Forest Indicators Workshop

How do residents of your community engage in a substantive dialogue about natural resources and planning? How can you measure and track the quality of the natural environment? What information do you have to help make hard choices? What information do you need?

The Starksboro Conservation Commission of Starksboro, VT spent several months talking to local decision-makers to find out what they need to know in order to make better decisions about their local forest resource. They considered the usefulness of existing information, and discussed ways to get meaningful data to respond to their local needs. Their ground-breaking work resulted in a set of indicators to be re-examined at 5-year intervals and integrated into the Town plan. In addition, the Commission hopes that the indicators will fuel local discussion about the economic, social, and ecological benefits offered by Starksboro’s forests.

Host a Workshop in Your Community

Join the staff of the National Community Forestry Center, Northern Forest Region for an evening of fun and learning, and explore the ways indicators might be used as a tool to promote discussion and inform decisions in your community.

Workshop participants will:

• Learn a transparent, replicable process for bringing natural resources into community planning in a very tangible way

• Consider how decisions about natural resources are made in communities, and how information influences decision-making

• Hear about the experiences of a Vermont community

• Explore what makes a good indicator and why

• Learn about use of indicators at different levels of government

• Explore how the process of developing and tracking indicators might work in their own communities

This FREE workshop is an opportunity for fun, learning, and a great meal! In addition, all registered participants will receive copies of Indicators and Information Systems for Sustainable Development, by Donella Meadows and Who’s Planning for Forests, a publication of the National Community Forestry Center, Northern Forest Region.

To arrange a workshop in your area, call or email the National Community Forestry Center, Northern Forest Region c/o Yellow Wood Associates, St. Albans, VT at 800-727-5404 or yellowwood@yellowwood.org