About Vermont Current Use
Vermont's Use Value Appraisal program, known as Current Use, can significantly reduce the property tax burden on enrolled forestland. Getting in, staying in, and making the land work the way you want it to all depend on having a forest management plan that reflects your actual goals, not a generic template filed to satisfy a checkbox.
Vermont Current Use writes those plans for landowners in Windham County. The work starts with the land itself: walking the property, reading the stand, understanding what you have and what you want from it. The plan that comes out of that process is a working document, not a filing formality. It records your objectives, describes the condition of the timber and the forest floor, and lays out the practices that will move the land in the direction you intend.
Current Use enrollment carries real obligations. The plan has to meet state standards, and the work described in it has to happen on schedule. Missing a renewal deadline or filing an incomplete plan can trigger back taxes and penalties. Getting the paperwork right from the start costs far less than correcting it later.
Our story
Who we are
Vermont Current Use is a forestry consulting practice focused entirely on the Current Use program and the woodland management decisions that go with it. The work covers Windham County, which means the forests, the soils, and the ownership patterns here are familiar territory, not an abstraction.
The practice works only for landowners. That is not a minor distinction. A forester who also arranges timber sales for mills or works on retainer for logging contractors has divided interests, whether or not the conflict ever surfaces in a given transaction. Vermont Current Use takes no fees from buyers, mills, or contractors. When advice is given about a timber sale, it is given in the owner's interest, and the owner's alone.
Our values
What guides the work
The plan belongs to you
A forest management plan filed with the state is a legal document, but it should also be a useful one. Vermont Current Use writes plans around what the landowner actually wants from the property: timber production, wildlife habitat, recreational access, aesthetic character, or some combination. If the plan does not reflect your priorities, it will not guide good decisions over the ten years it covers. The goal is a document you refer back to, not one you forget about until the next renewal cycle comes around.
No conflict, no divided loyalties
Forestry consulting can involve a quiet conflict of interest when the same person writing your management plan also profits from the timber harvest that plan recommends. Vermont Current Use does not work for mills, buyers, or logging contractors, and does not take referral fees or commissions from any of them. That boundary keeps the advice straightforward. When a timber sale makes sense for your land, you will hear it. When it does not, you will hear that too.
Windham County is the whole focus
Working in one county means knowing the local timber markets, the regional service foresters, the surveyors, and the logging contractors who operate in the area. It means recognizing the forest types that show up repeatedly on Windham County properties and understanding what the soils and topography allow. A narrower geographic focus produces more specific, more grounded advice than a practice spread across the whole state.
How we work
How the work gets done
Every engagement starts with a site visit. Walking the land with the landowner, or walking it before a buyer closes, is the only way to produce an honest assessment. Stand conditions, boundary lines, access, and timber quality all have to be seen directly.
From the field visit, the written work follows: the management plan, the stand description, the recommended practices, and the schedule the state requires. For timber sales, the layout and administration work happens on the ground, with the logging operation overseen to make sure it matches what the plan and the contract called for. Updates and amendments get the same field-first attention when conditions or ownership goals change.
Who we serve
Who calls us
Most clients are Windham County landowners who own forested acreage and want to enroll in Current Use, renew an existing plan, or update a plan that no longer reflects what they want from the land. Some are people considering a woodland purchase who want an honest read on what they are buying before they commit.
What they share is that they want advice from someone working for them. They may not know the details of Vermont's enrollment requirements or what a timber stand improvement project involves, but they know the land matters to them and they want it managed accordingly.
Windham County forestry consulting