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 Vermont Law and Graduate School’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 Vermont Law and Graduate School’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 Vermont Law and Graduate School 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.
Vermont Law and Graduate School, 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, Facebook and Instagram.
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 standingtrees.org or follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
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 dumontlawvt.com.