Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Kate Wanner, Trust for Public Land (Conservation Director)]: Thank you all for your time today. My name is Kate Wanner. I'm the conservation director for Vermont and New Hampshire Florida, the Trust Republic Land, a national conservation organization that has been working around the country for fifty three years to connect everyone to the outdoors. So our mission is to create parks and create public land for people. We really believe that access to the outdoors is a fundamental human need and is essential to our physical and mental health. Science has shown that communities that place a higher value on outdoor access for all are healthier, more resilient, and more equitable. So in Vermont, since 1993, the Trust Republic Land has been working across the state to protect forest land that is important to communities for their wildlife habitat, watershed values, climate resiliency, but also importantly for their recreation values. We partnered with Green Mountain Club, Catamount Trail Alliance, Belmont Trail, Vermont Hudson Trails, many other chapters of Vermont Mountain Biking Association, State of Vermont, and Green Mountain National Forest to help them protect both statewide trail networks as well as community scale trail networks like those at Barrytown Forest, Catamount Community Forest, and Escutney Mountain. As you may have heard, in other, testimonies across the year, Vermont loses approximately 12,000 acres of forest land annually, which is the basis for our ecological health, rural economy, climate resiliency, but also the canvas for outdoor recreation. Only 63% of Vermont's conserved lands provide public access compared to our neighboring states of New Hampshire and Maine that, 87% of those conserved lands provide public access. And more than one out of five Vermonters do not have close to home access to the outdoors. Nationally, Trust for Public Land has been working to try and provide every kid and adult an outdoor space or park within a ten minute walk of their home. In rural places like Vermont, we kind of modify that goal to be a ten minute drive, And still, more than 22% of Vermonters are not even within a ten minute drive of a public land or public park. And also, if you live in a low income community, you are even less likely to have close to home access. So in response to these disparities, Trust Public Land actively looks for conservation opportunities that support protection of natural systems and ecological function, as well as can provide permanent public access. Every acre that we have conserved in Vermont, over 73,000 acres, provide public access. I want to tell you a little story about Wilkite Community Forest, which I know some of you have heard about before. It has been highlighted of late due to the broad response to community needs here, and it was a great example of federal, state, and private investment in a rural community. As you can see on the map, the new community forest wraps around the village center. It's adjacent to the elementary school in Pink and includes a section of the Memorial Valley Rail Trail that runs along the river there. Sorry about that. So prior to the creation of the community forest last year in late twenty twenty four, Woolkah had very few trail based recreation options. While Green River Reservoir State Park is a complete gem, it does not offer any trails in Wolcott beyond the public roads that wind through it. Similarly, East Hill Wildlife Management Area in Wolcott offers remote experiences with only unofficial primitive trails. The Memorial Valley Rail Trail, which recently opened a few years ago but then was shut down due to flooding, was the only public all season trail in the entire town of Wolcott. Thus, we knew that the acquisition and permanent conservation of 734 acres was not enough. We needed to activate it. So with a grant from Vorick, Vermont Outdoor Recreation Economic Collaborative, we were able to create a new five mile trail network on the property to respond to the community's desire for more closed home recreation. We are even able to create a new affordable house lot into the project that adjoins the community forest. You can kind

[Sarah Pelkey, Chamber & Economic Development of the Rutland Region]: of see it in gray right there,

[Kate Wanner, Trust for Public Land (Conservation Director)]: right on Route 15, that is adjacent to the forest as well as walkable to the elementary school. With help from the 198,000 Vorit grant, we and local trail builder sinuosity, who you will hear from later this morning. We are able to host a public process to get input on recreation needs, create five miles of top notch, sustainable, high quality trails, a new parking lot.

[Sarah Pelkey, Chamber & Economic Development of the Rutland Region]: Sorry about that,

[Kate Wanner, Trust for Public Land (Conservation Director)]: kiosks and wayfinding signs, and trail connections down to the village center. Since the opening of the Trail Network last September, the community has fully embraced their new forest leading guided snowshoe outings, new outdoor ed programming at the elementary school, bringing kids out to the forest every Wednesday for art, music, science, and discovery. This fall, three different, local fire departments led rescue training on the trail network to make sure they were ready when help, was needed. The forest will also host, a force main and a pump station for a new community wastewater system, which will allow new residential and commercial development down in the village center that has always been limited by wastewater in the past. And lastly, later this month, Trust Public Land will be donating the 1.9 acre lot to Green Mountain Habitat Humanity, who will be building a new perpetually affordable single family home with students from Green Mountain Technical Center, which helps support development of a skilled workforce. So to sum up, recreation assets can drive conservation priorities, and conservation of land can bring new recreation opportunities. But to keep our rural communities healthy and vibrant, we need to focus our attention on the areas without easy access to the outdoors. To do this, we need stable and consistent funding for conservation and recreation to support the pillars of Vermont economy and quality of life. Thank you for your time. I am going to try and shut that down so we don't get distracted there anymore.

[Sarah Pelkey, Chamber & Economic Development of the Rutland Region]: And who's next?

[Mariah Keagy, Sinuosity; Vermont Trails & Greenways Council]: Sarah Sarita

[Kate Wanner, Trust for Public Land (Conservation Director)]: Thank you for your time.

