Old forests and wildlands sequester and store carbon, hold and slow water during flood events and drought, produce clean air and water, and are home to wildlife. However, only 3% of our forests in the Northeast are “self-willed” and free to grow old. Only 0.1% of Vermont’s forests have not been logged or cleared since European settlement. Old forests and wildlands are our allies in a time of extreme weather events, and environmental and climate change. We need them now, more than ever, for all life to flourish. 

Join us to celebrate the extraordinary natural world around us and the wisdom of natural systems; learn how old forests and wildlands work and contribute to our lives; and explore ways to support and conserve these areas as part of a wider patchwork of land and forest management strategies.

Download full program here.

• April 24, 12:30 - 1:30 pm
  The Future is Nuts! Forests, food, and bioregionalism
  Location: Axinn Center 229, Middlebury College

  Explore bioregional foodways in the Northeast, centered on trees with Elspeth Hay (‘07), author of the new book Feed us with Trees: Nuts and the Future of Food and Chez Liley of Wellspring Commons, in conversation with John Elder.

• April 29 - 30
  Local High School Events

  Presentations at Vergennes, Middlebury and Mt Abraham High Schools, in partnership with school environmental clubs – Ronan Donovan, National Geographic Fellow and Zack Porter, Standing Trees.

• April 29, 5:30 - 7:00 pm
  Panel – Celebrating and Conserving the Old Forests and Wildlands of the Northeast
  Location: Unity Hall, Congregational Church, Middlebury

  Join us for presentations and a discussion with individuals working at the forefront of wildlands and forest conservation, as we explore: communities in relationship with wildlands and nature; wildlands in the Northeast, how are we doing?; the role of old forests and wildlands as they support our response to biodiversity loss, climate change, global environmental crises.

  Panel presentations and discussion with John Davis, Rewilding Advocate, Adirondack Council; Ronan Donovan, Fellow, National Geographic; Jamison Ervin, United Nations Development Programme; Zack Porter, Executive Director, Standing Trees; and Emily Ruff, Executive Director, Sage Mountain Botanical Sanctuary. Moderated by Nadine Canter, Founder, Canter Communications Studio.

  Download Press Release here.

  For more information: info@peopleandplants.org

• April 30, 12:00 - 2:00 pm Postponed to later in May due to weather
  Old Growth Forest Walk
  Location: Breadloaf Campus, Middlebury College

  Join an old growth forest walk near Breadloaf Wilderness Area.

  Mainly for high school and college students, this walk will be led by Ronan Donovan, National Geographic Fellow; John Davis, Adirondack Council; Mark Nelson and Zack Porter, Standing Trees.

  Please sign up at: info@peopleandplants.org

• April 30, 12:40 - 1:30 pm
  Laurel Jenkins and Moira Smiley: A Poetic Response to Conservation
  Location: Franklin Environmental Center, The Orchard-Hillcrest 103, Middlebury College

  Singer and composer Moira Smiley, and Associate Professor and Chair of Dance at Middlebury College, Laurel Jenkins, collaboratively present at the Woodin Colloquium Series. Part-lecture, part-performance, this event integrates music and movement to evoke presence and connection, an essential starting place for social action.

• May 1, 7:00 pm
  This Glorious Earth, Paul Winter
  Location: Middlebury Congregational Church

  A solo May Day concert by Paul Winter, This Glorious Earth features Paul’s soprano sax, along with the voices of whale, wolf, and wood thrush, and other members of what Paul calls “the greater symphony of the Earth” in a musical journey inspired by many years of making music in wilderness habitats.

  Tickets at Eventbrite

  
  At the concert venue:

  Partner organizations will share information at tables in Unity Hall, offering an opportunity for discussion, and to learn about their work and local wildlands. 

  The photo exhibit An Intimacy with Trees will be on display in Unity Hall at the church. Created by Anne Bergeron and Tracy Penfield in the forests of their central Vermont homes, the photos honor the intimate relationship between people and trees.

• May 2, 1:00 - 2:15 pm
  Conversations from the Ecotone
  Location: Unity Hall, Congregational Church, Middlebury

  Drawing from their book, Letters from the Ecotone: Ecology, Theology, and Climate Change, Andi Lloyd and Andy Nagy-Benson will lead a discussion at the intersection of spirituality and ecological stewardship. Lloyd and Nagy-Benson will offer reflections from the Christian tradition and invite participants to engage questions around how our various spiritualities inform (and are informed by) our relationships with the forests around us.

“We are between two forested worlds―the natural forest of pre-[European] settlement North America and the recovered forest of the future... The earlier forested world is not dead. We are studying and struggling to preserve its living remnants. And we do not believe that the future forest is powerless to be born. These remnants―with our help― will become the seeds from which a renewed forest spreads." ― Mary Byrd Davis