The Berniers: Land Conservation and Forest Management

I recently spent a morning with Chris Bernier on his 60-acre property in the hills of Andover, Vermont. The 60-acre parcel is a portion of a larger 260-acre tract of land that had been previously conserved by the Vermont Land Trust (VLT). These 260 acres are central to a patchwork of adjacent lands also subject to VLT conservation easements totaling more than 1300 acres in the area.

The original owner, Helen Codere, wished to donate the land to VLT as a charitable gift with the stipulation that there never be any management or development on the 260 acres and that the parcel remain in a “forever wild” condition. In recognition of the severe limitations such an agreement would mean for the property, VLT was reluctant to accept the gift without some assurance that future owners be allowed the benefits of land stewardship by retaining limited uses and management options on some portion of the land. After negotiating, they reached an agreement which allowed for the development of a single family residence within a three acre building envelope located at the end of the town road which accesses the property. The agreement further allowed for forest/wildlife management and/or agricultural uses on a 60 acre portion of the property that included the three-acre building envelope. The remaining 200 acres, which had been identified by the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department as critical bear habitat consisting of a large stand of mast producing red oak and beech, would be conserved as forever wild.

Chris, who had been living at a nearby farm, moved into the seasonal cabin on the property in 1997 as caretaker for VLT. When he was approached by VLT in 1998 informing him of their plans to sell, his mind began churning numbers. Although it was VLT’s intent to sell the entire 260 acre tract, it was out of his price range. Given Chris’ career in the environmental sciences field and his desire to manage the property in accordance with proper silvicultural techniques while paying special attention to wildlife habitat, VLT deemed him as a good match for the property and thereby began a dialogue with him as to how this purchase could become a reality. Chris ultimately bought only the 60 acre portion of the property for which management options existed while VLT retained the 200 acres of forever wild thus bringing the purchase price to within Chris’ reach. The two parcels were, however, inextricably linked to each other through a series of binding agreements which obligate Chris to pay taxes and insurance on the 200 acres throughout VLT’s ownership of the parcel while simultaneously offering each party a mutual first right of refusal to purchase the other’s parcel with prices established at 1999 appraised values. In essence, the agreement ensures that whoever owns the 60-acre parcel shall be responsible for the stewardship and maintenance costs of the 200-acre piece.

Today Chris, his wife Meg (they were married on the property in 2000), and their three home schooled children live on the 60 acre parcel. They have built a small timber frame home using spruce and pine sawlogs from the property (milled on-site) that is solar powered and completely off the grid. Chris gets water to the house by manually pumping his well water down to the house filling a cistern in the basement.

Pending Vermont Land Trust approval, Chris and Meg hope to convert the original seasonal cabin on the property into a simple classroom from which they will offer a variety of ecological learning opportunities primarily for other home schooled kids in the area (of which there are many). Meg hopes to put her Masters degree and experience in environmental education to even more use by running these programs as the primary educator (eventually with Chris’s help when available). “Most of the time the kids will be outdoors but, when there is inclement weather, it will be great to have a warm dry place to use.” Over the past few years, they have held several 3 to 4 day environmental classes for children ages 4-8 that cover things like tree ID, ecology, and nature-based games and crafts. They have also hosted a winter long, one-day-a-week class of the Vermont Wilderness School (http://www.vermontwildernessschool.org/school/) and are considering doing so again in the future. Their underlying desire is to provide kids at a young age the opportunity to interact with and learn about the environment while instilling in them a sense of what land conservation means as well as how and why organizations like the Vermont Land Trust do what they do. Given the environmental sensibilities and generosity of Helen Codere, the conservation efforts and foresight of the Vermont Land Trust, and the bountiful and diverse nature of the property, the Berniers just may have the perfect environmental education “classroom”.

Their land consists of many different forest types including dense spruce pine forest, almost pure sugar maple (which Chris hopes to manage for timber and a small portion for sugarbush), typical northern hardwood forest, and a relatively mature pine stand. They have done some crop tree release and firewood cutting in the hardwoods and had John Adler, a professional logger in the area, conduct some commercial timber harvests according to their Use Value Appraisal (current use) forest management plan. Wildlife / early successional openings have been created with future hopes of similar treatments on other portions of the property. Chris has had problems regenerating saplings, oak specifically, due to heavy deer, moose, and snowshoe hare browsing. He is hoping that by doing some more group openings (1/2-2 acres) in lower quality stands that would benefit from the removal of low quality trees, an ample amount of regeneration will be created. This will provide browse for wildlife and still get some quality tree species to grow up out of their reach creating the next generation of forest.

The Berniers are ecologically minded stewards of the land who have a vision of sustainable utilization and living as well as instilling those values in the minds of the young people in the area.

Sam Schneski

County Forester

VT Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation