Press Releases | ��ͷ��ԭ��

New Guide Helps Urban Ag Producers, Policymakers

Lauren Close — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 13:45:37 +0000

��ͷ��ԭ�� Resource Highlights 17 U.S. Cities’ Efforts

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. (October 16, 2025) — The (CAFS) at ��ͷ��ԭ�� has released “,” a new resource to help city policymakers, farmers, food producers and community organizations navigate the local policies that shape food production across the U.S.

Developed with support from the Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the guide examines how 17 cities, designated by USDA as “urban agriculture hubs,” address challenges related to land access, zoning, city governance, water access, soil health and innovative production.

“This project provides a broad picture of the urban agriculture policy landscape in the U.S., including common barriers that farmers encounter and creative policy strategies,” said Lihlani Nelson, CAFS’s deputy director and senior researcher. “Whether you’re a farmer or policymaker, the lessons we’ve drawn from these cities can help you think about what’s possible in your community.”

Drawing on insights from farmers, city leaders, community organizers and other stakeholders, this resource provides practical strategies for both producers and policymakers to develop local policies that boost urban food production.

“We grounded this guide in real-world examples of ways that cities are supporting urban agriculture through local policy choices: Philadelphia’s ambitious urban agriculture planning initiative, Chicago’s farmland access programs and several examples of urban agriculture-focused zoning updates and new city offices devoted to urban agriculture,” said Liz Turner, visiting assistant professor at ��ͷ��ԭ��. “While each city’s historical and contemporary context is unique, we aimed to highlight proven policy strategies that may help foster urban food production in cities across the country.”

CAFS also created a series of fact sheets called “” that distill the research into concise, practical references for quick use by policymakers, farmers, gardeners and urban agriculture supporters. A fact sheet accompanies each section of the guide: , , , , and .

This series marks the launch of CAFS’s Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production Policy Project, a research initiative designed to help farmers and policymakers navigate the complex legal and policy landscape of urban and innovative food production. By starting with this comprehensive policy guide and accompanying fact sheets, CAFS lays the groundwork for future publications, including city case studies and a policy database.

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��ͷ��ԭ��, a private, independent institution, is home to a law school that offers ABA-accredited residential and online hybrid JD programs and a graduate school that offers master’s degrees and certificates in multiple disciplines, including programs offered by the Maverick Lloyd School for the Environment, the Center for Justice Reform and other graduate-level programs emphasizing the intersection of environmental justice, social justice and public policy. Both the law and graduate schools strongly feature experiential clinical and field work learning. For more information, visit vermontlaw.edu, , and .

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Center for Justice Reform Resumes Webinar Series on Oct. 29

Lauren Close — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 23:06:45 +0000

“Healing Communities to Heal the World” Provides Tools to Respond and Rebuild in the Wake of Community Traumas

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. (October 10, 2025) — ��ͷ��ԭ��’s Center for Justice Reform is relaunching its online series to help communities that have experienced traumatic incidents move forward and heal. “Healing Communities to Heal the World” resumes on October 29, 2025, and will continue through the spring of 2026.

The upcoming session is titled, “Compassionate, Community-Centered Responses to the Drug Crisis.” Register in advance by .

Many communities are hurting. Restorative practices can help to address a range of community traumas, including human-made crises, natural disasters, and impacts of structural poverty and discrimination. How can restorative practices help facilitate healing of hurting communities and lead us to a healthier future? This online series explores a different topic during each installment. Past segments discussed best practices for healing after and .

“Our speakers earlier this year helped us to consider the complexity of moving forward as a community when bad things happen. We learned from a doctor working in New York hospitals at the height of the pandemic, and from an activist who has spent years addressing environmental harms done to her community from mining,” said Dr. Quixada Moore-Vissing, director of the Center for Justice Reform at VLGS. “This fall, we want to continue exploring how hurt communities can heal by looking at two critically important issues — how communities heal after high incidences of drug overdoses, and how communities heal after economic downturns.”

Following the Oct. 29 webinar, the next session will be held on Dec. 4. Additional details will be announced soon.

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Environmental Advocacy Clinic Files Challenge to Latest Major Logging Project in New Hampshire’s White Mountains

Lauren Close — Fri, 26 Sep 2025 20:15:00 +0000

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. (September 26, 2025) — ��ͷ��ԭ��’s Environmental Advocacy Clinic, on behalf of forest protection group , submitted to the U.S. Forest Service seeking reconsideration of the flawed and unlawful Lost River Integrated Resources Project (“Project”) proposed for the White Mountain National Forest, in Lincoln and Woodstock, New Hampshire, between Mt. Moosilauke and Franconia Notch.

