Vermont Current Use Program
Forest Management Plans for Windham County Landowners
Enroll in Vermont's Use Value Appraisal program and manage your woodland on your own terms.
Rather talk now? Call 888-825-7696
Vermont's Current Use program, formally called Use Value Appraisal, lets landowners have their forest land taxed on its use value rather than its development value. To enroll and to stay enrolled, you need a qualifying forest management plan written by a consulting forester. Vermont Current Use does exactly that for landowners across Windham County.
The plan is more than a form. It covers what your land looks like today and what forestry work will move it toward your goals over the next decade. Every plan we write is built around what the owner has told us they want, whether that is timber production, wildlife habitat, recreational use, or some combination. We work only for landowners. We have no relationship with mills, buyers, or logging contractors, and that separation matters when it comes time to make decisions about your woods.
How It Works
From First Call to Approved Plan
Walk the Land Together
We start with a site visit. Walking the property together lets us read the stand conditions and hear directly from you about what you want the land to do, while also noting species composition and boundary features along the way. That conversation shapes everything that follows. A plan written from a desk without a site visit will not reflect your land or your goals, and the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation knows the difference when they review it.
Write a Plan That Fits Your Land
We draft a ten-year management plan that documents existing conditions and lays out the forestry activities appropriate for your property. The plan identifies what work to do and roughly when, explaining how each activity serves both the forest and your goals as an owner. The language is plain enough that you can read it and hold any future forester or logger accountable to it. Before we submit anything, you review it.
Stay Current Through the Decade
A Current Use plan has a ten-year life, but your land and your plans for it can change before that decade is up. If you harvest timber, add acreage, or change your management goals, the plan may need an amendment. When the ten years are up, it needs a full update to keep your enrollment active. We handle both, and we track what was done on the property so the update reflects what actually happened, not just what was originally planned.
Services
What We Do for Windham County Landowners
Every service we offer connects back to understanding your woodland and keeping your Current Use enrollment in good standing. Landowners just entering the program face different work than those who have held enrolled land for years. Here is what we provide.
Current Use forest management plans
The plan that enrolls forest land in Vermont's Current Use program
Learn moreTen-year plan updates and amendments
Updating a plan for harvests, ownership changes or new goals
Learn moreTimber sale layout and administration
Marking, logger selection and harvest supervision for the owner
Learn moreTimber stand improvement
Thinning that favors your best trees
Learn moreBoundary line marking and maintenance
Property lines located, painted and blazed
Learn moreWoodland assessment before you buy
Timber value, boundaries and constraints checked before closing
Learn moreThe Risk of Getting It Wrong
What Happens Without a Compliant Plan
Missing a plan update or filing one that does not meet state requirements can put your enrollment at risk. If your land is removed from Current Use, the back taxes owed, sometimes called a land use change tax, can be significant. For many Windham County landowners, the tax savings from enrollment are the primary reason they are able to keep large tracts of forested land intact rather than selling or subdividing. A lapsed or deficient plan is not a paperwork problem. It is a financial one, and it can take years of tax savings to recover from a single penalty period.
Working Woodlands
Timber Sales and Stand Improvement
When a timber harvest is the right move for your woods, the way it is designed and overseen matters as much as the decision to do it. We lay out timber sales with the landowner's objectives in mind, marking boundaries, identifying the trees to be cut, and specifying the terms under which the work happens. Timber stand improvement uses techniques like crop tree release to improve forest health and composition without a commercial harvest. Both types of work can be incorporated into your management plan and carried out under it.
Our Approach
We Work for the Landowner, No One Else
Consulting foresters can work for a range of clients: landowners, timber buyers, mills, logging contractors. Who pays the forester shapes what the forester recommends. Vermont Current Use works only for the people who own the land. We have no financial interest in what gets cut, who buys the logs, or who does the harvesting. That means when we recommend a treatment, or recommend against one, the reason is what is good for your land and your goals. It is a straightforward arrangement, and we think it is the right one for landowners who want advice they can trust.
Where We Work
Windham County, Vermont
We serve landowners throughout Windham County. The county's terrain ranges from the higher elevations of the Green Mountains on its western edge to the Connecticut River valley on the east, and the forest types shift accordingly. Northern hardwoods, mixed stands, and softwood dominated areas each present different management questions. We work in that landscape specifically, which means the plans we write reflect conditions and species you will actually find in Windham County, not a generic template built for somewhere else.
- Newfane
- Townshend
- Jamaica
- Windham
- Marlboro
- Halifax
- Grafton
- Athens
- Brookline
- Dummerston
- Guilford
- Wardsboro
Windham County forestry consulting
Ready to Talk About Your Land?
If you are thinking about enrolling in Current Use for the first time, your ten-year plan is coming due for renewal, or you are considering purchasing forested land and want to understand what enrollment would look like, we are a good starting point.
A woodland assessment before you buy can show you what the land contains and whether Current Use enrollment is realistic for that parcel. Getting that information before closing is a lot easier than trying to sort it out afterward.
Call us at 888-825-7696 or send a message to hello@vermontcurrentuse.com. We are glad to answer questions before you decide whether to move forward. There is no obligation in asking, and knowing what the process involves helps you make a better decision about your land.