BARRE, Vt. (WCAX) – Leaders in forestry met in Barre Saturday to discuss the future of the industry.
Experts traveled from around New England for Vermont Forest Products Association’s annual meeting. Among the crowd was Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation Commissioner Danielle Fitzko, introducing new plans for forestry in the Green Mountains. The project, dubbed the Vermont Futures Strategic Roadmap, lays out 30 action items related to the forest industry to be implemented over the next 10 years.
After a year developing the roadmap, Commissioner Fitzko says she’s ready to get the ball rolling.
“Now I’m excited to start the implementation process because these are still broad action items and we’ll need to be working hard to look at, ‘How do we really implement these?’” Fitzko explained.
Fitzko says the first step is appointing a panel of 22 forestry experts to manage the roadmap. She says industry issues like unemployment, rising costs, forest loss and flood aftermath are some of the top priorities.