The Lost River Project would authorize more than one thousand acres of commercial logging in an area ringed by iconic White Mountain peaks.

The also signed onto the objection.

“The Forest Service is continuing its onslaught of logging projects in the White Mountains without the careful and transparent public review that federal law requires,” said Christophe Courchesne, associate professor of law and director of the Environmental Advocacy Clinic. “This objection shows how the Forest Service is yet again ignoring many important harms and insists that the agency change course and do a full environmental review.”

The describes how the Lost River logging project, if approved, would violate federal laws requiring the Forest Service to protect endangered species, consider alternatives and meaningfully include the public in decision making. As proposed, the Project threatens significant impacts to a range of resources including water quality, soil, scenery, threatened and endangered species, carbon storage and the health of the forest itself.

“The Lost River logging project is a shocking preview of the future that this administration envisions for our treasured National Forests. With 200 acres of clearcuts and nearly one thousand acres of logging within critically important Inventoried Roadless Areas at the headwaters of the Pemigewasset-Merrimack River system, this is a project that serves anyone but the public,” said Zack Porter, executive director of Standing Trees. “We demand better from the federal government for our public lands and for our communities downstream.”

During earlier comment periods, the Forest Service heard a litany of concerns from hundreds of members of the public about water resources, fire risk, roadless areas, transportation effects, wildlife effects, climate change, and scenic and recreation impacts. The objection process is the final period for the public to comment on the Lost River Project.

“Even the Forest Service recognizes that logging this area as envisioned will emit about 72,123 metric tons of carbon,” said Jerry Curran, chair of the New Hampshire Sierra Club’s Public Lands Committee and resident of Conway, New Hampshire. “That’s equivalent to the emissions, on average, of over 15,000 homes’ electricity use for one year. We value our public lands for the wildlife homes they provide; the local recreation economy; the mental and physical wellness opportunities; and the unnamed and varied ‘many uses’ of the limited resource we call the White Mountain National Forest.”

In detailing how the U.S. Forest Service’s plans fail to comply with the National Forest Management Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act and Administrative Procedure Act, the objection asserts how the Forest Service’s draft decision:

Authorizes logging for this project that would exceed what is permitted under the White Mountain Forest Plan’s scenic standards. This will leave large holes in old and mature forests visible for decades from beloved White Mountain peaks including Mount Moosilauke, Loon Mountain, Mount Lincoln and Mount Tecumseh.
Ignores the cumulative impacts of the Lost River Project in conjunction with more than a dozen other proposed, ongoing or recently completed commercial timber harvest projects in the White Mountain National Forest — something the Forest Service is legally obligated to study and account for in its decisions. Collectively, these projects will have significant impacts on the health of forests, significantly reduce water quality and quantity, and disrupt and fragment large swaths of habitat for fish and wildlife that depend on old forests — a habitat that is in alarmingly short supply across New England.
Relies on outdated science as it relates to forest health, ignoring the remarkable old and mature forest ecosystems of the Northeast, and the important role the White Mountain National Forest can play on the global scale with climate stabilization and resilience.
Harms threatened and endangered species. The project is likely to adversely affect the northern long eared bat, a federally listed endangered species which depends on old and mature forests like the ones targeted here and has a known hibernaculum located just outside the project area. The Forest Service acknowledges project activities will take place during the bat’s summer maternity season when logging “present[s] the greatest potential for injury and death.”

The objection requests that the Forest Service drop the Project altogether, correct the errors in its Final Environmental Assessment, or prepare an Environmental Impact Statement. The Project is a significant threat to the Lost River region of the White Mountain National Forest, with impacts that will ripple throughout the entire National Forest and downstream communities.

This filing builds on the clinic’s concerted advocacy with Standing Trees against the White Mountain National Forest’s unlawful approvals of other recent commercial logging projects, including its pending lawsuits seeking reconsideration of the Tarleton and Peabody West projects and of the Sandwich project.

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Fall 2025 Environmental Advocacy Clinic student attorneys Joe Anderson, Blythe Faris, Lakshita Dey, Eric Grimes and Julia Wickham authored the clinic’s objection, with support from Director Christophe Courchesne.