[Sarah Pelkey, Chamber & Economic Development of the Rutland Region]: Everyone. My name is Sarah Pelkey. Thank you for taking my testimony this morning. I am, I've recently changed jobs as of Monday, so I am here, as the new director of economic development for chamber and economic development of the Rutland region. Prior to that, for the past five years, I have been the economic development coordinator and community development director for the town of Pultely. I also there's a lot of acronyms coming at you, but I also hold other planning roles in the Rutland Region. I am appointed as regional commissioner of the Rutland Regional Planning Commission and on the South Lake Champlain Basin Water Quality Council. I'm also the economic development appointee to. So I've a little busy, but I'm happy to share with you today a little bit of Bulten's story, which is a planning, really a planning and economic development initiative around the creation of new economy in that community following the closure of Green Mountain College in 2019. So on my first slide, I am sharing with the committee a bit about Slate Quarry Park. So Slate Quarry Park is a main street pocket park that, was developed over a very long time. It was a action item of Oakland's 2020 plan, which was actually prior to the college closing. So the park was envisioned by the community. It was created created a nonprofit group to forward it, which had fundraising as a main goal, design of the park, and ultimately donation to the town to receive that park. So this it was created over a very long period and went out to bid from the town in 2021 and then again in 2022, and it was finally constructed in 2023. So Slatebury Park is located in a former building lot. It was at one point talked about that parking area on Main Street. The community had that conversation. But, ultimately, the commitment of the local volunteers, that forwarded this park and this idea, you have now have a beautiful slate park. You can see the carving, Carrie Furlani, in the center photo. The layout and design of this park, which showcases the traditional historic economic sector of that area, the slate quarrying. So in the lower left corner, you see the grand grand opening groundbreaking, which was well attended, local musicians that are using the park, and we are now having, in a couple years in, we now have our downtown organization, Pulteney is a designated downtown and our local chamber of commerce working to activate that park. So they're applying for grants. They are, you know, using it locally, and it's really turned out to be a lovely place, for passive recreation in in Pulteney's designated downtown. Slate for a park, the primary funding source for this park was the land and water conservation fund. There were many private sector match donations, and smaller donations as well. And then the last gap funding, because, of course, the, the project build came in a little bit higher than expected, was the downtown transportation fund because we we are designated downtown. So that is Lake Quarry Park. The next slide shows you a bit about Bulten's iterative planning process. So as the community has moved moved away from the loss of Green Mountain College and towards an outdoor recreation economy as a primary driver, we spent a lot of time planning. So we were grateful to receive, technical assistance from the EPA's Recreation Economy for Rural Communities, prior to to this project, which is a Better Connections project. So on this slide, you see, pages exerted from our action plan from this Better Connections project, which is called Pultely Town to Trails. And the goals of the project were to connect the existing and growing trail assets that are Slate Valley Trails to Polkbee's designated downtown to the village area. Slate Valley Trails is the local trail organization. They have been building their trail network over ten years. They just had a milestone last year and have now have over 50 miles of multiuse trails in the vicinity. So it's located between Fulton and Middletown Springs. There are trails in Castleton. There are trails in Wells. And so Slate Valley Trails has been a partner to the municipality in really building out this sector. So they were on the steering committee for this Town to Trails project, a big part of the steering committee. And what you see, I chose this excerpt from the action plan because it shows a little bit of the environment, the context that is South Of Holtney. So you're looking at the Route 30 area and the green the aerial that shows an existing slate business and a new trail that is getting very close to connecting the Slate Valley Trails network into the downtown. So it's called the CCC Loop, and it's maybe a little hard to pick out, but it is the dotted green line behind the white footprint of the building. So Slate Valley Trails built out the CCC Loop this past year. So they are now within a quarter mile of Fultonies Village area to to the connection to their overall trail network. This location is a industrial area, so the municipality has been looking at other ways to to build out this area for economy for its own municipal uses. And you can also see as you head down Route 30 that there is connection planned in the future to the DNH Rail Trail, which is approximately a quarter of a mile from this location west. You can also see some of the surrounding natural features. Rutland County is noted as a very wet county. We have a lot of rivers, lakes, streams, water in that area. And so this all of this planning is taking place in the context of that natural environment and supporting the access to the to the waterways and to the rivers, but also making sure that there's appropriate development being planned. As part of the Better Connections project, we had a really extensive public engagement process. So that is, the little heart on the left here. This is the community responding to what's happening in its community, you know, talking about their recreational assets, their water assets, Slate Quarry Park, and and really having this experience. And in the lower left corner, we have some Slate Valley trails, mountain bike attendees. They are offering summer youth camps in for the entire region. They've been partnering with Pulton Recreation to offer those camps. My daughter actually participated in the past few years, and and they've grown from one week to their offering for this year. And then my final slide is the iterative the next iterative process. So one of the action items of the Better Connections project was to establish an outdoor recreation hub in the community. The Better Connections consultants identified seven possible locations that that could happen. And the one that we've become most interested in and have been forwarding over the past year is the location of the highway garage. So Pulteney's highway garage is located in that same gateway areas you saw in the previous slide. It's adjacent to the Pulteney High School, which is across the street. It serves as middle and high school. The Young at Heart Senior Center is in a butter to the east. It's actually on the same parcel. And, the surrounding areas, neighboring residential areas with the Pultney River, to the immediate south. So this particular project received funding from the outdoor recreation roundtable. We received an implemented implementation grant in 2024 to study this location as the future home of a outdoor recreation hub. So this is a multiphase project, a pretty big undertaking for the small municipality to, move a higher intensity use, the town garage, away from the Pultney River into an alternative location in the community. The highway garage itself is very much in need of being either reconstructed in the same location or having a new home. And given that the highway garage is in that condition, it it made sense to investigate this location. So the concept design, which has not yet been presented to the select board, so you all are getting it first, includes housing as a as a, you know, an increase of the residential area to the west, and it's, you know, not yet determined what type of housing that could be. It could be a variety of housing types. A community center, because when the college closed, the community lost some of its civic spaces and task spaces. So there's a a place for the recreation hub. There's opportunities to interact with the seniors and provide additional programming. And then there's, we have the conservation the local conservation district involved in the planning process as well to make sure that anything that's proposed along the Pulteney River is, appropriate for that location. So we have have some passive green space shown in this in this conceptual redevelopment plan. So that is where we're at. We're talking about over six years of planning, implementing small scale projects along the way as best we can, and really aiming to make sure that we're considering the natural resource lens and all of this planning that is ultimately based around the Slate Valley Trails Network and state park that is in Bultmey as the, primary recreational assets that are in the community. And in terms of the economy, it is having an incredible impact. We're seeing new residents in the community. We're seeing additional, community members stepping up to serve, serve the community in various roles and to, forward, the momentum that's been created through all through outdoor recreation. So thank you. That is my testimony, and I am appreciative of your time. I think we have Sarah next. I'm sorry. I don't know where the next,

