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*September Highlight*
2 Years of ACORN: A CoOperative Resource Network
September marks the 24 th month of ACORN’s presence on the Internet. ACORN’s goal is to provide woodland owners of the West and Deerfield River Valleys of southern Vermont with timely and locally relevant information about their land. It strives to be a unique Internet resource for woodland owners though, by providing more than simply information. If you Google on “ Vermont forest” you get over 23,000,000 sites. There is tons of information on Vermont forests online. How can woodland owners find what they want that is relevant for their land? What makes ACORN different?
We know that woodland owners love maps of their land, and our MapServer feature lets people view air photos and lots of other mapping data to “see” their land and its surroundings. Watersheds, wildlife habitat, timber stands, and recreation trails don’t stop or start at property boundaries, and MapServer puts land into context. MapServer has proven to be the most popular feature of ACORN.
Another feature that distinguishes ACORN from the millions of other websites is the opportunity for people to submit questions and get answers about their land. These are posted in a forum for other visitors to see, and they can chime in with their own experiences and observations. This enables landowners to learn from one another, which is important, since they often know a lot about their land and there is much that can be learned from experience. This forum or threaded discussion is a popular feature of ACORN, though people generally like to read what others have said or “eavesdrop”, and are less likely to pose questions or contribute themselves. We believe there is nonetheless value in having a place where questions and answers are posed.
ACORN tries to be a little different from many other sites by offering more than just tree and forest information. Poet Robert Frost clearly loved the woods, and ACORN posts a monthly poem of his. Aldo Leopold was a famous wildlife biologist and forester, and ACORN posts a monthly passage from his Sand County Almanac. There are also seasonal photo albums with hundreds of photos taken from the West and Deerfield River valleys, and a section on easements and land protection to help owners consider the future of their land. ACORN is more than a web site dedicated to forestry, harvesting, and management.
After two years of ACORN, what have we learned? The site receives roughly 10 visits/day, and an average visit consists of 3 or 4 page views within the site and lasts 2-3 minutes. From our on-line survey of visitors we estimate:
- ACORN is not just capturing random people surfing the Internet. 85% of ACORN visitors are landowners of property in the study area.
- ACORN is reaching both new landowners and ones who have owned their properties a long time. 19% have owned their land for 10-20 years, and 36% for more than 20 years. Only 21% have owned land for less than 5 years.
- ACORN is reaching some large landowners, and not just owners of small properties. 29% own more than 100 acres, 36% own between 21 and 100 acres, and 6% own less than 10 acres.
- ACORN is reaching absentee owners. 26% of owners live more than 100 miles from their property, and 48% live on it.
- Although people may perceive the Internet to be a new fad among young people, 71% of ACORN woodland owner visitors are > 50 years old (indeed 7% report being > 80).
- 46% of landowner survey respondents report no involvement with any traditional forestry activities, suggesting that ACORN may be effective at appealing to an important segment of the landowner population not heretofore effectively reached. Importantly, of these “non-participatory” landowners, more than 28% own over 50 acres, and 57% own between 10 and 50 acres. These non-participatory owners are not responsible for trivially small properties, and reaching them, and empowering them to make informed decisions, can have important impacts.
We believe ACORN provides a timely source of fresh information for woodland owners in southern Vermont . Of course there is no substitute for people getting out on their land and learning more from their friends, neighbors, foresters, and wildlife biologists. Many private woodland owners don’t live on their land, and ACORN is a way for them to learn more. Indeed, we hope people will gain information from ACORN and be moved to contact their neighbors, other people in town, or their county forester. That’s why we call it A CoOperative Resource Network. We’re grateful to our friends at Vermont Forest , Parks, and Recreation who have so helpfully cooperated with us in getting ACORN off the ground. They’ve contributed invaluable advice, ideas, and information. You can find more information about County Foresters Bill Guenther and Jim White, and Barbara Burns of the Forest Health program by reviewing past monthly highlights, or see Barbara’s forest health maps by checking out MapServer. The Vermont Center for Geographic Information (VCGI) and the Vermont Mapping Program have provided abundant mapping information that is viewable in MapServer. The advice and assistance of these people and agencies has been invaluable over the past two years.
What do you think about ACORN? Take the on-line survey and give us some feedback. Send us an email message and give us an idea for a future monthly highlight. Check out the threaded discussion and see what other people are saying or submit a question or opinion. Sign up to receive the monthly ACORN update. Help us make ACORN a successful tool for woodland owners to learn more about their land and make good choices for its future.
** If you have ideas for future highlights please send an email to
acorn@forwild.umass.edu **
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