Standing Trees is a grassroots membership organization that works to protect and restore New England’s forests for the benefit of the climate, clean water and biodiversity, with a focus on state and federal public lands in New Hampshire and Vermont. Standing Trees members regularly visit and recreate throughout the White Mountain National Forest. For more information, visit , or connect on and .

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VLGS’s Genevieve Byrne Co-Authors Land Use Planning Guide With Aspen Institute

Lauren Close — Tue, 23 Sep 2025 15:28:35 +0000

Agriculture and Renewable Energy Considered Together in New Publication

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. (September 23, 2025) — ��ͷ��ԭ��’s Genevieve Byrne, interim director of the Energy Clinic and a professor in the Institute for Energy and the Environment, has co-authored a new guide for land use, energy and agricultural planning.

was released as part of the U.S.-German Forum Future Agriculture, led by the Aspen Institute Germany together with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

The publication was developed by the project’s 2025 cohort — a group of agricultural producers, researchers and agribusiness representatives from the United States and Germany. Byrne participated in the project from January to August this year.

“Reconciling food and energy security is not just an aspiration, but an imperative. As our transatlantic report shows, agriculture and energy are deeply interconnected, and we need consistent, forward-looking policies that build resilience in both sectors,” Byrne said. “Conflicts between renewable energy expansion and agricultural production can only be solved through inclusive stakeholder engagement and evidence-based policy — something our cohort worked hard to foster. These recommendations urge leaders to think beyond political cycles and to implement durable solutions that support a more resilient future.”

The recommendations present strategies to ensure food and energy security, expand economic opportunities for farmers and develop infrastructure to support integrated agricultural and renewable energy production. They are intended for policymakers and other agriculture stakeholders at both the national and subnational levels, and also emphasize the importance of strengthening transatlantic cooperation.

The U.S.-German Forum Future Agriculture brings together farmers, researchers and agricultural stakeholders from the two countries to address pressing agricultural challenges, exchange best practices and create solutions.

This year’s cohort focused on the critical topic of land use for energy and agriculture, and participants engaged in moderated virtual sessions and study trips to Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, and Boulder, Colorado.

The public is invited to attend a virtual event on Sept. 24, featuring participants from the United States and Europe discussing policy recommendations from the project around politics, research, business and praxis. Register .

More information about the project is available .

Members of the 2025 cohort include: Genevieve Byrne (��ͷ��ԭ��); Angela Heinssen (Kanzlei an der Lühe); Breanna Reed (Bee-Ewe-tiful Farms); Arne Guttulsröd (AGN Neunheilingen GmbH); Benjamin Riensche (Blue Diamond Farming Company); Joel Tatum (American Farmland Trust); Jonas Trippner (DLG e.V. – German Agricultural Society); Denny Tumlirsch (Landesbauernverband Brandenburg); Sylvia Lauer (Maientalerhof); Cetta Barnhart (Seed Time Harvest Farms); Eden Vardy (The Farm Collaborative); Madhu Khanna (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign); Sophie Charlotte Schumacher (NORIKA GmbH/ Schumacher GbR); Manuela Schneider (Domäne Hofschwicheldt & Erlebnisspeicher); Lukas Mißlbeck (Ostharzer Bodenkultur GmbH & Co. KG).

The project is supported by the Transatlantic Program of the Federal Republic of Germany, funded by the European Recovery Program (ERP) of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK).

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Inaugural Parenteau Climate Action Fellows Begin Research and Advocacy at ��ͷ��ԭ��

Lauren Close — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 17:44:05 +0000

Following in the Footsteps of the Program’s Namesake, Scholars Work to Solve Pressing Environmental Issues

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. (September 19, 2025) — Emerging environmental experts Rachel Westrate and Terrence Neal have joined ��ͷ��ԭ�� as the inaugural Parenteau Climate Action Fellows. Sponsored by the school’s Environmental Law Center, the yearlong program kicked off in August, offering a strong starting point for an academic career in doctrinal or clinical environmental law teaching, and for other public interest opportunities.

Named for the school’s prolific professor emeritus and climate policy expert, Pat Parenteau, the fellows will conduct academic, legal and policy research on climate law. The pair will also work directly with student clinicians in VLGS’s Environmental Advocacy Clinic and Environmental Justice Clinic on cutting-edge climate litigation and justice advocacy.