[Unidentified Committee Member]: presentation is.

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

[Mariah Keagy, Sinuosity; Vermont Trails & Greenways Council]: This No. That's the test. That's not the one.

[Kate Wanner, Trust for Public Land (Conservation Director)]: Oh, are your slides?

[Sarah Alberghini Winters, Vermont Parks Forever (Executive Director)]: Yeah. Their slides.

[Mariah Keagy, Sinuosity; Vermont Trails & Greenways Council]: Are

[Kate Wanner, Trust for Public Land (Conservation Director)]: the slides online for Sarah's testimony?

[Mariah Keagy, Sinuosity; Vermont Trails & Greenways Council]: We have four dots. Yeah. There's a.

[Sarah Alberghini Winters, Vermont Parks Forever (Executive Director)]: While that loads Since we have a moment, it's not set up yet. Usually, I like to start when I speak with folks to ask about your favorite state park because I'm gonna talk about state parks today. So think about your favorite state park in your head while I'm talking. Got it? Does everyone have a favorite state park?

[Unidentified Committee Member]: We actually need you to introduce yourself to speak. Can you just introduce yourself?

[Sarah Alberghini Winters, Vermont Parks Forever (Executive Director)]: Certainly can. I'm Sarah Alpergini Winters from Vermont Parks and Recover.

[Kate Wanner, Trust for Public Land (Conservation Director)]: Yeah. All that's up there is this. Do you have it?

[Sarah Alberghini Winters, Vermont Parks Forever (Executive Director)]: It's in the email that I sent.

[Mariah Keagy, Sinuosity; Vermont Trails & Greenways Council]: Yes, we have it. Oh, another.

[Sarah Pelkey, Chamber & Economic Development of the Rutland Region]: You have it? We have it.

[Sarah Alberghini Winters, Vermont Parks Forever (Executive Director)]: Okay. Wonderful. Okay. So you have this slide.

[Mariah Keagy, Sinuosity; Vermont Trails & Greenways Council]: I know we just. Sorry. Could we potentially jump

[Kate Wanner, Trust for Public Land (Conservation Director)]: into Sleepy? Oh, that's just the I don't have any slides.

[Mariah Keagy, Sinuosity; Vermont Trails & Greenways Council]: Oh, great. Okay. Perfect.

[Sandy Enman, Sleepy Hollow Inn Ski & Bike Center]: Don't have any slides. I'm old school, I guess. So, my name is Sandy Enman, and I'm co owner of Sleepy Hollow Inn Ski and Bike Center in Huntington. Our family purchased it in 1999. We offer 32 kilometers of cross country skiing in the winter and mountain biking and hiking in the summer. Our lodge has eight guest rooms and weddings are held in our round barn. The business is truly a family affair. My son is general manager, and so he elected me to come and testify. My husband's a trail groomer, which gets him up at 05:30 this morning. He gets up at 05:30 and grooms. And our daughter also assists with various operations of our business. We employ over 20 people. We manage over 800 acres of land and we annually serve over 15,000 skiers, mountain bikers, and wedding guests. So anyway, thank you for this opportunity to share our experience as an outdoor and hospitality business committed to quality visitor experiences, access to year round recreation and land management for natural resources values, which is why we appreciate the work happening by the state and many partners on the Vermont conservation plan in crafting the current framework that balances community resilience and biodiversity. Private forest land owners and outdoor businesses like ours have important roles to play in protecting natural, natural areas and connectivity while ensuring that recreation access provides public education and economic vitality, especially with the impacts of climate events in recent years, we know that building and maintaining trail networks with stewardship practices and resilience in mind is a necessity. That's why we need a cold. Sorry. We need a cold. We believe that outdoor recreation is essential to the success of many plans, pathways and actions, whether it leads to partnerships that can serve biodiversity in specific places as outlined in objectives one, or to investments and innovations that advance stewardship and community resilience in objective three. Since 2023, we have been involved in this mutually beneficial partnership with the Nature Conservancy, and we've enrolled most of our land in the Family Forest Carbon Program. This program allows Sleepy Hollow to be paid for carbon we sequester in our forest over time. It's truly an interesting process, by the way. The payments total $142,000 over a twenty year period. This partnership has been fantastic for Sleepy Hollow as it aligns with and strengthens our conservation and environmental goals. For instance, with this financial help, we were able to mostly retire our diesel PB 100 grooming machine and purchase a new fully electric print off grooming machine. I want to say that we, there are only two electric, these are the big groomers, the big ones. There are only two in The United States and we have one of them. So I'm very proud of that. The other one is a Taos, New Mexico downhill. The area has the other one and it's really quiet. It works great. We love it and we, you know, but it was expensive. We're also looking to harvest some timber and firewood from our property while maintaining access to the public for skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, mountain biking. Without the ski industry, this is probably, I think the most important thing I want to say, without our ski industry in Vermont, our economy would suffer greatly. We hope our business story and this partnership serves as a model for how outdoor recreation can be a key driver in achieving the state's conservation goals while bolstering Vermont's local economies and community vitality. Thank you very much for your time.

