Northeast Kingdom Member/Supporter of the Vermont Sierra Club,

    Town Meeting is nearly upon us.  Therefore we would like to ask you to help us spread the word about the Our Forests Our Future campaign.  Can you put out community forest pamphlets at your Town Meeting?  If so, please immediately email me, David Van Deusen, at:

david.vandeusen@sierraclub.org

    The Our Forest Our Future campaign is seeking to create a mosaic of new town and Abenaki forests in Vermont as a means to help build wildlife migration corridors and to make our forests more resilient in the face of climate change.  Our Forests Our Future contends that community forests not only help in the fight against climate change through carbon sequestration, but can also serve the social and economic needs of local people by providing firewood to the poor, local revenue to the community, and jobs to local loggers through sustainable forestry. This is the Vermont Way!

    Over the last year and a half we have made tremendous progress on the Our Forests Our Future campaign.  Together we have made a strong case in favor of establishing new locally owned, conservation oriented, community forests throughout the Kingdom and beyond.  Thus far we have:

* Built a large coalition of Native American Tribes (especially with the NEK Nulhegan Abenaki), organized labor, farmers, and fellow environmentalists.

*Presented a petition to the Governor with well over 1,000 signatures in support of new town forests (and in turn the Governor is proposing a 1.2 million dollar annual increase to the Vermont Housing and Conservation Fund).

*Helped to build the largest environmental rally in the history of Vermont (the Sept. 24th Moving Planet in Montpelier), where Our Forests Our Future took center stage.

*Had Our Forest Our Future op-eds and LTE’s printed in newspapers all around the state.

*And now WE NEED YOU to carry our momentum forward by spreading the word in your community on Town Meeting Day!

    Please help the Vermont Sierra Club and the Nulhegan Abenaki Tribe advance the goals of Our Forests Our Future by agreeing to place campaign pamphlets in your Town Hall on March 6th.  After you email me to say you are willing to help, I will get these in the mail to you immediately so that you can have them in time.

    As always, thank you for your support. With your direct participation, we will win!

David Van Deusen,

Conservation Organizer,

Vermont Sierra Club

David.vandeusen@sierraclub.org

(802)522-5812