“I’m honored to see the launch of this fellowship bearing my name,” Parenteau said. “Rachel and Terrence are brilliant young scholars who bring innovative ideas to bear on the greatest environmental challenges facing humanity in the 21st century. I can’t wait to see what they produce.”

Learn more about the fellows below.

Rachel Westrate specializes in international environmental negotiations and air quality and climate law. Prior to joining ��ͷ��ԭ��, Westrate worked for the Office of International Affairs at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, leading negotiations in various international fora including the United Nations, the Group of 7 (G7) and the Group of 20 (G20). She also served as a climate policy advisor in the Office of Management and Budget, focusing on the implementation of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. In law school, Westrate was editor-in-chief of the Harvard Environmental Law Review and a student attorney in the International Human Rights Clinic. She spent summers at the Environmental Defense Fund and the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense. Prior to law school, Westrate worked at the World Resources Institute as a research assistant.

Westrate graduated from Harvard Law School. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in environmental policy and English literature from Washington University in St. Louis.

Her research focuses on how countries design and implement air quality and climate legal frameworks in order to better understand how the law can successfully reduce air and climate pollution across different jurisdictions. During her fellowship, she will draft a model integrated air and climate pollution law which consolidates best practices and lessons learned from countries around the world. The model law can then be used as a base text by countries that wish to adopt, amend or update their air quality and climate legislation and regulations, and will be useful in aligning jurisdictions to better address transboundary air and climate pollution. In addition, Westrate will work with student clinicians in VLGS’s Environmental Advocacy Clinic.

Terrence Neal’s research is focused on advancing climate and environmental justice both domestically and globally, and explores issues related to environmental rights, Indigenous peoples’ rights, environmental governance and foreign relations law. His work has been published in the Lewis & Clark Law Review, Harvard Environmental Law Review (online) and by the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability.

Prior to joining VLGS, Neal was an attorney-adviser at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. There, he advised on a range of international and domestic issues, including regarding the extraterritorial application of U.S. law, the implementation of UNDRIP, human rights treaties and the Minamata Convention, and the mainstreaming of environmental justice, equity and climate change considerations into EPA programs. In addition, he helped negotiate a variety of international instruments, including the proposed United Nations plastics treaty. Neal has also held legal positions at the International Court of Justice and the United States District for the Middle District of Florida.

He obtained his juris doctor from Harvard Law School and his bachelor’s degree in public policy from Duke University.

Neal’s experience growing up in rural Florida informs his interest in environmental protection and addressing issues facing populations in marginalized and other vulnerable situations. Employing a comparative law approach, Neal’s current research project explores the role of certain non-judicial institutions, such as human rights bodies and citizen advisory councils, in realizing constitutional environmental rights. He is particularly interested in how these institutions can enhance public deliberation and participation in decision-making to galvanize governments’ fulfilment of these rights. In addition, Neal will work with student clinicians in VLGS’s Environmental Justice Clinic.

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Environmental Advocacy Clinic Joins Litigation Effort to Defend Vermont’s Wild Worcester Range and Enforce State’s Public Trust Obligations for State Lands

Lauren Close — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 19:05:57 +0000

Lawsuit Alleges Vermont Agency of Natural Resources Has Violated the State Constitution and Discriminated Against Vermonters in its Management of State Lands

MONTPELIER, Vt. (August 29, 2025) — Assisted by ��ͷ��ԭ��’s Environmental Advocacy Clinic and the Law Office of James A. Dumont, Esq., forest protection group Standing Trees Thursday in Washington County Superior Court alleging numerous constitutional and legal violations by the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) in its management of state lands, including the .

“This lawsuit is about putting the public back in public lands,” said Zack Porter, co-founder and executive director of Standing Trees. “Vermont ANR manages its lands and waters with nearly absolute power and control, denying the public a seat at the table while inviting private industry to dinner. We’ve given ANR ample opportunity to improve its decision-making processes and facilitate public participation. If ANR won’t act, we will.”

At issue are questions basic to a functioning democracy: Should the public be informed about and allowed the opportunity to comment on decision-making for public lands? What are the state of Vermont’s obligations to protect public trust resources such as its rivers, lakes, and ponds? How should the state weigh the ecological and economic costs and benefits of its proposed actions on state lands? And — importantly — can the state choose to share information with some Vermonters but not others regarding state land management?