[Sarah Alberghini Winters, Vermont Parks Forever (Executive Director)]: Good morning. Sorry, didn't use myself again. I'm Sarah Alberghini Winkers. I'm the executive director of Vermont Parks Forever, the nonprofit foundation for Vermont's 55 state parks. You've got your state park in your head, right? Okay. Thanks for the opportunity to share some good news with you today. Vermont Parks Forever began in 2013, and we are lucky to work closely with the great folks at Vermont State Parks to make the state parks even better by investing in major education programming and materials, youth internships in the parks and the heart of our work, creating programs like the Park Access Fund to increase access and equity in the outdoors. And we do that by removing barriers so that as many people as possible can enjoy all the state parks have to offer. Sorry. The Park Access Fund was started over ten years ago with a small grant of 100 park passes to help more foster families get into the parks. And since then, we've seen the program grow over 1400%. In 2025, we granted 14,000 free day passes to over 60 vetted community partners in all 14 counties around the state. And they do the critical work of helping their clients get out into the parks, either through programming or other supports they need. And we've also provided funding through the Park Access Fund for six new beach wheelchairs and roll out access maps that are used in the park system. So today, I'm here to talk about an exciting expansion of this Park Access Fund. It's a first in the nation pilot program that Vermont Parks River launched in 2025 with the help of volunteer Scott Brown and our great partners at Vermont State Parks, the Department for Children and Families and the Department of Health's WIC program. The pilot program offers free to use access to Vermont State Parks for 100,000 eligible Vermonters with lower income who receive benefits through seven different assistant programs. It's privately funded and it's simple to administer. Eligible Vermonters present their electronic benefit transfer, their EBT card, their WIC card, or a special program card to staff at the park entrance and their household is let in for free to enjoy the parks that day or any other day throughout the park season. Many days, it's not limited. So the Park Access Fund covers those entry fees. I'm happy to report that the pilot program was a big success resulting in 30,000 additional visits to the state parks in 2025. So that's on top of that 14,000 I mentioned before. So offering free visits, day visits to lower income Vermonters is a cost effective way to enhance the health of our communities and provide more equitable access and get more kids outside off of screens. Over 50% of the people coming in through this program were children that were brought in with their parents. So, after surveying two forty participants at the end of last year's park season, we learned about three quarters of those surveyed would not have gone to the state parks without this program due to limited funds. And 99% of those surveys would use this program in its second year. So, other words, we know that it works. So, how can you get involved in this second year? We need your help to share the news of this pilot program with your constituents. We know that it was hard to get the word out to so many people, so it will be critical. And please encourage your legislative colleagues to do the same. We'll send information to you in the spring when it launches officially. And we are a nonprofit foundation and this program is privately funded. So you can also help by connecting us with businesses or individuals who you think might like to support this work and we're happy to speak with them and work with them. So to close, I'll just share two quotes from participants as they say it best. Here we go. My family would not have been able to visit any state parks without this program. This has allowed myself and my children to get out, see and learn about nature and walk around when we otherwise would have been stuck at home. And second, this program is amazing. With a three year old and brand new baby, our funds are very tight each month. This program allowed us to visit many state parks and one we had not previously been to. It allowed me to access beautiful scenery and get my children outside in fresh air on a weekly basis. I'm so grateful for this program. And I'm grateful to be part of this program. Like all of you, Vermont Parks Forever believes that the outdoors are for everyone. So I hope all of you will have a chance to spend time in Vermont's amazing state parks this year. Thank you.

