Welcome to the Vermont Town Forest Recreation Planning Process Overview and Toolkit GuidanceThe Vermont Town Forest Recreation Planning Process and Toolkit is the culminating product of a year-long recreational planning initiative in Vermont town forests led by the Vermont Urban and Community Forestry Program (VT UCF), a partnership between UVM Extension and VT Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation. Working with, SE Group, a consulting firm that specializes in community planning, the VT UCF engaged ten selected communities in a robust planning process to develop action-based town forest recreation plans. The planning process and the toolkit are designed to guide you and your community through a similar process to develop and implement a town forest recreation plan.

This document provides an introduction to the town forest recreation planning process and will:

Provide a step by step guide to implementing the town forest recreation planning process

Orient users to the components of the toolkit pods, as they support the engagement in the planning process.

The town forest recreational planning toolkit is organized into six pods – existing conditions and assessment pod, a public engagement pod, a natural resources pod, a plan development pod, an implementation pod, and a town forest stories pod. Throughout the planning process, you will be referring to these pods, and the documents and resources they contain, to implement the planning process.

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The Vermont Town Forest Recreation Planning Process To begin your planning process, it would be useful to understand how the planning process works from the people who know it best – the ten pilot communities who have gone through it themselves. In the Town Forest Stories Pod, there are case studies and personal narratives from the 10 pilot towns who went through this same process. These will give you a sense of the overall process and the desired end result. You may want to revisit these as the process goes forward. The Vermont Town Forest Stewardship Guide, found in the Implementation Pod, provides important background around managing, planning for, and engaging the public around your town forest.

Step 1. Define Project Scope Start by defining the goals, timeline, and resources available to develop a town forest recreation plan. Consider, for example, if the recreation plan will focus on one town forest properties, or broadly address the connectivity between multiple properties? Making the decision upfront about what this process will include, and what it will not include is essential to a successful planning effort.

Step 2. Establish a Community Steering Committee A local steering committee will help guide the planning process. For instructions on how to solicit steering committee members and the roles and responsibilities of the committee see the Steering Committee Guidance in the Public Engagement Pod. This guide clearly outlines the steps the steering committee will take to lead the planning process and should be read by each member of the steering committee.

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Step 3. Determine Existing Conditions and Natural ResourcesOnce the steering committee is formed, the members will be tasked with documenting and assessing the existing conditions and natural resources. Maps of the forest and surrounding area should be prepared using the Base Mapping Instructions in the Existing Conditions and Assessment Pod. The Community Profile Guidance, also located in that pod, provides a template and instructions for completing a profile of the community, to be considered by the committee and presented to the public at future engagement events.

To understand the existing conditions of the forest facilities and trails, some members of the committee should walk through the forest and complete the checklists found in the Trail & Facility Assessment Checklists in the Existing Conditions Pod. To understand the level of the existing use of trails in the forest, have members of the steering committee or other volunteers complete trail counts. The Volunteer Trail Counting Forms, found in the Existing Conditions Pod, also have instructions for counting and interpreting the data.

As you work to understand the existing conditions of the facilities, trails, and uses of the town forest, an understanding of the natural resources and the requirements around them is vital. Begin with the Inventorying Natural Resources Process guide in the Natural Resources Pod to get an overview of the natural resources data

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collection process. The natural resources map should have been prepared according to the Base Mapping Guidance in the Existing Conditions Pod. Contact your Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation County Forester for assistance identifying natural resource features in the forest. In addition, please note natural resources in the forest are included in the public engagement process materials to gather local knowledge of natural resources (see the visioning workshop and survey materials). You should look at the Natural Resources Guidebook to familiarize yourself with what the forest natural resources are, why they are important, and the general management guidelines around them. As you plan new trails and facilities in the forest, you will want to re-consult this guidebook, particularly the management matrices to determine appropriate locations for the new trails and facilities.

Step 4. Hold Steering Committee Kickoff Meeting To begin the public engagement process, you should inform and solicit the ideas of the steering committee at a kickoff meeting. The materials for this meeting, a PowerPoint, SWOT worksheet, and facilitator worksheet, are provided in the Kickoff Materials in the Public Engagement Pod. Further guidance on how to conduct this meeting and use the provided materials is available in the Steering Committee Guidance.

Step 5. Hold a Visioning WorkshopNow, the broader public engagement process begins. General guidance on how to engage the

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public is found in the Public Engagement Overview in the Public Engagement Pod. The first major public outreach should be a visioning workshop. Information on the steering committee’s role in the meeting and the necessary actions to prepare is included in the Steering Committee Guidance. Guidance on how to publicize the meeting is found in the Outreach and Promotional Materials Guidance. The guidance describes how to use the promotional materials templates, which can also be found in the Public Engagement Pod. Further details on the preparation for the visioning workshop and meeting facilitation strategies are found in the Public Meeting Facilitation Guidance. That guidance contains instructions on how to fill out the meeting boards templates, found in the Public Engagement Pod.