The lawsuit comes on the heels of a filed by Standing Trees and Vermonters affected by the state’s new Long Range Management Plan for the Worcester Range, a largely wild and undeveloped subrange of the Green Mountains stretching from Montpelier to Morrisville, and from Stowe to Worcester. Home to one of Vermont’s healthiest brook trout populations as well as endangered species like the Northern Long-eared Bat, the 19,000-acre Worcester Range Management Unit includes CC Putnam State Forest and Elmore State Park, among other areas.

Filed on June 30, the alleged that the state had issued the new Worcester Range management plan improperly by failing to facilitate public participation and conduct robust environmental and economic analysis through “rulemaking,” a rigorous process detailed in Vermont’s Administrative Procedure Act. on July 29, and detailing violations of the Vermont Constitution and instances of discrimination against Vermonters whose interests didn’t align with current ANR priorities.

“Vermont ANR can’t hide its decisions from public view and pick and choose who it wants to share information with,” said James Dumont, a Bristol-based environmental attorney. “The public is being treated as a second-class citizen in decisions about its own lands. This violates the Common Benefits and anti-discrimination clauses of the Vermont Constitution.”

Rulemaking would also allow the public to submit expert information on the record that challenges ANR’s management priorities, which could lead to more robust consideration of impacts and alternatives to the State’s proposed actions. Two new expert reports detail how Vermont ANR has:

for maintaining water quality and reducing flood danger, including failing to consider the benefits of reducing or eliminating public land timber harvests, logging roads and skid trails;
provisioned by state lands, including, for example, mitigation of floods and droughts, production of clean water, habitat for fish and wildlife and places for outdoor recreation, which are often worth far more to Vermont’s economy and communities than the value of timber that might be removed.

“At a time when public lands across the country are in grave jeopardy, Vermont should be a leader in forward-thinking, inclusive decision-making about our own public lands, including the wild Worcester Range,” said Christophe Courchesne, associate professor and director of the Environmental Advocacy Clinic. “These lands belong to all of us, and the Vermont Constitution and state law require the state to act that way.”

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Standing Trees is a grassroots membership organization that works to protect and restore New England’s forests for the benefit of the climate, clean water and biodiversity, with a focus on state and federal public lands in New Hampshire and Vermont. Standing Trees members regularly visit and recreate throughout the Worcester Range and other state lands. For more information, visit , or follow us on and .

James A. Dumont is an attorney based in Bristol, Vermont, with more than 40 years of experience in statewide environmental law matters. For more information, visit .

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��ͷ��ԭ�� Partners With City Year

Lauren Close — Mon, 25 Aug 2025 19:47:21 +0000

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. (August 25, 2025) — ��ͷ��ԭ�� (VLGS), a leader in graduate education, is proud to announce a new partnership with City Year Inc., a national organization that works with schools and communities to advance academic outcomes for all students and develop the next generation of leaders through service.

Through this collaboration, City Year AmeriCorps members, alumni and staff will have the opportunity to pursue advanced degrees at VLGS with access to waived application fees, tuition discounts and tailored professional development opportunities.

“City Year members dedicate themselves to the betterment of schools and communities,” said Dan Bromberg, graduate school dean at VLGS. “We’re honored to provide a next step in their journeys—graduate education that builds on their service and supports their long-term career goals.”

This partnership reflects a shared commitment to educational opportunity and leadership. While City Year corps members work on the front lines of education, supporting K–12 students in schools that need additional capacity the most, VLGS provides a pathway for those same changemakers to deepen their impact through graduate study.

Graduate studies at VLGS include programs in restorative justice, public policy, environmental law and policy, energy regulation and law, animal protection, food and agriculture law and policy and other areas of focus.

Together, VLGS and City Year are investing in tomorrow’s leaders—by turning a year of service into a lifetime of impact.

“We’re excited to add ��ͷ��ԭ�� to our University Partner portfolio, providing City Year alums with 30% tuition scholarships, application fee waivers, and a match of the Segal Education Award that helps defray the cost of higher education,” said City Year Director of Alumni Career Partnerships Alison Thurner.

“City Year believes that young people, regardless of background, should have access to the knowledge, skills and opportunities to thrive in career, college and life,” Thurner said, “and VLGS recognizes that the service experience of City Year alums can be a valuable asset to its community.”

