The Vermont Backcountry Alliance (VTBC) is taking strides toward increasing access to terrain through the clearing and opening of the Braintree Mountain Forest in Braintree, Vermont. And in their latest film, Shared Lines, Vermont-based T-Bar films matches VTBC’s story with stoke from last year’s deep Vermont winter.
Shared Lines: The Vermont Backcountry Alliance from T-Bar Films on Vimeo.
In the film, Paul Kendall, the landowner who donated his property for the project in Briantree, talks about the process VTBC and its local chapter, the Rochester Area Sports Trail Alliance (RASTA), have taken in ensuring the ecological sustainability of the clearing project.
“We worked with RASTA and with the New England Forestry Foundation (NEFF) and with their forester to identify a zone that would be appropriate,” Kendall says. “With NEFF and with their forester we looked at that and concluded that there is so little modification to the forest that in effect it has no adverse effect upon the silviculture.”
In addition to Shared Lines’ focus on maintaining the ecology of the zone, community is highlighted as a key player in the success of this project.
“More and more we are seeing folks take to the backcountry,” Brian Mohr, a founding member of VTBC, says in the film. “Conservation is a big goal and making sure we are connected as a community so that we can collaborate with the conservation community, we can collaborate with the land managers.”
This project is VTBC’s first major success in designating and maintaining land in the state. “It is a natural step for any community to take,” Mohr says—and Shared Lines embodies that sense of evolution and unity.
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Find out more about the Vermont Backcountry Alliance at vtbc.org
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