(This is an important effort that deserves our full support.   – promoted by Sue Prent)

Green Mountain Daily Community,

This Thursday, February 23rd, we need YOU to come to the Statehouse to tell Governor Peter Shumlin that forest conservation is important to Vermonters, important in the fight against climate change, and is important in helping to maintain our rural way of life!

What: Vermont Housing and Conservation Coalition Meeting With Governor and Lawmakers

When: Thursday, February 23rd, 2012, 9:00am-10:00am

Where: Room 11 of the Statehouse, Montpelier, Vermont

Why: Because you care about our forests, our environment, and our wildlife!

    For more than a year the Vermont Sierra Club, along with our partners in 350 Vermont, the Vermont Workers Center, organized labor, the Abenaki community, and other environmental groups have been engaged in the grassroots Our Forest Our Future campaign. This campaign is seeking to build a comprehensive system of conserved wildlife corridors throughout Vermont, linking our forests to those in surrounding states.   We intend to achieve this historic task by creating a mosaic of new locally owned town and Abenaki forests.

    We assert that such community forests can help protect our environment, reduce the climate change related stressors placed upon wildlife, and aid in carbon sequestration.  In addition, community forests can help local communities provide free or affordable firewood for elderly and low income residents, provide public revenue and jobs through sustainable forestry, and can provide a public place for Vermonters to hunt and fish. This is The Vermont Way!

    But in order to achieve these historic goals, we need to have the tools to do so.  The Vermont Housing and Conservation Fund is one such important tool in this fight.  This fund, in part, helps provide public money to establish community forests, and must be expanded in order to meet the needs of Vermonters and our environment.  

    Governor Peter Shumlin has made support for VHCB funding a central part of his fiscal policy.  His budget recommends $14 MILLION FOR VHCB – a $1.2 million increase for the year. However, there are those within the Republican Party who are not only against this increase, but who are calling for the fund to be entirely eliminated.

    Don’t let this happen!  Let’s not roll back the clock in our efforts to save Vermont’s forests!  Come to the Statehouse on Feb 23rd and let’s send Montpelier an unmistakable message: Vermonters support conservation, Vermonters support community forests, and Vermonters support an increase to the Housing and Conservation Fund!  

    Together, with your direct support and participation we will win! Let’s Put People and the Planet First!

David Van Deusen,

Conservation Organizer,

Vermont Sierra Club

(802)522-5812