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About ��ͷ��ԭ��

��ͷ��ԭ��, a private, independent institution, is home to a law school that offers ABA-accredited residential and online hybrid JD programs and a graduate school that offers master’s degrees and certificates in multiple disciplines, including programs offered by the Maverick Lloyd School for the Environment, the Center for Justice Reform and other graduate-level programs emphasizing the intersection of environmental justice, social justice and public policy. Both the law and graduate schools strongly feature experiential clinical and field work learning. For more information, visit vermontlaw.edu, and .

Organizations seeking information about partnerships with ��ͷ��ԭ�� may contact Leah Romano, senior manager of partnerships, at partnerships@vermontlaw.edu or 802-831-1354. Learn more by visiting vermontlaw.edu/partnerships.

About City Year

City Year is a trailblazing, youth-powered organization with a dual mission: advancing academic outcomes for all students and developing the next generation of leaders through national service. Research shows the more time a student spends with a City Year AmeriCorps member serving as a student success coach, the better the student outcomes—academic, interpersonal and in terms of attendance. A public-private partnership, City Year is a proud member of AmeriCorps, operating in 29 U.S. cities with international affiliates in the U.K. and South Africa. Today, 40,000 alums continue to lead and serve where they live and work. To learn more about City Year, visit , and .

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Rod Smolla: Fighting for the First Amendment While Teaching It

Lauren Close — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 17:33:40 +0000

VLGS Professor Joins Esteemed Washington, D.C., Firm

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. (July 23, 2025) — Celebrated First Amendment scholar Rodney A. Smolla — a professor and former president at ��ͷ��ԭ�� — has joined the D.C.-based law firm Meier Watkins Phillips Pusch LLP as senior counsel.

“Rod practices what he teaches day in and day out,” Vermont Law School Dean Beth McCormack said. “The profound expertise and litigation experience he brings to the classroom are invaluable assets to ��ͷ��ԭ�� students.”

Smolla, who returned to VLGS’s full-time faculty this summer after three years serving as the school’s president, will retain his professorship while working with Meier Watkins. He will teach First Amendment, Constitutional Law and Mass Media Law courses.

Since arriving at VLGS, Smolla has played vital roles in the litigation of Dominion Voting v. Fox News and Goldfarb v. Channel One Russia, the former resulting in a $787 million settlement against the news conglomerate and the latter winning a $25 million judgment on behalf of a former Russian dissident defamed by the country’s media.

“Doing and teaching others to do are my truest passions,” Smolla said. “I’ve continued to be active in my practice during my time at ��ͷ��ԭ��, and have found it enriches the students’ experience, as they are able to learn alongside me in the moment.”

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Vermonters Urge State to Reconsider Flawed Planning Process for the Wild Worcester Range

Lauren Close — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 15:50:55 +0000

With Help from Environmental Advocacy Clinic, Standing Trees and Concerned Vermonters Petition for Lawful Public Process for Managing State Lands, Protecting Public Interests

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. (June 30, 2025) — Assisted by ��ͷ��ԭ��’s Environmental Advocacy Clinic and the Law Office of James Dumont, Esq., forest protection group Standing Trees and a group of Vermont residents today submitted an administrative petition to the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources (ANR). The petition alleges legal failures in ANR’s 2024 Worcester Range Management Unit Long Range Management Plan (Management Plan) and demands that the plan be reconsidered through a public rulemaking process, as required by law.

Vermont ANR has previously referred to the Worcester Range as “unique, in central Vermont, because it remains almost completely wild and undeveloped.” Nevertheless, the 2024 Management Plan calls for approximately 2,000 acres of logging in the Worcester Range, threatening its wild and undeveloped character. The area’s roughly 19,000 acres of mature forests, stretching from Middlesex to Elmore, are home to popular recreational trails and threatened and endangered species, help protect water quality, promote resilience to flooding, and provide vital carbon storage that contributes to meeting the state’s climate obligations.

“The Worcester Mountains are a precious resource for both people and wildlife in our region,” said Brian Tokar, an active social ecologist, former University of Vermont environmental studies lecturer and Worcester, Vermont, resident. “As a close neighbor of the proposed logging site off Hults Road in Worcester, I urge the state to do the right thing and cancel plans to log these mountains. We need the wild habitat, the solitude and the integrity of this land much more than we need the extra timber.”

In development of the Management Plan, Vermont ANR failed to implement required rulemaking procedures, preventing the public from fully participating in a lawful process for setting land management policies governing this large area of state land. This petition demands that Vermont ANR follow those rulemaking procedures, which would require public hearings, a rigorous environmental review of the Management Plan, analysis of alternative courses of action and opportunities to comment on the record. Currently, it is expected that logging could begin as soon as this coming winter.

“Vermont citizens deserve a fair, transparent and accountable process for state land management,” said James Dumont, a Bristol-based environmental attorney. “Standing Trees and hundreds of citizens submitted detailed public comments, but these were never published by ANR so that others could see. Making matters worse, ANR never openly considered any citizen-proposed alternatives to their original land management proposal. Rulemaking is required by law for land management plans and would help to shine a spotlight on the inner workings of Vermont ANR.”

Prior to publishing the Management Plan, Vermont ANR released an early draft of a proposed rule that – when finalized – could help to guide the creation of land management plans and establish expectations for greater agency transparency, public input and accountability. Rather than wait for this process to conclude, as well as the ongoing Act 59 (30×30) conservation planning effort, the state raced ahead to complete the Worcester Range Management Plan, putting the proverbial cart before the horse.

“Anyone who has gazed up at or taken a hike to White Rock or Mount Elmore knows how special this landscape is. The Worcester Range belongs to the public, but Vermont ANR has created a shroud of secrecy around every decision that it makes for the future of our public lands,” added Zack Porter, executive director of Standing Trees. “That’s not becoming of a state that prides itself on its democratic values. This petition is about putting the public back into ‘public lands.’”

The petition sends a clear message to the Agency of Natural Resources: Vermonters are committed to holding their government accountable, making their voices heard and ensuring that all state land management decisions follow the law and fully account for their environmental consequences. The petition builds on earlier advocacy by ��ͷ��ԭ��’s Environmental Advocacy Clinic on behalf of Standing Trees, including extensive comments opposing the plan filed with Vermont ANR last year.

“This petition simply asks ANR to follow the law in making big, generational decisions about the use of treasured state lands,” said Christophe Courchesne, associate professor and director of the Environmental Advocacy Clinic. “Given all that is at stake, planning the future of the Worcester Range requires a full and transparent public process.”

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Together with Standing Trees counsel Attorney James Dumont, former ��ͷ��ԭ�� Environmental Advocacy Clinic student attorneys Reena Garcia, Joseph Gerngross, Elizabeth Hein and Aamore Richards, and Clinic Director Christophe Courchesne contributed to the preparation of this petition.

Standing Trees is a grassroots membership organization that works to protect and restore New England’s forests for the benefit of the climate, clean water and biodiversity, with a focus on state and federal public lands in New Hampshire and Vermont. Standing Trees members regularly visit and recreate throughout the Worcester Range and other state lands. For more information, visit or follow us on and .

James A. Dumont is an attorney based in Bristol, Vermont with more than 40 years of experience in statewide environmental law matters. For more information, visit .

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Burke Mountain Resort Partners with ��ͷ��ԭ��’s Institute for Energy and the Environment for Renewable Energy Solutions

Lauren Close — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 00:06:52 +0000

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. (June 26, 2025) — Burke Mountain Resort’s new ownership has partnered with the Institute for Energy and the Environment (IEE) at ��ͷ��ԭ�� to reduce its high energy costs and explore sustainable solutions.

“The partnership with Burke will support the clean energy transition within Vermont while economically benefiting local municipalities,” said Raluca Velcu, a student at the IEE.

After nearly a decade of operating in receivership, Burke Mountain Resort is ready for a dynamic revival that will reinvigorate the local economy and renew the cherished local mountain’s role as a major regional employer and tourist destination.

Through this collaboration, the IEE will deliver policy and legal services focused on cost-effective energy efficiency and renewable energy integration.

“We are excited to partner with the energy experts at the IEE to make this as sustainable and cost efficient an operation as possible,” said Jon Schaefer of Bear Den Partners, the resort’s new owner. “We look forward to continuing the great local tradition of Burke Mountain Resort after years of uncertainty.”

This endeavor aligns with the IEE’s mission to promote the public interest through interdisciplinary, sustainable and community-centered solutions. By applying legal and technical expertise, the IEE aims to support the revitalization of Burke Mountain Resort while creating a replicable model for clean energy adoption in the ski and resort industry.

“This is a perfect opportunity for students to research a complicated energy issue and produce a case study for other state ski resorts to use to reduce costs while becoming more sustainable,” IEE Professor Kirt Mayland said.

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