When Rich and Ann Chalmers decided to move from California back to Vermont in 1995, they had no intention of managing a large tract of forest – or, really, any idea of what stewarding woodlands would entail. Ann grew up in Salisbury, Vermont, and Rich had attended the University of Vermont, and the couple was looking for a place near Montpelier, but not too near. A place where they could tap a few sugar maples in the waning days of winter and hang a few buckets to collect sap. They found their dream home on a 59-acre parcel situated on a ridge between the town centers of Williamstown and Washington.
“This was the first house that we looked at, and it had almost everything on our list,” said Rich. “It’s an old farmhouse, late 1700s. We just completely fell in love with it. It was out in the woods. It had a barn and a sugarbush.”
Fast-forward to 2022. Rich and Ann, now retired, own about 450 acres of Vermont woodland and are managing that forest for wildlife habitat and timber harvests. They also keep bees, grow a large garden, participate in ecological studies on their property, and – yes – tap sugar maples each spring.
Although owning hundreds of acres of forestland was not in the original plans, the more time Rich and Ann spent on this land, the more they came to cherish the surrounding landscape as well. Over the years, as properties contiguous to theirs became available for sale, the Chalmers added to their forest.
“We started to understand that this was a pretty large area of unbroken forest that had not been subdivided. There weren’t a lot of houses. There wasn’t a lot of human activity up here,” Rich said. “As we learned more about the value of unbroken forest blocks and the dangers of fragmentation to wildlife and the value and health of the forest, we started to realize that this was a very special area. There are lots of areas like this, but this was the one where we were. So, when we had an opportunity to add on more land, we just did it.”
They credit their continuing learning about forests’ benefits, and forest management, to organizations that focus on forests, wildlife, and land conservation in the state. In 2005, Rich and Ann attended the three-day Vermont Coverts training, which Rich likens to “a water hose of information about all aspects of forest management for wildlife and conservation.” That initial training was life changing, he said.
“We wanted to take care of our woods and do the best thing for our woods. We didn’t go to forestry school, and we’re not wildlife biologists. We had sort of a basic understanding of some of these things, but we really didn’t know what to do or how to do it,” he said. “The Coverts training completely opened our eyes and changed our perspective, changed how we viewed the forest and what our relationship with it was. It opened the door to contacts with other organizations, with resource professionals, sources of information, and with other people who had gone through the training.”
Rich and Ann continued to attend workshops offered by Vermont Coverts, the Vermont Woodlands Association, and others. They talked with other forestland owners, toured properties, and sought out other learning opportunities.
The Chalmers’ land is enrolled in Vermont’s Current Use program, and they have a forest management plan that is updated regularly. The land is heavily forested, comprising mainly northern hardwoods species, including sugar maple, white and black ash, yellow birch, and beech – along with balsam fir and red spruce. Because of its elevation – around 2,000 feet – Rich said there is no oak or hickory on the land. There are, however, scores of apple trees, including some growing wild in the woods, which the Chalmers have released, and others they’ve planted and grafted.
Adding to its value as wildlife habitat, the property contains 14 vernal pools and 6 distinct wetlands, including a black ash seepage. Rich describes those wetlands as “a headwaters-type situation,” with water draining to the south flowing into the First Branch of the White River and onward to the Connecticut, and water draining to the north, east, and west traveling into the Winooski River and then into Lake Champlain.
A 30-acre sugarbush hosts 100 to 150 taps each sugaring season. Ann does the collecting – still using buckets – and Rich does the boiling on a wood-fired evaporator, in a sugarhouse the couple built from Norway spruce harvested and milled on the property. While they only produce syrup to share with friends and family, Rich notes that the sugarbush could handle far more taps, and that the sugarhouse was built with the potential to host a commercial-size operation. That’s one example of Rich and Ann keeping an eye toward the future.
“We’re trying to do what works for us, but also understanding the fact that we are here for a very short period of time,” said Rich. “We try to consider what’s going to work in the future for other people who might want to do things differently.”
That was the attitude they adopted when they worked with the Vermont Land Trust (VLT) in 2017 to place a conservation easement on the property. One priority outlined in the easement is that the land can’t be subdivided. Another is that it will remain a single-family home, single-owner situation. But many of the nitty-gritty forest management details are left to future stewards.
“We sort of provide the basic framework of a healthy ecosystem, and then trust that the people making decisions on the ground in the future will have a better idea,” Rich said. “What is this 450-acre conserved property, 30 minutes from Montpelier, going to be like in 100 years? We don’t know. But what we do know, is that if we didn’t conserve with the Land Trust, this would be subdivided. There’s no question in our minds.”
An abutting neighbor has conserved 400 acres with VLT, and another neighbor is working to conserve 100 acres. The neighbors share a forester, Rose Beatty, and Rich said he’s continued to learn from her, and from county foresters, including Dave Paganelli and A.J. Follensbee.
“I’m like a puppy dog – when anyone comes onto the property, I’m tagging along and learning as much as I can. Each time you go out there, you learn more,” he said. “Every time Rose is here walking the property and doing an inventory, I’m right there and asking questions and learning. I just think the more the landowner knows the better.”
The Chalmers cut firewood for their own use from the property and have completed several timber sales, including harvests of Norway spruce, sugar maple, and white ash. One harvest was on a white pine plantation, located near the house, which was planted before Rich and Ann purchased the land.
“It was very dense, very monoculture, uninteresting for wildlife and kind of dark and not very diverse,” Rich said. “We harvested the pine that we could sell to the mills, and we took out everything else except for some snags. It completely opened up. We’ve been managing that as an early successional area. We’re keeping the vegetation under 10 or 15 feet and are encouraging chokecherries, dogwood, shadbush, and all sorts of other wildlife-friendly plants.”
In what he calls an “if you build it, they will come” scenario, that plantation-turned-early successional forest is now an “incredibly vibrant, living place” rife with birds and other wildlife. Rich said, “It reinforces for us that we have the ability to alter the habitat a little bit, and nature will respond.”
Rich and Ann are invested in studying that nature on their property, participating in the Vermont Center for Ecostudies’ (VCE) vernal pool monitoring project, an Audubon Climate Watch Project monitoring nuthatches, and another VCE program to monitor forest birds during the spring breeding season. They have also worked with VLT and the state Department of Forests, Parks & Recreation to mark 140 ash trees and to monitor them annually for the effects of emerald ash borer.
“We have a particular interest in wildlife and wildlife habitat. That’s a part of our management priority,” said Rich. “And we don’t see that as a conflict with current use. Our first priority is a healthy forest with healthy wildlife, and that grows great trees. And timber production is a part of that process.”
To that end, Rich said, he has worked to overcome an ingrained sense that forests should be neat and to embrace the messiness of trees dropped and left on the forest floor and snags left standing, and has worked to “soften the edges” where, for instance, the forest meets a power line right of way.
“We are blessed with the number and quality of environmental and wildlife organizations in this this state,” said Rich, who currently serves as president of the Vermont Coverts Council. “The big picture is that 75 to 80 percent of Vermont is forested, and 80 percent of that is privately owned. What that means is individual private landowners have the opportunity to really affect what Vermont looks like now and in the future. You need good information to make the right choices.”