From the Town Up
The Power of Planning Locally
Editor’s Note: Jens Hawkins-Hilke is a familiar face and a familiar name to people all over Vermont, from the wilds of the Northeast Kingdom to Burlington’s busy downtown. In his work with the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department, he has visited most of the towns in Vermont to offer help to community volunteers. My neighbors in Jericho and I benefited immensely from that help, when Jens came to more than one of our Conservation Commission meetings and helped us review the Town Plan that we were revising. I first met Jens when he was a student at the University of Vermont and I was teaching there. It was clear from the get-go that he would be a leader in conservation. His work is widely cited, not only in Vermont but throughout the region, as exemplary. – Liz Thompson
It was a beautiful April evening in the small mountain town of Lincoln, Vermont. The sun was out and the mountain views from Lincoln Library were fantastic. Forty or so community members had gathered for a planning commission meeting and had invited me to attend, representing the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department’s (VFWD’s) Community Wildlife Program. The topic that evening was Lincoln’s forests and wildlife, and the challenges facing them.
Driving the discussion was an opportunity to rewrite the Town Plan to include provisions from Act 171, Vermont’s Forest Integrity Law. Act 171 requires towns to identify their forest blocks and habitat connectors. Act 171 addresses the need for better land use planning to address forest fragmentation, while Act 250, Vermont’s Land Use and Development Law, establishes criteria for large developments and serves as a review process through local and statewide boards. The new revisions to Act 250 (an act relating to community resilience and biodiversity protection through land use) are intended to better coordinate state, regional, and municipal land use planning.
The Planning Commission had asked me to tell them a little more about the larger issues of forest fragmentation and climate adaptation, and specifically what tools municipalities can employ to address these issues locally. The Town Plan rewrite provided the opportunity to begin to think about Lincoln’s future and what the people believe the land use should look like moving forward.
Since the land use provisions of Act 171 first came into effect in 2018, almost every Vermont town has had to wrestle with including the concepts of forest blocks and connectors into their natural resource and future land use mapping. A “forest block” is an area of natural cover surrounded by roads and agriculture, while a “connector” could be a smaller forest that is situated between two larger patches, or a stream network, or a wildlife road crossing. The larger implication is one of “pattern” on the landscape. How can the forests and waters in a town make a connected pattern that allows plants and animals to move around without crossing unsuitable habitat, while maintaining housing and economic opportunity?
Photo courtesy of Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department
Act 171 requires towns to include language and maps in their Town Plans addressing and depicting these forest blocks and connectors, and to plan for development in a way that minimizes fragmentation of those blocks and connectors. To help meet this requirement, the Fish & Wildlife Department and its conservation partners created a model and mapping tool—Vermont Conservation Design (VCD)—to help towns visualize the local and regional patterns of forest blocks and connectors, as well as smaller features like riparian areas, significant natural communities, old forest, and rare species. VCD is critically important science. Simply put, it identifies the most ecologically important lands and waters in Vermont. VCD appears on the BioFinder website, a mapping tool that allows users to interact with the data, zooming in and out of their town to better understand the ecological context. Towns often need help in interpreting the statewide science at a town scale and what the implications are locally. The Fish & Wildlife Department’s Community Wildlife Program has been at the forefront of this municipal technical assistance.
The Community Wildlife Program has been working with Vermont communities since 2006. At one point or another over the years, the program has helped some 200 towns, or at least 80 percent of the towns in Vermont. On average, it helps about 30 towns a year, and in this, works together with each of Vermont’s 11 Regional Planning Commissions (RPCs). The program helps towns use their community’s conservation goals to identify important wildlife habitat, and from that knowledge, to develop language that can be used in their Town Plans.
Photo courtesy of Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department
Vermont towns typically rely on volunteers for much of the local conservation-related work. About half of Vermont towns have Conservation Commissions, and the vast majority of towns have Planning Commissions. These volunteer boards are critically important in helping residents understand the ecological issues at play, celebrating the town’s biologically rich places, and planning for land use in a way that protects the natural world while supporting vibrant human communities. Helping volunteers to better understand the ecological issues and the planning tools available to our communities is thus a critical piece in influencing what happens on the 83 percent of Vermont that is in private ownership.
To expand the help and raise awareness more broadly, the Community Wildlife Program hosts a spring and fall webinar series each year on a diverse array of topics designed to inform and educate local volunteers. Topics like VCD and the BioFinder website are common topics, as it is critical for those involved in municipal land use to understand these tools. The webinars may focus on specific taxa and related land use implications. Topics have included bats, rare plants, reptiles and amphibians, and grassland birds. Planning concepts such as better subdivision regulations, land use planning for climate change, and the history of land conservation in Vermont are also in the mix. These webinars are enjoyed by several hundred participants each season. Find current webinar offerings and see the Department’s Video Library for all previous offerings.
Another important opportunity for Vermont’s conservation volunteers and professionals is Environmental Leadership Training. Community Wildlife Program staff, in partnership with the Urban & Community Forestry Program at the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation, hosts these training sessions to educate volunteers on the ecological and planning concepts needed in municipal work and to develop the personal leadership and group development skills that make conservation happen at a local level. The training is divided into two units and provides 15 hours of instruction, activity, and group discussion.
Photo courtesy of Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department
Lastly, the Community Wildlife Program provides technical assistance to sister agencies related to land use planning for fish and wildlife. The nexus with transportation is particularly important as the road network in Vermont is vast and has significant implications for wildlife populations. VFWD staff work with the Environmental Section at the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) to review projects for wildlife considerations, help facilitate the interdepartmental Wildlife Steering Committee, and co-host Highways and Habitats training. Highways and Habitats, which received a U.S. Federal Highway Administration Environmental Excellence Award, offers municipal road crews and staff at VTrans as well as the Agency of Natural Resources an opportunity to better understand road ecology and the transportation solutions available to allow for wildlife movement under and across roads.
In order to maintain a network of connected forests and waters, vibrant natural communities, and thriving rare species, Vermont needs appropriate land use policies to apply at the state, regional, and local levels. The Community Wildlife Program offers technical assistance for towns and regional commissions to better understand the statewide ecological context and its implications for land use. Contact jens.hilke@vermont.gov for more information.
Jens Hawkins-Hilke is a Conservation Planner with the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department, where he has served since 2006. He graduated from Connecticut College with a BS in Environmental Sociology and from the University of Vermont with an MS in the Field Naturalist program. Jens reviews projects with the Agency of Transportation as well as collaborating on wildlife crossing initiatives. He also provides technical assistance to municipalities and regional commissions related to land use planning for wildlife and wildlife habitat management. He enjoys hiking, kayaking on Lake Champlain, woodworking, and travel. He lives with his family in Burlington, Vermont.