Step 6. Conduct a Community SurveyAfter the visioning workshop, the steering committee should prepare a survey asking the same questions for those who could not attend the workshop. The Survey Guidance provides instructions on how to prepare and distribute a hard-copy and online survey. A hard-copy survey template is available in the Public Engagement Pod. Promotional materials for the survey are available with the Promotional Materials Templates – see instructions in the Outreach and Promotional Materials Guidance for filling those out and distributing them. Once the survey is complete, instructions for analyzing the responses are found in the Survey Guidance as well. That documents guides you through filling out the Survey and Visioning Results Template, in the Public Engagement Pod, to properly analyze the results of both the survey and visioning workshop.

Step 8. Draft a Vision Framework

With the survey and visioning results in hand, the committee should draft a vision framework for the forest. General instructions on how to do so are found in the Steering Committee Guidance. The Vision Framework Guidance and Worksheet is available in the Plan Development Pod. Initially, the template should be prepared by a member of the steering committee, before the

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steering committee members complete the worksheet as individuals or a group. The committee members should consider the data collected from public engagement, natural resources, and existing conditions pods. The committee members will need to reference the Recreational Improvements Strategy Database (found in the Plan Development Pod), to select strategies for the forest action plan.

Step 9. Hold Public Draft Strategies Workshop Next, the committee should hold a draft strategies workshop for the public. To prepare for this meeting and draw attendees, the committee should refer back to the Public Engagement Overview. Guidance on promoting the meeting is in the Outreach and Promotional Materials Guidance, along with instructions on how to use the templates that are available in the Public Engagement Pod as well. The instructions for preparing the meeting materials and setting up the meeting are found in the Public Meeting Facilitation Guidance, with the necessary boards and PowerPoint templates found in the Public Engagement Pod. Information on the steering committee’s role is available in the Steering Committee Guidance. The results of the meeting, including photos of the boards, should be compiled in the Draft Strategies Results Template in the Public Engagement Pod.

Step 10. Develop a Draft Town Forest Recreation Plan

The committee is now ready to begin preparing the Town Forest Recreation Plan. The Steering Committee Guidance describes the recommended process for the steering committee to draft the plan. At this point, it will be very useful to consult the Town Forest Stories Pod and the plans prepared for the ten pilot communities, found in the Plan Development Pod. Based on the selected strategies and floor map from the strategies workshop, you should prepare a bubble diagram planning map. Instructions on how to do so are found in the Bubble Diagram Guidance in the Plan Development Pod. When selecting locations for the various strategies, you should consider the natural resources present in the forest. Refer to the Natural Resources Guidebook and the matrices I to determine appropriate locations.

A template for the plan document is available in the Plan Development Pod. The templates draw on materials and language prepared earlier in the planning process, such as the Community Profile (Existing Conditions Pod) or Vision Framework (Plan Development Pod). To include estimated costs for the strategies, consult the Index of Standard Recreational Improvement Costs found in the Implementation Pod.

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Step 11. Public Presentation of PlanOnce the draft plan is complete, the committee should hold a presentation to share the draft with the selectboard and community at-large and gather feedback. Promotional material templates are available in the Public Engagement Pod, along with instructions for promoting the presentation and filling out the templates, available in the Outreach and Promotional Materials Guidance of the Public Engagement Pod. A PowerPoint template is available in the Public Engagement Pod, along with meeting instructions in the Public Meeting Facilitation Guidance. The steering committee’s role is included in the Steering Committee Guidance.

The comments from that meeting should be incorporated into the plan. The committee should share the plan with the county forester at this phase as well. The plan should now be finalized and adopted by the selectboard/conservation commission or other relevant governing bodies.

Step 12. Plan ImplementationFortunately, there are many materials in this toolkit to help you implement the plan as well. The Vermont Town Forest Stewardship Guide, found in the Implementation Pod, gives general guidance towards managing your forest. Sustainable Trail Guidance and a Model Proposal Review Process, found in the Implementation Pod and the Natural Resources Pod, should be incorporated into the management of the forest to ensure future improvements to the forest are

sensitive to natural resources,

constructed according

to best practices, and in line with the

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management plan and community vision for the forest. To raise the necessary funds for these improvements, a Grants, and Funding Sources List is included in this pod, along with a Grant Writing Best Practices to help you receive the grants. See the Implementation Pod for a list strategy based resources.

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