. But I think in my mind and where backcountry hunters and anglers comes into this. So I think the way you get to that is partly through people being able to access and create a life around the outdoors. I'm here because I love to be out there and I'm a licensed guide and I'm in the woods one hundred days a year and that's why I want so badly for it to be there for my kids to do the same thing. And I think that as we go forward through these processes, keeping that in mind that people's investment in the outdoors generates this ethic that will protect it when nothing else really will in the long term. People got to want this to be here. They got to care. They got to be they got to see themselves in it and they got to live it. And I think that opportunity is there in Vermont. Have this unbelievable landscape. We have this unbelievable resource for people whether they want to feed themselves off it or ski in it or just wander around. It's a tremendously accessible type of wilderness compared to a lot of the other wild areas in this country. It's fairly low barrier to entry, the kind of woods that we have around here, and this is a state where people have it in them already. So advancing that in every way that we can through generating opportunities for access, generating opportunities for people to go out there and feel this connection to the land. I think in my mind, that's where the long term effects, the long term goals of Act 59 will be achieved in the really relevant timescaping. I've realized that's, I hear myself say this, I think this in some ways, a very legitimate criticism would be that it's a very human centric way to look at all this and biodiversity is not about humans. And I guess the way I look at it is that generating advocates for the non human is the ultimate goal of a project like this and investment in the outdoors and access to the outdoors is the way we get there. I could carry on all day. Think you guys got to go though, right?

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: Thank you for sharing your perspective. That was

[Nick Bennett (Chair, Vermont Trails & Greenways Council)]: very well put.

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: We have a couple of minutes, and all of the members of the TAC are still with us. And so folks have questions for any of them, now's your chance. Representative Chapin.

[Rep. Ela Chapin (Member)]: So, just love to hear a few more words, and this is aimed at a number of people in the room, about the vulnerability and forest fragmentation. I don't feel like we've been talking about it enough over the past while, and it affects so many different things that everybody cares about. Guess anybody wants to just share something. And I guess I'd also The other vulnerability I'm hearing is about capacity and having the right organizations and people and money in the right places to help shepherd projects. Like I said, I just want to name those two vulnerabilities and see if anybody wants to speak a little bit more, particularly to forest fragmentation.

[Alex Smith (Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, Vermont Chapter)]: That was actually the one thing I cut out of my little spiel there

[Trey Martin (Director of Conservation & Rural Community Development, VHCB)]: for

[Alex Smith (Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, Vermont Chapter)]: time. Talking to one of the things that I've been very appreciative of when it comes to the group's approach has been this focus on habitat connectivity. Because, you know, in the years that I've been in Vermont, for instance, is just one very easy to see example, I have watched the range of moons change in the woods around Bristol. If fundamentally in ten years. And I think there's a perception of, you know, people don't always understand when they're looking at certain types of wildlife that don't really need large scale connected habitats, the effect that losing that connectivity has on certain species that are really important to us in Vermont. And the fact that the state is focused so much on identifying these critical corridors and preventing that fragmentation within them, think is very much the right way to go, and I'm very appreciative of that focus.

[Jamie Fidel (Director, Audubon Vermont)]: I guess I would just add that I think that there's been, a lot of agreement that forest fragmentation is an issue that we need to grapple with, And that's come from decades of conversations in the state, whether that's the forest roundtable that the NRC and I helped convene to the wildlife action plan, the forest action plan. They all all of our major documents name it as an issue that impacts our ecological health and our economic health. It's it's just as much an economic issue. As we as we fragment and parcelize, you know, working forest, it gets to a point where they're not viable as a working forest, and then we're also impacting the ecological sort of functionality of our landscape. And that's why we have Vermont Conservation Design and as a blueprint on how to keep our landscape intact. And certainly, it's it's a hard thing to track, and we've been working on it. There's different metrics that we can use, but I think the agreement is that it continues to happen. And so I don't know if there's particular statistics you'd like to know about, or I think it is inherent in what's motivating a lot of us in participating in this process to try and figure out proactive incentive based approaches to to to work with landlords to address it.

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: I'll give one more. Kate Logan has a question.

[Rep. Kate Logan (Member)]: I just wanted to make

[Isaac Passehl (Conservation Stewardship Director, VHCB)]: a I have to get to.

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: Excuse me. I just wanted to

[Rep. Kate Logan (Member)]: make a comment that it would be helpful if we could take more testimony on forest fragmentation.

[Rep. Sarah "Sarita" Austin (Clerk)]: I

[Rep. Kate Logan (Member)]: feel like an update for committee on that would be helpful, especially given that there's been a call from the governor to repeal the road rule. And the road rule was one that consists of Act two fifty reform that we specifically hoped would help address forest fragmentation. And so I'm concerned that we're heading down a policy dialogue pathway that doesn't take white force fragmentation into consideration adequately.

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: Right, thank you.

[Rep. Sarah "Sarita" Austin (Clerk)]: It's not a question. Think Nick, is that Nick? The last time I just saw you was, like, up in the Northeast Kingdom. You are on a bike. Yes. Yeah. And I just wanted to say, you know, I was visiting, like, you had legislator where you could go look at forests, you could look at the outdoor. I just wanna say how helpful that was for me to really have an understanding of what the work is that we're doing here. I would just hope that you continue to do that. Was very helpful.

[Nick Bennett (Chair, Vermont Trails & Greenways Council)]: One quick comment. Thank you. And I think part of this process, it's delightful to a part of it, really focusing on collaborations and understanding how we're all coming to the woods, into the lands with a lot of similar objectives and how it's been in terms of trying to protect this amazing place and thinking how and those field visits, I think, do really nicely see how we can all work together, many cases, in their response where we absolutely shouldn't bring people and we should avoid putting trails and things like that because they're acutely sensitive. And so the more we can work together, more we can do it and it feels better.

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: Thank you all again. This was great. Nice diversity from the TAC and great presentations.

[Trey Martin (Director of Conservation & Rural Community Development, VHCB)]: And And I know that for your other TAC members, if you have more time and more interest, there are other other voices and perspectives that have contributed the amazing diversity of this group, has been the strength of it. Yeah. If you make more time, we will we will come back.

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: Right. We'll do our best to do

[Jamie Fidel (Director, Audubon Vermont)]: that.

[Nick Bennett (Chair, Vermont Trails & Greenways Council)]: Thank you

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: all again.