Witness: 55 parcels, roughly 11,000 acres enrolled in Vermont's reserve forest land category

Keith Thompson, private lands program manager with Vermont Forests, Parks and Recreation, told the House Agriculture, Food Resiliency, & Forestry committee that 55 parcels totaling about 11,000 acres are enrolled in the reserve forest land subcategory of the Use Value Appraisal (UVA) program.

"At this point we have 55 parcels ... and about 11,000 acres enrolled," Thompson said, adding that 36 of those parcels were transitions from existing UVA enrollments (about 8,000 acres) and 19 were new enrollments (about 3,500 acres).

Thompson said reserve forest land was created by the legislature in Act 146 (2022) to allow some parcels to be managed specifically to accrue "old forest characteristics" such as large old trees, abundant down dead wood and multiple canopy layers. He noted those characteristics are rare: "old forest characteristics represent less than 1% of our total forest land across the state today." (Keith Thompson)

Committee members pressed Thompson on how the program balances that goal with UVA's traditional purpose of supporting working lands and saw-timber production. Thompson said the subcategory was deliberately designed to preserve UVA's working-lands intent while allowing parcels with "significant and sensitive" conditions (for example riparian zones, rare or threatened habitats, very steep slopes, or site-four soils) to qualify for reserve forest enrollment.

Thompson described the program's scope and modeling: state staff estimate roughly 690,000 acres across about 4,000 parcels could be eligible for reserve forest land under the statutory criteria, though modeling separates a "productive forest land trade-off" subset of lands that would be eligible only under active saw-timber management. He said the current enrollments represent a small share of that potential pool and that administrative and outreach barriers help explain the slow uptake.

On withdrawing from the subcategory, Thompson said there is no special penalty beyond the normal land-use-change tax whenever a withdrawal qualifies as development: "There is no penalty" for switching back to other UVA categories, he said; a withdrawal that counts as development would trigger the standard land use change tax.

Committee members asked about compatibility with voluntary carbon markets. Thompson said some carbon agreements ("grow older forest" practices that prohibit harvest) make parcels ineligible for productive-forest enrollment, while carbon practices that allow active management can be compatible with UVA enrollment.

Thompson concluded that the agency's report finds the reserve forest land subcategory "working" and viable, but that growth likely depends on education and outreach rather than mandatory rules or broader eligibility expansions: "This enrollment subcategory is working. It's viable. It's a workable pathway to old forest management within UVA." (Keith Thompson)

The committee asked for continued updates and staff said they would refine administrative tracking and continue outreach to landowners and foresters. The committee then moved on to other business.