[Mariah Keagy, Sinuosity; Vermont Trails & Greenways Council]: Like Sarah, actually, so I'll introduce myself first before I ask you what your favorite trail is, because that's what I usually ask people also. My name is Mariah Keggy, and I live in Morristown. I am a trail designer and planner with Synuosity. We are a private trail building firm based out of North Central Vermont. We work all over the state and all over New England when we don't have enough work in state. We were honored to work with Kate on the Wilkite Community Forest. The other hat that I wear in coming to you today is I'm on the Trails and Greenways Council. Have folks heard of the Trails and Greenways Council? Seeing some. Great. So I have some information in here, but I've been on the Trails and Greenways Council for about twelve years now. I'm also on the board of the Professional Trail Builders Association. Weirdly enough, I'm getting into my thirtieth year, this thirtieth field season of this work. And it's a very weird thing. I'm hoping that you did actually take a second to think about your favorite trail, or just an experience that you had on the trail that was a great time. My guess is, if you are doing this with me, that you're not thinking about what was under your feet or your snow machine or your bike tires. You're thinking about the experience that you've had. And so what I do is the thing that people don't think about, which is take care of the trail itself that enables these things to happen. So next slide, please. Do I just go? Oh. Just scrolling? Okay. Great. So The Trails and Greenways Council, for folks who are not familiar, we are council that advises Forest Parks and Recreation on things trail recreation based. We have membership. We have a total of, you can see up here, a lot of numbers of volunteer hours, almost 8,000 miles of trail throughout the state that are represented in the organizations that are in membership. So also the other thing that's good to know is that we are part of what's sponsoring this day today, the Outdoor Rec Day. Just really trying to bring people together and understanding and thinking about the infrastructure that we have in this state that is so highly valued and loved and that takes a lot of work to make happen. Scrolling on somebody else's computer is always a good time. So I think folks might have if you recall, Kate was talking about high quality trails. And and when you think about quality, right, it could be a subjective thing and couple a different definitions. But one of the things that I think about with a high quality trail is that what we're aiming for is to not only have that experience that you were thinking about, hopefully, where you were thinking about probably the people with you or the natural world around you, maybe a beautiful view, and you're not thinking about the trail itself. And at the same time, that trail itself is not negatively impacting what you're there to enjoy. And so that whole idea of high quality is that the trail itself is not adversely impacting natural resources around you. There is another way that you can think about this, and that is in terms of sustainability. The word sustainability is, in my opinion, completely overused because it has so many definitions. Trying to break it down into those three pillars that folks who think about sustainability a bunch think about. And so in so those pieces for a trail, right, are that we are protecting the environment, the natural resources around that also support our trail. So thinking about water quality, I know you folks in here think a lot about water quality, and so how that interacts with trails and the trail experience, the social aspect of what it brings to communities, as well as economics, which I think about in two different ways here. I think about it in terms of environmental economics, in terms of being light on the land and being efficient with their resources, anything from the resources of literally hauling lumber to a work site, and also, obviously, the financial resources that go into it. So thinking about really how to balance those three things in order to create sustainable trail experiences. So scrolling a bit is not showing the slides as lovely as I'd like, because I'd like to show you these horrible sections of trail. I don't know if something like this looks familiar to you, if you spent much time higher up on the greens. But in terms of when we think about trails in Vermont, the vast majority of our trails are what we would call legacy trails. And so those are trails that nobody thought about. And so folks were talking about these beautiful trail systems that were conscientiously laid out and planned and built. And that's not what we have in terms of the vast majority of trails. So legacy trails are somebody wanting to go from here to there, maybe bring a couple friends, and they went. And then more people went, and that is what we have. And not thinking about things like sheet flow of water across a trail so it doesn't degrade the forest where it disperses, which is more of a modern way of how we design and build trails. And so these legacy trails are what we have. They are what people love. There's a likelihood that probably half of you in here, if not three quarters, you've thought about your trail experience, it might have been on a legacy trail. And so we have this infrastructure, and so the question is what to do with it. These are some examples of some prime bad trail for various reasons that we could go into, but I think all of you know, in terms of being in this committee, what erosion does to just that. And obviously, vegetation trampling and whatnot, which are negative side effects for not having a well constructed, thoughtfully built trail. And so what do we do with this huge amount of legacy trails? We have some options. And this is what all the trail managers in the state are trying to figure out, dealing with what they inherited in a responsible way of being stewards of the land and the trails. One option is you can reconstruct. This is an example of a trail that This is in Waterbury, Perry Hill. And this trail, it's very sandy, so it drains great. But then what happens is, obviously, it's more prone to erosion and scouring. And every single time it rained, there were huge scouring ruts, and it needed to be Heavy rain, obviously. It needed to be rebuilt. Every single time. It was ridiculous. I lived nearby, really enjoyed the trail system. And so every single time, you're like, Okay, watch out for the big ruts. Nobody's fixed them yet. In 2017, we were hired to redesign and reconstruct the entrance. So this is over ten years ago, or nine years ago now. Since then So basically, we did is we did proper closure of the old trail and created a new trail that has more meandering and has more length. It's not as steep. Folks are familiar with the term angle of repose, it's the angle at which substrate sloughs off and erodes. And so sand, you can't go very steep without it doing that because it doesn't hold together as well. And so we had to make this more gently graded. And the other part of that is that so it hasn't washed out at all since then in this section of trail. And the side benefit is that now this whole trail network is far more accessible to more people because that pitch, I swear, if you ate anything within three hours beforehand, you were feeling like you wanted to throw up. And so there's the side benefit of the trail is sustainable now. This section, it took a lot of resources. You can see that we had to be very creative, but we haven't had to go back and rebuild it since. And so, yeah, so that's one option. Right? So you can reconstruct and reroute. I don't know if any of your trail things that you were thinking about brought you up to a peak in Vermont, but I'm also on the board of the Green Mountain Club and on the trails committee. And this is a project that got a fair amount of press because it was wildly gigantic in every single way. So this is the Burroughs Trail that goes up Campbell's Hump. So you can see that on one side, it is severely eroded, as we know, soil has to go somewhere, and that is actually the trail that is leaving and going off into the waterways and whatnot. And so what they did is instead of trying to reroute, because at this point, there's only so many places to go, and you also have to think about the footprint of, you know, does it make more sense to reroute here and have more impacts in places that are sensitive, or do you stay in that same footprint and reconstruct? The decision here was to reconstruct for various reasons. And so what you need to do then is if you can't stabilize what's there in place or rather, if what's in place is not stable, you have to stabilize it with something harder, and that is rock. And so, basically, almost the whole trail, they rebuilt it out of rock. And you can imagine that was all moved by hand or using things called grip hoists that are pulley and winch systems. And so massive amount of labor. But it goes up Camel's Hump. It is one of the most loved trails in the state. And so there's that piece about now this legacy trail has been stabilized. Took a lot of resources. But now it's there for and shouldn't be creating all of the negative environmental impacts, as well as their safety stuff in there when there's loose loose substrate, which is what tells you that that it's actively eroding. So what we've learned through some of this is that when we have an opportunity to do something new, doing it right is the way to go. You know, it was such a joy to be able to design, to plan and design, and then construct the Wilkite Trail system. And just knowing that we can use all the modern things that we know in thinking about how people like to use trails, thinking about all the different kinds of people who want to use the trails and we want to invite to use them, as well as understanding erosion, water quality, working around the fact that there was a natural resource inventory that was already done that we could work with to avoid having impacts in areas that we don't want to have impacts, or inviting people to these educational resources that might in a way that will not impact them in a negative just when we have that opportunity, we want to take it. And again, that takes resources. In terms of our construction, at this point, For me, thirty years in the field designing and planning looks really different than when I was rolling rocks and bent over digging all day. But we use mini excavators primarily. And so that's also that piece about investment, time. And then if you're going to use equipment, you have to be highly skilled in order to not disrupt outside of the footprint of the trail. And again, that whole idea of we're trying to enjoy the nature next to the trail, not destroy it. So just thinking about in the new opportunities, again, resources that if we do it right the first time, we don't have to deal with the other costs later on down the line. And it looks like the screen is just smaller than what I had, so I'm going give you the picture instead of the words. This in La Poyaire North Branch trail system, and this is a prime example of what happens when you take the opportunity to do it right and then you do it right. And so basically, this trail network, if I don't know if folks have spent time on this trail network when you're in town for work or if you live anywhere nearby. But there was a legacy trail system in place, and then we added to it. This was a Montpelier Parks Department, the city of Montpelier project. And so they hired us to construct more trails in their network, to expand it. And it was also really cool because it's close enough to downtown that when we first opened, their parking lot was empty. And I was like, oh my goodness. I thought people would be excited. I got on the trails. The trails were packed, but everybody had ridden their bikes there or walked there. And so that was a really cool thing in terms of creating opportunities closer to where people live. But the thing that I want to share with you specifically about the trail network is that when we had the really big floods floods in Montpelier, the new trails were completely fine. Completely fine. Everything's washed out. The roads are washed out, and the new trails were fine. The legacy trails were not. And just side by side, you can see what that looks like. You can also see that a lot of work goes into it. So, for instance, you have to think about how to be resilient when you make these changes. And so resiliency looks like planning for high precipitation events. So that looks like raising the trail sometimes with rock and whatnot, or sometimes putting in a bridge definitely rather than a culvert. And all of these little choices that are not little when it comes down to the amount of time, energy and resources that it takes to fix a trail. And just a nod to the think it was like I can go back through, but something like 100 thousand volunteer hours that goes into maintenance. Because even if you do build it right, one of the really important things with water management, as I'm sure you all know, is that you need to have drainage that's proper in construction and then also drainage features, and they collect debris and they need to be cleaned out in order to protect the integrity of the trail. So every trail needs maintenance. And so just a huge nod to the stewardship, a lot of it volunteers, the vast majority of it volunteers in the maintenance for both old and new trails. So, a little bit of a shift in terms of that's the lay of

[Sandy Enman, Sleepy Hollow Inn Ski & Bike Center]: the land and what we can do about it, and

[Mariah Keagy, Sinuosity; Vermont Trails & Greenways Council]: what we have in mind with where we need to be with our trails and bringing our trail infrastructure up to a standard where they will be protected. And the piece of that is folks knowing how to do that work. And so I had the honor of working with VOBA, Vermont Outdoor Business Association, a couple years ago, and they asked me to design a course, like a training, for trail professionals. And so we worked about like, okay, well, what do trail professionals need to know? We employed 12 people. At one point, I employed 36 people or so when I worked for the Appalachian Mountain Club. And so thinking about at different levels, what do people know to be skillful at their job? And so we talked to employers and then really landed on across the board, which was what I had thought about to start with, which made me feel good, was really thinking about people need to understand how to manage water, which I've said 20,000,000 times now, but it is so key, and that it's on every single level. And so I designed this training, and we were able to put We did eight different trainings, and I think the total was about 65 folks who went through those training in the last couple of years. And that's a very wet day, which is a great time to look at a really bad trail that's not draining at all. Obviously, of this we haven't talked about soils and how soils are what most trails are made up of, and understanding the soils is also really important when you're talking about Perry Hill. Yeah. So once again, this is one of the slides, oh, from from the training that we put together and really thinking about Vermont, right, and why, what we need to think about with resilient trails in the future, and really that water management piece honing in on that. And these are some of the key concepts that we were getting to. Another part of this is that we are not As much as Vermont I grew up in Vermont and enjoy living here. We always think that everything's so different here, but it's not. In terms of people are struggling with a lot of the same things everywhere, and as part of the board of the Professional Trail Builders Association, we're really trying to figure out how do we get people across the board to understand these principles and apply them. And so part of that is creating what we call the skills competencies, which is how do you know how skilled you are at a different level when you're doing a job? My job is very weird. Most people have no idea what my job would be designing, planning, constructing trails. And so taking this industry and really elevating it and helping people understand where they need to grow in order to do their jobs well. So being able to apply this project that we've been working on on a national level to these trainings as we elevate the trail industry in Vermont is something that's really near and dear to my heart. Because we want to take every opportunity that's new and really optimize on it. Really, when I think about it, it's about protecting all the resources. So in here, you talk about protecting natural resources all the time. The other parts of that are trails related. The trail itself is a resource that we have, And then what goes into the trail is also vast amounts of resources, we talked about. It's labor, or like I talked about. It's labor, it's love, it's sweat, it's funding. And so that is what I have to share. And I think we welcome questions. I probably went over my time. And thank you so much for having us.

