About VT Coverts
Vermont Coverts is dedicated to educating landowners in sound forest management practices and the principles of stewardship for the enhancement of wildlife. The goal is to help woodland owners become aware that sound forest management includes much more than timber, pulp and firewood production. Over the years, Coverts management practices have benefited over 200,000 acres of Vermont forests demonstrating that well-planned forest management and the enhancement of wildlife habitat can go hand in hand.
Vermont Coverts pursues its mission by training Cooperators with 3-day workshops offering classroom and field studies, one day Forest Stewardship workshops targeted to forest management related topics, communications with its newsletter Woodlands for Wildlife, with this website, and by personal contacts with individual landowners, public agencies and private organizations in the conservation arena.
A large proportion of Vermont is forested and most of these woodlands are privately owned. Thus the individual land owners play a vital role in keeping Vermont forests healthy and a high quality habitat for Vermont wildlife for the present and into the future.
Did You Know That???
- Vermont is 78% forested with 4.46 million acres of forest. Caledonia and Essex Counties are 83% and 95% forested with 751,500 acres of forestland.
- Scientists estimate that there are between 24,000 and 43,000 species of higher plants, algae, fungi, lichens, invertebrates and vertebrate animals in Vermont. Nearly half are invertebrates such as insects, crayfish, and mussels.
- Private landowners, such as you, control 80% of forest land in Vermont; business or industry owns 1%; and Local, State, and Federal government own 19%.
- Private landowners in Vermont own forest land for a variety of reasons. Based on a 2004 U.S. Forest Service survey in New England, the reasons given in order of priority are aesthetics, privacy, nature protection, family legacy, other recreation, land investment, hunting and fishing, and timber production.
- The number of non-industrial private landowners in Vermont has increased from an estimated 61,900 in 1983 to approximately 80,000 in 1997, correlated with a decrease in the average size of a parcel of land.
- In Vermont, the net growth of trees has exceeded removal since the first inventory in 1948. About twice as much wood has been grown than was cut or otherwise removed.
- In 2005, the contribution of forest based manufacturing and forest related recreation and tourism to the Vermont economy was 1.5 billion dollars.
- The Vermont forests provide wood now for approximately 6% of electrical and heating use in Vermont.
Welcome to our website! We hope it is informative and the content and links herein prove educational to you. Follow the links to detailed information about Vermont Coverts and its programs. Join us in keeping Vermont's forests and wildlife healthy and productive.
Vermont Coverts is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
History
In 1983 the Ruffed Grouse Society received a grant to look at ways of reaching the millions of private forest landowners with wildlife management information. The Coverts project was developed by the Extension Service forester in Vermont. Joining the effort the Connecticut Extension along with Vermont received funding for this effort. The first Coverts training took place in 1985.
The idea of the program was to educate forest landowners about sound forest management and wildlife stewardship. That with thoughtful planning forest land use goals could be achieved for the benefits of the forests and wildlife. The individuals trained, called Cooperators, would then go back to their neighbors and communities and share what they had learned. The goal was to affect changes on a larger scale using Cooperators as messengers to local communities.
This program was so successful it expanded to 14 states in the East and Midwest. The states include: ME, NH, VT, MA, CT, NY, PA, MD, W. VA, VA, OH, IN, MI and WI. In 1991 the Vermont Coverts program incorporated as Vermont Coverts, Woodlands for Wildlife, Inc. a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. It is the only Coverts program to do so.
In 1997 the Coverts Project was nominated for, and won, a National Natural Resources & Environmental Management award as a National NREM Flagship for the Cooperative Extension Service.
A 1998 survey of all participating states determined that 1,770 cooperators had been trained since 1984. These individuals own or manage 1,900,000 acres. They have passed along management information to 110,000 other landowners who own or manage 1,600,000 acres.
Awards
Vermont Coverts presents two awards each year. One award is presented to an outstanding Coverts Cooperator who through action on their own land, within the Coverts network, and within their communities exemplifies the Coverts mission and goals. The second is awarded to a person who is not a Cooperator but exemplifies and demonstrates strategies to further the mission of sound forest management and wildlife stewardship in Vermont.
| Coverts member award | Year | Non-Coverts award |
|---|---|---|
| Susan Depeyst | 1991 | Kim Royar |
| David Clarkson | 1992 | George Weir |
| Steve Parker | 1993 | Bill Guenther |
| Hank Paynter | 1994 | |
| Allen Yale | 1995 | |
| Thom McEvoy | 1996 | Mollie Beattie |
| Alan Calfee | 1997 | Ruffed Grouse Society |
| 1998 | David Brynn | |
| James Engle | 1999 | |
| 2000 | Northern Woodlands Magazine Steve Long Virginia Barlow |
|
| 2001 | Connie Motyka | |
| Allen Yale | 2002 | Scott Darling |
| Douglas Murray | 2003 | Darby Bradley |
| Robert Lloyd | 2004 | Tom Decker |
| 2005 | John Austin | |
| Farley Brown | 2006 | Putnam Blodgett |
| Glenn Macy | 2007 | Jamey Fidel |
| John Whitman | 2008 | Nate Fice |