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: -Thank you.

[Rep. Rob North (Member)]: Representative North has a question for us. Thank you. Actually, my question is for Kate, who will present first. One of the statistics that you've presented was thirty one thousand kids in Vermont lack access to outdoors, immediate access to the outdoors. Does that take into account the fact that two thirds of Vermonters live in rural areas? So they have immediate access to outdoors right outside their home.

[Kate Wanner, Trust for Public Land (Conservation Director)]: Right, so that was the distance to a permanently conserved or public park or public natural area. So if the place next to them is posted against trespassing, they don't have that access. But, yes, we are lucky in Vermont to have a lot of non posted land with that access. But we would like to make sure, particularly as Vermont becomes more fragmented and more new residents are posting their land, that we have permanent public access to a lot of those lands.

[Rep. Rob North (Member)]: I think you would agree that living in a place where you're outdoors, literally the outdoors, you look out your window and you're looking at it, you walk out your front door and in your backyard, just stroll right into your woods or your field or whatever, but that's Absolutely. That is good access. Good for mental health, good for well-being, all of that, right? Absolutely. And most people like myself and many of my colleagues around the table move to Vermont specifically for that reason. When you're a business and you're hiring, you're trying to bring people in. The people that come are the people that want to live in the outdoors. I imagine that you would therefore support people living in rural areas where they have this immediate access to outdoors?

[Kate Wanner, Trust for Public Land (Conservation Director)]: Absolutely. I live in a rural area.

[Rep. Rob North (Member)]: Yeah. Okay. So do you therefore oppose the goals of the current land use regulations that's really strongly encouraged consolidating Vermont's population into densely populated downtowns and village centers that really are targeted to prevent people from living and building

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: out in rural areas?

[Kate Wanner, Trust for Public Land (Conservation Director)]: Not at all. I think we need a a balance of protecting our natural resources, protecting our high elevation streams, protecting our waterways, protecting our ecological resources throughout the state in in every section of the state for our long term ecological health at the same time while providing housing and jobs for all Vermonters. They're some of the highest priority conservation areas that we are looking at and trying to protect are not where wanna people wanna live anyways. That it's it's a balance, and that's, you know, you know, some of the smart growth principles that the NRC is working on and has been working on for decades apply here too.

[Rep. Rob North (Member)]: I just know that several of the folks who, a lot of folks who live in areas that are deemed to be classified, especially as tier three in the current language regulations, are really concerned about their ability to continue to live there.

[Kate Wanner, Trust for Public Land (Conservation Director)]: And from my understanding that we I'm part of that force partnership also with the NRC and Audubon and Mage Conservancy and Vermont Land Trust, and that we are all supporting slowing down the rulemaking around the tier three because it kind of went in too strong and that there needs to be a lot more details around the the tier three. The

[Rep. Rob North (Member)]: role mean, I don't even know if that's more. Yeah. One last last. So based on your slide four, where you expressed concern that only 63% of Vermont's land is that's conserved offers public access. Is it also true that you stand opposed to posting private land or you're not in favor of?

[Kate Wanner, Trust for Public Land (Conservation Director)]: No. I I fully support a private landowner to do what they want with their land. I think that the increase in posting has been unfortunate in terms of the long term Vermont ethic of allowing people on particularly larger tracks of forest land. You know, there are definitely considerations around farmland and businesses where or illegal use that a landowner does not want, but I I'd love to see more land open to the public in responsible ways.

[Rep. Rob North (Member)]: Therefore, it must land posted.

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: Okay. That's yeah. Okay.

[Rep. Rob North (Member)]: I'll turn it off.

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: Thanks. And Mike Tagliavia. And then Two parts. With respect to tier three, are you concerned with the way tier three is laid out right now, and are any projects that are due to start or in planning in the mapped tier three areas currently?

[Kate Wanner, Trust for Public Land (Conservation Director)]: I am not familiar enough to be able to fully

[Unidentified Committee Member]: answer that question. I could.

[Mariah Keagy, Sinuosity; Vermont Trails & Greenways Council]: Great. In terms of trails and greenways in terms of trails projects. Yes. Yes. In terms of any place that you would reroute a trail, that a trail exists already, that is that legacy trail we were talking about, at some point, you might want to reroute it. And if it's in tier three, there's that question of what exactly that looks like. And so right now, the most recent is that we would It's a long answer, but there's this thing called the Vermont Trail system that we could go into details on. But it has to do with Really, what we're talking about is how Act two fifty, what the relationship is of Act two fifty and these things. And so there's that piece about where things fall into Act two fifty, and getting back to trails in Act two fifty is a bigger discussion that I would love to have. But it but, yeah, I mean, there's plenty of trails in tier tier three areas, like I said, and trail work needs to happen, as well as new trails that are potentially planned into areas.

[Rep. Rob North (Member)]: That was my main part of

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: the question. The new perspective, new trails didn't could run into I mean,

[Rep. Rob North (Member)]: so lot of purpose.

[Mariah Keagy, Sinuosity; Vermont Trails & Greenways Council]: The Northern Wilkett Forest is tier three. So if there were to be expansions there but we went through Act two fifty on part

[Sarah Alberghini Winters, Vermont Parks Forever (Executive Director)]: of that project also.

[Mariah Keagy, Sinuosity; Vermont Trails & Greenways Council]: We just did because it was because the part of the school, it was the school project part of the project was on school property that had a standing Act two fifty, so we had to go through an amendment, which is not really that different.

[Rep. Rob North (Member)]: So

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: Okay, members. We are coming up on 10:00, and our next guest will be coming in shortly to talk to us about money budgets. Try to extend a few minutes.

[Sarah Pelkey, Chamber & Economic Development of the Rutland Region]: Well, our next guest is the secretary of ANR. Yeah. We should get our consent.

[Mariah Keagy, Sinuosity; Vermont Trails & Greenways Council]: I would say that with the Vermont Trail system, it it changes anything that's part of it goes into rule 71, which has a different threshold for disturbance. So that's like the, if I could succinctly tell you that. And so the idea is to have tier trails in tier three areas fall under that, Which is where she stand. Yeah. Yeah. Representative

[Rep. Rob North (Member)]: Kate,

[Unidentified Committee Member]: just to follow-up on representative North's question, I believe the statistic you shared was 67% of conserved land is not Does

[Kate Wanner, Trust for Public Land (Conservation Director)]: not guarantee public access. And some of those are land conservation.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: So so so 67 does not allow for is is posted. Is that what the stat No.

[Kate Wanner, Trust for Public Land (Conservation Director)]: No. I'm sorry. 67% of conserved lands guarantees public access in some way. You you compare it

[Unidentified Committee Member]: 60 that 63% to New Hampshire and Maine, where it's more in the eighties. And I guess I'd just like to ask you, does Vermont look like New Hampshire? Does our conserved land look like New Hampshire and Maine? Because when I think about comparing Vermont to New Hampshire and Maine, I think about all the humongous amounts of federal land compared to Vermont. I think about how much agricultural land we have that's conserved in Vermont that is not the same in those two states. And the fact that many farmers do need to post their land in some ways, at least for permission, because they're operating major business and they have farm animals. I guess I just love to ask you, do you really think that those are comparable and has Vermont's I would care more about Vermont's trend. Are you saying something about the trend in Vermont?

[Kate Wanner, Trust for Public Land (Conservation Director)]: No. Absolutely. You know, have a lot of conserved farmlands that do not provide public access for very good reason. There are I know that Vermont Housing Conservation Board has encouraged, particularly over the last decade, for all of their forest land protection projects to at least include, you know, limited trail access across, you know, private forest land that is conserved with public money. So that, I think, is is a good trend in the right direction in terms of making sure that, you know, when we do put a significant amount of public money into land conservation, that there is at least some public access on those those properties.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: But has the 63 been consistent over time from then on?

[Kate Wanner, Trust for Public Land (Conservation Director)]: I don't have a Okay. So you don't know about

[Sarah Pelkey, Chamber & Economic Development of the Rutland Region]: the trend? I don't know

[Kate Wanner, Trust for Public Land (Conservation Director)]: about the trend. No. Thank you.

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: Sarita?

[Rep. Sarah "Sarita" Austin (Clerk)]: I just wanna say, first of all, I wanna I appreciate your passion and your stewardship of our lands. I I really appreciate that. In Colchester, again, Chittenden County, I I don't wanna forget about Chittenden County and providing for the 171,000 citizens that live there that hopefully don't have to always pack up a bike or pack up a car to access these areas. So I'm just hoping the vision is to have trails or connections so they can get out of Chittenden County on a bike or walking. But the other thing is Colchester is doing our land plan, our town plan. And I'm just wondering what recommendations you would have for the recreation chapter in terms of five years from now. What what maybe recommendations do you have for a community in in Chittenden County or anywhere in terms of planning for the future?

[Kate Wanner, Trust for Public Land (Conservation Director)]: Yeah. I think close to home recreation is incredibly important. So, you know, looking at there's Trust for Public Land actually has a website that looks at how close every citizen is to a public park or public recreation opportunity. So if you it's ten minute walk. No. It's Trust for Public Land. You if you Google Trust for Public Land, ten minute walk or ParkServe, actually, parkserve.org, parkserve.org, You can zoom in on Colchester and see which parts of your town are not adequately covered. Great. I'd like to

[Sarah Pelkey, Chamber & Economic Development of the Rutland Region]: just interject that we have the secretary of A and R

[Mariah Keagy, Sinuosity; Vermont Trails & Greenways Council]: waiting for us at this Oh, I didn't even see her.

[Sarah Pelkey, Chamber & Economic Development of the Rutland Region]: It's past 10:00. She's scheduled for ten Sorry, Yep. Thank

[Mariah Keagy, Sinuosity; Vermont Trails & Greenways Council]: you. Lindsay. You want to inventory what you think of, what you have, and just think about what's missing. Take a break. Know. Like, just sort of type of work. Yeah. Very few.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Get this.

[Mariah Keagy, Sinuosity; Vermont Trails & Greenways Council]: They've given us some pretty tight time. It's like, minutes. There isn't a break scheduled down. So this will be twenty minutes. This will be about an hour. That will be forty minutes.

[Rep. Rob North (Member)]: Jay in person, or is this still?

[Mariah Keagy, Sinuosity; Vermont Trails & Greenways Council]: They'll all be in person. Stay by. Oh, no need to. Just a second.

[Rep. Amy Sheldon (Chair)]: We're

[Unidentified Committee Member]: gonna take a break for two

[Kate Wanner, Trust for Public Land (Conservation Director)]: minutes